As the lockdowns of the pandemic seem to be easing off in nature, many of us are looking hopefully towards a future where travel is once again a livable possibility, and not a wistful dream. As borders reopen, flight companies return, and hotels and tourist centres once again open their doors, it’s the perfect time to start looking ahead and planning your next adventure.
But, if like most of us, travelling has been mostly off the cards for the past years, you may find yourself a bit out of practice when it comes to planning a trip. From choosing a destination, to organising transport, accessing local guides, and everything in between - travel can be a lot to handle.
Luckily, making these plans has never been easier. Long gone are the days of yellow pages and travel agents, the internet offers resources to assist you in pretty much every step of the travel planning process - meaning you’re freer than ever to design a trip that’s right for you. Here are the best online resources available in 2022 to help you plan your next getaway!
Itinerary Planning: Wanderlog
Wanderlog is the best place to start planning a strip if you’re starting from square one. The platform allows you to explore and log different stops on a journey, and input your itinerary for each spot. You can assign different budgets to each spot and share your planned route with others, so that you can collaborate on planning group travel. With Wanderlog, you can plan several trips at once, and the free, easy-to-use site will streamline the way you travel forever!
Master Planner: TripIt
Flight tickets, hotel bookings, car rental agreements - the amount of documentation to keep track of on a holiday can quickly add up. TripIt is there to take away the stress of keeping track of all these important elements. Simply forward any bookings to your TripIt account and they will appear on the app all together - in one easy-to-navigate space. Never fear losing a booking again with TripIt in hand!
Flight Comparison: Skyscanner
Flights can often become the single most expensive element of any trip you go on, so you want to make sure you’re getting the best deal possible. Flight prices can vary wildly depending on a number of factors including proximity to flight and choice of airline, but Skyscanner helps to crunch the numbers.
Skyscanner shows the different price ranges of flights on different dates, from different airlines, between your desired destinations. If you’re flexible in your travel, you can even opt to search for the “cheapest month” between two destinations. One of the most exciting features of Skyscanner for travellers open to anything is the fact that you can put in your location of departure and search for flights to “everywhere” - a great way to get inspiration for your next adventure at a price you can afford!
Hostels: Hostelworld
Hostels have been a staple of cheap travel since the industry first emerged, but hostels have come a long way! Back in the day, they were known as cheap, and not always reliably comfortable places to turn in for the night if you were on a budget.
These days, however, hostels have reinvented themselves as chic and hip options for those looking to stay in style without the stuffiness of a hotel. Hostelworld is the one stop shop for accessing all the best hostels around the world. Many of the hostels found on Hostelworld are entirely boutique, offering single and en-suite rooms at the fraction of a cost of a traditional hotel room, without any loss of comfort (save maybe for room service!)
Home Stays: Couchsurfing
The rise of social media has impacted just about every element of our lives - including travel. Instead of visiting a new place and staying in a hotel, remaining an outsider, Couchsurfing has made it possible to connect with the places you visit in a far more personal way.
Users on Couchsurfing offer up their homes to others from around the world, giving you the chance to travel cheaply, stay somewhere free of cost, and connect with locals along the way!
Private Rental: Airbnb
If you don’t quite want the hotel experience, but you’re not quite ready to stay with a local, Airbnb may be the perfect middle ground. Once a revolution to the travel industry, Airbnb has now become the bog-standard for many travellers. With fantastic rentals (both private and shared) in pretty much every location you can think of - Airbnb is a must for any traveller looking to balance privacy with authentically local accommodation.
Long-Haul Helper: Timeshifter
Timeshifter is an app that harnessed NASA-backed science in order to help minimise the exhausting effects of jetlag that occurs with long-haul travel. Using your own pre-established sleeping pattern and rhythmic readjustments that work according to your chronotype (whether you’re a morning person or a night owl), and will work in tandem with your body to adjust your brain to its new time zone. WIth jetlag often taking a good day or two out of your itinerary, cutting down on the exhaustion of long-haul travel saves both time and money!
Bridging Language: Google Translate
One of the biggest struggles of finding yourself in a new and unfamiliar place has to be the barrier to communication that different languages can create. Now with the highly advanced services of translation platforms such as Google Translate, these age-old problems are fast becoming a thing of the past.
Despite early teething problems that could often yield comical miscommunication, Google Translate has come a long way and is now incredibly sophisticated in its capabilities. Google Translate can translate text-to-speech, speech-to-text, live-translate images such as menus or street signs, and you can upload documents and screenshots for translation. Even if you plan to venture to the most remote of areas, Google Translate allows you to download an entire language for offline translation - putting a whole language in your back pocket!
Exploring the world has never been easier with the help of groundbreaking platforms like these - make the most of your next travel adventure!
