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Home » Travel Tips

The Most Useful Websites for Trip Planning

Created On: April 12, 2016  |  Updated: January 25, 2022  |   11 Comments

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links from which we may make commission from. As always, we only recommend places and products we love! In addition, we try our best to keep our articles up-to-date with current prices, locations, and hours of operation however we always recommend double-checking when planning a trip as these items can change frequently.

Table of Contents show
1 The Most Useful Websites for Trip Planning
2 Useful Websites for Trip Planning: General Travel Websites
2.1 TripAdvisor
3 Useful Websites for Trip Planning: Flights
3.1 Skyscanner
3.2 Kayak
3.3 cleverlayover
4 Useful Websites for Trip Planning: Hotels & Accommodations
4.1 Airbnb
4.2 Bed and Breakfast
4.3 5 Star Hostels
4.4 Hotels.com
5 Useful Websites for Trip Planning: Mapping Routes
5.1 Rome2Rio
6 Useful Websites for Trip Planning: Travel Hacking
6.1 Evreward

The Most Useful Websites for Trip Planning

“You can’t buy happiness but you can buy a plane ticket and that’s kind of the same thing.”

But what happens when that plane ticket is at a price that could clear out your savings? Or you’re traveling to an unfamiliar country and have absolutely no idea where to stay or dine?

Well, we’ve compiled a list of websites to help plan your next trip that we love and recommend. We hope these useful websites for trip planning will inspire you and even save you a little cash while doing so!


Useful Websites for Trip Planning: General Travel Websites

TripAdvisor

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – Logan and I swear by TripAdvisor for advice on local restaurants, hotels, sightseeing suggestions, and so much more. TripAdvisor also will compare the prices of different hotels, flights, and vacation rentals while you are looking up the opinions and reviews of other travelers.

  • The Most Useful Websites for Trip Planning: TripAdvisor
  • The Most Useful Websites for Trip Planning - Trip Advisor reviews

Useful Websites for Trip Planning: Flights

Skyscanner

Skyscanner opens the doors to the many possibilities of travel, including an open search capability. No weekend plans? Enter the keyword ‘Everywhere’ and see what your next destination could be! Skyscanner has quickly become a favorite of ours when looking for cheap flights anywhere in the world.

The Most Useful Websites for Trip Planning - Skyscanner

Kayak

For international flights, we love using Kayak. Kayak compares the prices of other popular ticketing websites and gives you the best price on a flight even if it isn’t on their site. It also tells you whether to buy or to wait! We also use Kayak when searching for rental cars as they typically have the best prices other than booking a rental car with our Costco membership.

  • The Most Useful Websites for Trip Planning - Kayak
  • The Most Useful Websites for Trip Planning - Kayak

cleverlayover

Cleverlayover is a unique travel website that allows you to combine your airline tickets with non-partner airlines to save money and even find a cool location to have a long layover if you aren’t on a strict schedule. When we flew to Australia we had a 30hr layover in Fiji and though brief, the opportunity to visit another city can be really fun!

Cleverlayover travel website

Useful Websites for Trip Planning: Hotels & Accommodations

Airbnb

Airbnb is a wonderful website that allows people from all over the world to safely use their home as a vacation rental at various different price points. We’ve stayed in a number of Airbnbs all over the world and have had nothing but positive experiences. Some places are a little dated, but if you read the reviews of the places you’re looking at staying, they typically ring true.

However, there are some places we wouldn’t recommend booking an Airbnb. For instance, in some parts of Europe, Airbnb isn’t the best choice. Lisbon, Portugal is one of the places we visited and heard about how Airbnbs are forcing inflated rent prices and pushing many locals out of their homes and that isn’t okay.

Before booking an Airbnb make sure that you ask for their Government ID number if it isn’t listed and look for articles about Airbnb in specific countries and areas to see if it’s a good idea.

  • Airbnb travel website
  • Airbnb

Bed and Breakfast

Although similar to Airbnb, Bed and Breakfast comes in handy when searching for local and well-known B&B’s at a low cost. Most of the 30,000+ listings are in the United States but there is also a number in Europe and other locations in the world too.

Bed & Breakfast website

5 Star Hostels

When most people think of hostels the first image that comes to mind might be a grimy room with bunk beds and a thin mattress. However, 5 Star Hostels ramps it up with sustainable, eco-friendly, and affordable hostels that also come highly rated in cities all over the world.

5 Star Hostels

Hotels.com

We love Hotels.com because it allows you to search for accommodations at thousands of properties. You can usually find terrific last-minute deals that are updated frequently on their site. Travelers that like to plan ahead can also find great deals on this site with seasonal sales and other offers.

Haven’t sold you yet? Well, Hotels.com also has a rewards program. You can earn a free night’s stay for every ten nights you spend at any of the program’s properties.

  • Hotels.com website
  • Hotels.com
    A view of what rewards look like at Hotels.com

Useful Websites for Trip Planning: Mapping Routes

Rome2Rio

Rome2Rio quickly identifies route options and allows you to easily compare costs, time, and ease of access. We don’t always use this travel website because we still find Google Maps to be the easiest way to plan the route of our trips. However, Rome2Rio does have a unique feature to see the flight, train, and car routes all at once. Overall it’s an awesome way to plan your trip quickly and easily!

  • Rome2Rio
  • Rome2Rio

Useful Websites for Trip Planning: Travel Hacking

Evreward

If you are a believer in travel credit cards like we are you’ll love Evreward! This site allows you to maximize your rewards points by searching websites you frequently use and seeing which card would reap the most benefits.

Evreward

Are there any other websites that you love to use when planning or traveling? While you’re on a hunt to find amazing travel tools, you may also be interested in looking at these useful free travel apps!


Flights, hotels, trip planning, packing lists and more! Check out this complete list of websites for you should use when planning your next trip.

posted in: Budget Travel, Travel Tips, Trip Planning

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    Comments & Reviews

  1. Sarah Ricks says

    September 17, 2016

    This is a blog post worth bookmarking. I’m a big fan of Trip Advisor, AirBnB, and Kayak. But I hadn’t heard of several of these other sites. I’m especially looking forward to trying Bed and Breakfast. Thank you for the helpful heads-up!

    Reply
  2. mags says

    September 18, 2016

    Awesome tips. I swear by most of these, but there are a few I hadn’t heard of before. Now I have more travel websites to feed my addiction.

    Reply
  3. Natalia says

    September 18, 2016

    Thank you for putting this list up) I’ve been using most of the websites while travelling, though I’ve just discovered Evreward) Looks like a great source. Thank you for sharing!

    Reply
  4. Toni says

    September 18, 2016

    We do find TripAdvisor such a great resource for checking a wide range of peoples experiences before we book particularly with accommodation but also activities and places. Not only can you get a range of current updates on condition and cleanliness but you can sometimes see that a place is undergoing renovations that you wouldn’t be told otherwise and find some good tips and recommendations on what’s nearby.

    Reply
  5. Vanessa says

    September 18, 2016

    Cleverlayover sounds very intriguing to me. I LOVE adding in layovers to my trips – we recently had a free day in Newfoundland while on route to Europe and it was a great way to explore and discover a small part of the province.

    Reply
  6. Carol says

    September 18, 2016

    I love that you have a couple of websites that I’d never heard of like UsingMiles and CleverLayover. I’ll definitely check them out. Thanks!

    Reply
  7. Melissa Jones says

    September 19, 2016

    This is so useful! I swear by Skyscanner for flights and Hotels.com for hotel bookings but I hadn’t heard of a couple other of these websites like the Rome one so I’ll definitely be checking them out to look for more travel deals. Can’t get enough of those for us travellers 😉

    Reply
    • kallsypage says

      September 19, 2016

      Completely agree with you Melissa! Let me know how you like rome2rio! It’s a really unique site. 🙂

      Reply
  8. Vicky says

    September 19, 2016

    Wow, I hadn’t heard of a few of these! Thanks for letting us know about what you use. I need to look into CleverLayover. 😉

    Reply
    • kallsypage says

      September 19, 2016

      Glad you found it helpful! CleverLayover has become one of our favorites, especially if you have the time! 🙂

      Reply

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