Traveling can be one of life’s most rewarding experiences, but planning a trip can also be overwhelming. From booking flights and accommodations to navigating local transport and discovering hidden experiences, having the right tools and strategies can make every journey smoother and more enjoyable. This guide brings together practical advice, trusted apps, and insider tips to help you explore any destination with confidence.
Planning Your Trip
Before every trip, we always take a few minutes to check which apps are actually useful for our destination. Instead of downloading everything, we focus only on what we’ll really need for that specific country. This helps us stay organized, save phone storage, and avoid wasting time later trying to figure things out on the go.
Preparation is the foundation of a successful trip:
Flights and Accommodation: Use apps like Skyscanner to compare flights and find the best deals. For hotels, Booking.com works well worldwide, and it’s also our favourite, but Agoda has also good options and it works on Asia as well. Airbnb is ideal for longer stays or local-style accommodations, we use this when we definitely want to cook our own meals, it’s a life saver.
Budgeting and Currency: Manage multiple currencies with Revolut or Wise. We personally use Revolut, it has the best rates and also not to mention the possibility of withdrawing money till 800€ with the metal option. For conversion rates we use XE Currency. When traveling in a group, you can use Splitwise for track shared expenses.
Organizing Your Trip: TripIt consolidates all your bookings in one place. Google Keep or Evernote are excellent for notes and checklists, and PackPoint creates personalized packing lists based on destination, length of stay, and weather.
Staying Connected & Staying Safe
One of the most important things we’ve learned while traveling is how essential it is to stay connected. It helps us keep in touch with friends and family, but more importantly, it makes navigating, communicating, and feeling safe specially in a country we’ve never visited before. Nowadays it’s even more easy to be connected, here’s how we handle it:
Communication & Mobile Data
- eSIMs: These are perfect for staying online immediately upon arrival. Platforms like Airalo, Holafly, Nomad, and Yesim let you purchase and activate data plans digitally in minutes. They help you avoid roaming fees, maintain your original number, and have reliable internet for maps, translations, and ride-hailing.
- Messaging Apps: WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram are our go-to for staying in touch. They’re secure, reliable, and widely used worldwide.
Personal & Family Safety
- Life360: Track family members’ locations and coordinate easily.
- bSafe / SABRE Personal Safety: Panic buttons, location sharing, and emergency alerts, perfect for solo travelers or walking alone.
- Citizen: Real-time, location-based alerts about incidents nearby.
- Red Panic Button / Peoplesafe: SOS features to send your location to contacts during emergencies — great for kids, elderly, or solo travelers.
Digital & Online Safety
- Norton / TotalAV / Guardio: Antivirus and identity protection.
- NordVPN / Surfshark: Secure your internet connection and protect privacy online.
- Brave / DuckDuckGo: Private browsers for safer web browsing.
- LastPass / Bitwarden / NordPass: Password managers to protect your accounts and logins.
Getting Around: Transportation Tips
Efficient transportation can make or break your trip.
Ride-Hailing Apps:
- Uber is available globally but can be expensive in some regions.
- Bolt is popular in Europe and parts of Africa and is often cheaper than Uber for short trips.
- Grab dominates Southeast Asia, offering rides, food delivery, and digital payments.
- Didi is the major player in China and has a presence in parts of Latin America.
- Gojek is an on-demand multi-service platform primarily operating in Indonesia and Singapore.
Public Transport Apps:
- Moovit helps plan routes using buses, trains, and metros worldwide with real-time schedules.
- Many cities have official local transit apps, such as TFL in London, RATP in Paris, or city metro apps in Asia, which often provide more accurate information than global apps.
Car Rental apps:
- Rentalcars.com: An app that compares deals from various car rental companies.
- Rentcars: A car rental platform with a loyalty program to help you find and book deals across different providers.
- Hertz, Avis, Budget: Major international rental companies that also have their own apps for booking cars in Asia.
One thing we always do before traveling is check which transportation apps are actually used in the country we’re visiting. While the apps listed above are some of the most well-known across Europe and Asia, not all of them work everywhere. Taking a few minutes to research this in advance helps avoid confusion on arrival, especially when internet access is limited. We usually download only the apps that are truly relevant for that destination, which keeps things simple and makes getting around much easier from day one.
Navigating and Communicating
Not speaking the local language shouldn’t stop you from traveling. What matters is having basic tools that help you understand directions and communicate when needed. With the right preparation, even first-time travelers can feel comfortable exploring places where English isn’t widely spoken.
Maps: Google Maps is essential for general navigation, while Maps.Me works offline. Citymapper is excellent for major urban centers.
Language: Google Translate or DeepL can help overcome language barriers. Learning a few basic phrases with Duolingo or Babbel enhances your interactions.
Discovering Experiences
When we travel, one thing we’ve learned is that it’s better to have a rough plan rather than book every single activity in advance. That said, we usually check the options before we go, pick a few must-do activities, and leave room for spontaneous adventures. This way, we get the best of both worlds: we don’t miss out on key experiences, but we also stay flexible and open to discovering hidden gems along the way.
• Tours and Activities: Platforms like GetYourGuide, Klook, and Viator help you find curated tours, tickets, and unique experiences. New users can receive 5% off their first booking when they download the GetYourGuide app and make their first booking via the app.
For Klook new user enjoy 8% off and already user 3% off.
• Local Insights: TripAdvisor and Google Travel can guide you to hidden gems, restaurants, and events off the typical tourist path.
Travel Planning Is a Skill You Learn Over Time
Planning trips isn’t something people are born knowing how to do, it’s a skill you build with experience. Every trip teaches you something new about what you actually need and what you can skip. Over time, planning becomes faster, simpler, and more intuitive.
If this is your first time planning a trip, don’t aim for perfection. Aim for preparation. Having the basics covered is more than enough to start traveling with confidence.
In future guides, we’ll break this down by country and region, showing exactly which apps and tools are useful in each destination. But no matter where you go, the principles in this guide will always apply.
