When I first arrived in Europe I always searched Orbitz to find the best deal. Oh how much I’ve learned in 6 months! Since I’m not truly working while we live in Spain, I’ve taken on the role of family travel agent. I’ve done the majority of our planning, from booking flights, hotels and trains. If you’re only traveling a couple of times a year it feels okay to splurge. But when it’s a regular occurrence you want to find the best deal and waste the least amount of time with searching and booking.
Traveling is exciting, but the actual planning process can be stressful. Like deciding if you should book a flight or wait for a better deal, how to find the right train ticket, or selecting the best hotel. As much as I love planning trips, I hate wasting time searching for flights and hotels. Instead, I want to make efficient and smart decision.
If you’re in the trip planning process, here are my favorite apps and sites to snag the best deals while making trip planning an enjoyable process.
5 Apps to Make Travel Planning Easy
Skyscanner
Shoutout to fellow expat Erica for telling me about this app because it has saved me a ton of time and money as I travel around Europe. Skyscanner searches all the big and small airlines to find you the best deal. It will also clue you in if there’s a price drop by booking a day earlier or later.
This app has been particularly helpful when I book tiny airlines to get around Europe. I’ve found some great deals (like $30 flights) thanks to Skyscanner on airlines I’d never heard of before. After I find the best deal on Skyscanner I go directly to the airline’s site to book. Sometimes Skyscanner will recommend a third party to book through. It might save you a few bucks but it’s not worth it as those companies can be a bit sketchy. Always book direct when it comes to flights!
If you have flexible plans you can have fun searching around and getting inspired with this app. You can say where you’re flying out of and when you’re free and the app will tell you deals around the world.
Hotels.com
When I’m not booking through credit card points (more on that below), this is where I head next. With hotels.com after every 10 nights you book you get one night free. If you’re traveling a lot, this eventually adds up. You’ll even get some special pricing if you sign up for an account.
HotelTonight
This is usually my last stop for booking a hotel. If I can’t find a good deal on hotels.com, I then check HotelTonight. You can actually book up to 90 days out and the deals tend to be really good. I’ve found the same hotel on HotelTonight for $100 less than on other sites. Especially if you’re booking last minute, this is a good option.
Loco2
And finally, if you’re traveling via train in Europe, check out this app/site. Loco2 makes it super simple to book your train tickets. I’ve found that the actual train booking sites are pretty old school and not user friendly (and the language barrier can be a huge issue). Loco2 allows you to book train tickets all over Europe via their user-friendly app. There’s even a section that decodes what your ticket says (when I traveled Berlin to Prague I literally couldn’t read anything on the ticket). This has made train travel cheap and easy.
Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card
Okay, not an app, but this is something that has saved me a lot of money while traveling. If you are a frequent traveler, you need the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. There are so many travel benefits like $100 to use towards Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check, 3x points on travel, Priority Pass lounge access for you and a guest, plus great rewards redemption for hotel rooms. I’ve booked a ton of hotels with my Reserve points, thus essentially making my hotel stays free!
If you sign up now, you get 50,000 points. The hotels I book tend to be in the 10-15k range per night, so right away you’ve got some free nights ahead of you. Honestly this card has been a game changer for my travel booking. If you’re interested, here’s a referral link: Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Any great apps you use that makes travel planning easier? Please share below!
