11 Must bookmarked sites/apps for planning your trip

by Arjun
Planning Travel| Koh Tao

The excitement of trip is one thing and planning travel is another. People who love planning their travel can relate to this. So, this blog goes for them and others as well who don’t like to plan but travel. Smartphones these days are an essential part of our planning. As they are capable of planning and executing that plan from scratch. So, today we can get everything done on our smartphone from booking stay, activities, flying, dating, shopping, etc.

But, What I want to share here is a list of apps to do that smartly, save some money, get some fairly good deals. Spend that saving in something that is really worth it – dining at some world-famous restaurant, standing on the top of Burj Khalifa, shop some expensive brand, skydive, scuba dive or anything that would give you a feel of completely utilizing your hard earned pennies. These little trade-offs are completely worth the time you spend on planning travel

Planning Travel :

  1. Hopper: I must tell you why I kept this app in the first position, not like it is better than the rest of these. But I like this app, it’s REALLY smart.
    Let me brief you a little that what hopper is.Hopper actually has collected the airfare data for a decent period of time, in turn, uses that statistics to predict the airfare over a specific period of time. Also, you can place a watch on a certain deal. Hopper will keep on notifying you about the latest updates, if the price is lowest at some particular time, or if the price will shoot in a coming week, or it will increase a week after, or it will keep increasing continuously, book as soon as you can. To my surprise, it is true most of the times if not always in planning travel.
  2. Skyscanner: This one is pretty popular among all, as its name suggests it is used to scan the skyspace(flights, prices, best deals). These days hotels and car hire deal as well. No matter how many apps I share, but check the deals for flights, stay and car rentals on at least 3-4 sites/apps. Try switching the local destination country sites.
    The best feature of Skyscanner, which makes me fall in love with this site is set “Everywhere” as the destination for the flight search, not only this but also selecting the month as the cheapest month of the year. This option helps me a lot in planning travel. Such options are really helpful while planning your trip in advance when you are pretty much open to all the options of destination and time you want to travel during.
  3. Momondo: This is one colourful app, yes you can see that yourself. I really like their colour theme, it is such a treat for your eyes. This site is also used for finding a couple of deals but primarily air ticket deals. The feature which sets it apart from others is that it will tell you if you are getting some good deal, from some alternate nearby airport instead of the one you are selecting. Also, the other thing which it displays beautifully is the best deal we are getting combining multiple factors like the duration of a flight, duration of layover, cost of a ticket, etc.
  4. Paytm: It is another Indian giant, which they themselves claim “proudly crafted in India”. They can offer some really good flight deals both local and international. What makes them stand apart is they offer some or other cash back on almost everything. It can be used on almost everything from shopping to train ticket, flight tickets, utility bills, etc.
  5. Secret flying: SecretFlying is a website which not many travellers know, I also got to know from a travel blog. They do offer error fares and also other good deals. Error fares actually last for a very short time, when I mean short it means really short. But they are really good deals. Also, you get some normal seasonal deals for stays and flights as well. Just sign up for their mailer, you will keep getting good deals right there in your mailbox, always left you planning travel.
  6. BookMyForex/Centrum Forex: They are the websites you need to look out for, in case you are heading to or from India and in need of forex. Believe me, they will give you better prices than any physical forex shop or banks around. First one, BookMyForex is a foreign currency exchange aggregator platform. The second one belongs to a company. So look for your respective forex needs, place an order and get your forex delivered to your doorstep and that too at unbeatable prices. While you are done planning travel, the last step is to arrange your forex. So this will help you get that at better prices.
  7. Viator: Viator is the app you need to look out for when you are planning your travel. That what will you be doing for the day, sightseeing, activity, etc. Activities may seem expensive in this app. But at least give you an idea that what to do when. Like you see some city bike tour, take a note of its itinerary. Now google some bike tour company which organizes a tour with a similar itinerary, as sellers on Viator are generally expensive. This way it can help you to fill up your day schedules easily.
  8. Decathlon: This is a one-stop store for any kind of sporting goods, they have multiple stores in Europe as well as in India. Any sports you name it, you can find it’s accessories its costume, etc. Also, all your travel needs can be fulfilled from here very easily without any confusion. They are affordable, smart, stylish design. You can get all your stuff like sleeping bags, rucksacks, bum-bag, travel-kit, outdoor shoes, joggers, winter gear, etc. So, if you don’t waste much energy, time, money on such stuff, head to the nearest store.
  9. Airbnb: Airbnb is the buzz word for almost a decade. It is a marketplace for short-term rentals luxury stays condos, homestays, apartments, hostel beds. It will be relatively cheaper than hotel or maybe hostels even. Airbnb’s has their pros and cons. Pros are like if you host is friendly, they may help you with their local knowledge, access to local resources, etc. But cons be like, you would lack some professional services which are actually offered by hostels, for eg: you will lack a community of travellers, brainstorming with whom can make you a lot for informative, activities like a library, beer nights, leisure activities like snooker, carrom, etc. But if you are travelling in a group, it can be relatively cheaper and cosy stay in a home.
  10. Couchsurfing: As I already told you, I almost started travelling and discovered this app at the same time, so this app holds an important place for me. Moreover, my definition of it would be like it’s a very beautifully crafted concept of globalization and knowledge and resources sharing in travelling industry. If you do this thing a bit carefully with patience and sense of responsibility, it is something which can redefine your travel to a whole new level. You meet a lot of new people while you travel, that’s traditional. If working full time you can’t travel all the time, but that doesn’t stop you from meeting people from new cultures, getting to know how they do things at their place by the virtue of this app. You can host people from different countries, get to know about there culture, share your travel stories, share your place, share your food and most importantly don’t expect anything in return (No money at least). But you can hope that you might also get a place like that, knowledge like that, etc when you travel.
  11. Agoda: This site offer really good prices for the hotels for all around the globe. Just get started with this app whenever you start planning travel. I started using this app recently while my Vietnam trip. The deals and the reviews they offer are simple, easy and one of the best I have came across in finding last minute deals. Also, they don’t play much with exchange rates. They have pretty good coverage in Southeast Asia is what I noticed so far.

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