The Best Travel Resources
Planning is usually the part of traveling that can stress people out. It shouldn’t be that way! Below are major resources used to plan our trips whether abroad or in a local campground. You may notice a few very popular options like AirBnb, All Trails, or Tripadvisor are excluded. We rarely use them. They, like many other sites, offer great deals sometimes, but the sites below are always checked first. We would love to hear what your favorite travel resources are so please share!
TRAVEL LOGISTICS
Google Maps
Yep, Google Maps is a top travel resource! Want to find a restaurant? Search the map. Need to share your location? Click your icon and share. Want to remember where you’re parking your car? Drop a pin. Curious about current park conditions? View the latest photos section for recent pics. Going somewhere without service? Download a map offline. Trying to remember where you were exactly one year ago? View your timeline and find out. Google Maps is overpowered, but it doesn’t customize well. That brings us to…
Google My Maps
For anything Google Maps can’t do there is the custom mapping beast of Google My Maps! While Maps let’s you make lists, My Maps let’s you add special icons, your own images, any color, notes, hatches, layers, and more. Each map you create can be put in Google Maps as an overlay and turned on or off as needed. It’s a wonderful way to organize travel plans visually and share with anyone else.
The U.S. Department of State
The U.S. State Department offers tons of info for travel abroad. Their International Travel section details entry/exist requirements, highlights unique local laws, and provides local U.S. embassy contact abroad. Travel advisories are posted on the dedicated travel advisory webpage and within each countries page. Overall, this website is the best resource for general knowledge of your destination abroad.
The Center for Disease Control
The longer the trip the higher the risk of sickness abroad. Thankfully, the CDC traveler’s health page compiles vaccine recommendations and major health risks by country. You’ll find everything from warnings to active health risks in the Travel Health Notes section. Some countries require specific vaccines for entry/exit making this an essential resource.
Splitwise
It can get annoying tracking who bought what for who and when. That is, unless you use Splitwise! The Splitwise app lets you add members to a group and track payments between members. It doesn’t matter how complicated the spending or how long the trip, this app automatically calculates who owes who. It’s free for Apple and Android phones with a buy up plan unlocking new features.
PLAN WHERE TO STAY
Indoor
Hostel World
The cheapest way to travel is generally by staying in hostels, and the best way to find hostels is on Hostel World. This website specializes in finding hostels and some hotels. This is an especially helpful website if you’re traveling alone, or if you want to meet people as you go. You will likely find the cheapest rates on this site.
Agoda
Discount hotels are found on many different sites, but Agoda is one of the best. They’re based in Singapore and specialize in the Asia-Pacific reasons. If you’re backpacking south east Asia you are sure to use Agoda. They regularly offer coupons and specials, especially to new users. Time your new account well to take advantage.
Expedia
Originally started by Microsft in 1996, Expedia.com was spun off and now owns Hotels.com, Travelocity, Vrbo, and many other booking sites. Expedia.com perks are top notch: you can pay for trips in installments, purchase trip insurance backed by AIG, and join one of the best travel rewards programs. Their OneKey rewards program applies to Hotels.com and Vrbo for added benefits that become fantastic by the time you reach Gold status.
Kayak
My favorite booking site owned by Booking Holdings is Kayak.com. You’ll find everything from hostels to resorts listed. Kayak’s best features include a heat map showing the most popular areas around your destination, an ability to search for the cheapest flight anywhere, and probably the most customizable search function of booking sites.
Outdoor
Hip Camp
Hip Camp should be a go to for every camper. Private land owners post their yards, fields, or cabins for camping. You’ll find extremely cheap rates, and the site even details which campsites are best for special events like the 2024 eclipse. Remember, most sites have limited amenities so thoroughly read a listing before booking.
Reserve America
One of the best ways to reserve a campground on public land is on Reserve America. You’ll find campgrounds hosted by the National Forest Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Bureau of Land Management. Many state parks also use this website for their campgrounds making this a very thorough listing of developed sites.
Recreation.gov
Recreation.gov is the essential way to reserve a campground at a national park. The parks also use this service for other reservations like tours, trail access tickets, or parking permits. Using the maps filter system will help you narrow down your search tremendously.
PLAN YOUR HIKES
Hiking Project
Popular outdoor gear supplier REI created Hiking Project to detail trails around the world. Each trail is very clearly mapped, includes geolocated photos, an elevation profile, and detailed descriptions all for free and without a requirement to make an account. It’s not as active as All Trails, but the content quality is regularly higher.
National Park Service Find a Park
The popularity of the National Parks has exploded in the last decade. The best way to find a park is though the Find A Park map which shows every national park by state and links to their individual sites. Each park’s individual page then helps you plan your hikes and daily activities within each park.
PLAN YOUR FLIGHT
Google Flights and ITA Matrix
Google Flights is one of the most popular flight searching services, but ITA Matrix is what has powered that machine since purchased by Google in 2010. The two search engines offer the same results so don’t double dip searching between the two. However, while Google Flights is far more convenient and links with other Google products, ITA Matrix offers far more specific search options. That makes ITA Matrix perfect for very specific constraints while Google Flights gives you broader results.
Skyscanner
Search engine Skyscanner is a flight price comparison website. As they state, the price shown on Skyscanner is the price on the airline’s site. Their awesome tools include the Whole Month Search that finds the cheapest flight day in a month, and the Everywhere Search that finds the cheapest flight to anywhere from a chosen starting airport. Final reservations are made with the airline directly.
Skiplagged
Skiplagged is a controversial website specializing in skiplagging. It’s the concept of buying a flight that includes a layover in your target city and then skipping the rest of your flight. You literally just don’t get on later flight legs. Let’s say you want to fly to NYC from DFW but flights are expensive. Skiplagged searches for longer, cheaper flights with NYC as a layover. * Use caution - not super loved by many airlines, so be careful if you decide to go this route *
Going (Scott’s Cheap Flights)
Scott’s Cheap Flights was one of the best way to get regular cheap flight recommendations. You would choose a home airport, follow a few others, and notified when flights from your selections become very cheap. Now branded as Going, that tradition continues. It’s free to sign up but the buy up plan shows even cheaper flights. Emails with great flight deals come once every couple of weeks.
PLAN YOUR FOOD
City Subreddits
Reddit is one of the internet’s most popular sites. It’s composed of thousands of themed forums called subreddits where people post news, memes, and tips about their city. Most major cities have a subreddit, and of those that do, most have a community favorite food and drink section like the New Orleans subreddit. However, every subreddit has users that love to debate their favorite places to eat. Move over baseball, arguing on the internet is the new great American past time so take advantage of it. Search “Reddit best restaurants in [CITY]” for tons of local picks.
Eater
I trust Eater religiously with food and drink picks, but the site mostly caters to large cities and popular destinations. It’s not everywhere like Yelp. However, while Eater doesn’t have the breadth, it does have the best taste in food! Their restaurant recommendations come in lists with a short description of each restaurant’s significance. Each list is paired with a map to make the most helpful food lists I’ve seen online. Their suggestions are free from user input and are purely editor based. Eater editors know their audience. They prioritize restaurants with local significance or historical value to the city rather than fine dining - though sometimes that’s included. View their annually updated 38 Best lists, or explore their top choices in your home town to see what I mean.
Conde Nest Traveler
The Conde Nest Traveler (or CN Traveler) website is more inclusive to travel as whole and full of clickbait titles, but their food choices are always top notch. Like Eater, they have excellent taste, but they also assume you have a deeper wallet. Their food suggestions are perfect for travel when looking for date night options, or meals just a touch below fine dining level. You’ll find some local landmarks included, but think of this more as a reverse Eater.
Michelin Guide
Yes, the Michelin tire company created the planet’s most respected restaurant guide. The guide started in 1900 as a way to sell more tires to French motorists by getting them driving. The first Michelin guides detailed France’s best mechanics, hotels, and restaurants. They first awarded restaurants 1 to 3 stars for excellence in 1926 and the masses to it to heart. The Michelin guide remains a top authority on restaurants around the world. Their site let’s you filter by star level with 1 being “very good”, 2 being “excellent”, and 3 being “worth a special journey”. Be aware that these restaurants are the finest of fine dining and some require reservations months in advance. You will likely pay over $100 per person at any star level but will love every crumb on your plate. The Gourmand level offers delicious choices and is always most affordable.
Keep Food Safe
The organization Keep Food Safe is dedicated to support anyone poisoned or made ill by food that they trusted. Not only do they help educate the public, they also provide support to those poisoned going so far as to provide legal help and resources to ensure justice for foodborne illness victims. Yes, their support even extends to travelers abroad!
WEATHER RESOURCES
Rainy Days
The Rainy Days app is the most efficient way to check for incoming rain. That’s all it does - show a weather radar. However, it does it well, offers multiple base maps, and is a very tiny and efficient app with accurate readings. It’s available on Android or Apple phones.
Windy
Windy is the most complete weather app and website that I have seen. The detailing is endless. You can see overlays not only of rainfall and temperature, but of wind direction, wind speed, cloud cover, fog, plus view hundreds of live webcams that show current weather and traffic conditions across the globe. That’s all free and without an account. The free version is extremely detailed, and the premium version is overwhelming in the best way possible.I have been a member for years and never received a spam email.
