Want to go on a holiday but dislike the hassle of planning for the trip? You are not alone.

I love travelling just like almost every other millennial out there, but when it comes to planning, it is always a pain because I NEED to have a nicely organized itinerary – you can refer to my Hanoi, Tokyo, Kyoto itineraries to see the amount of planning I typically do ahead of a trip!

As I have a 2+ week honeymoon in Europe coming up immediately after my house move and wedding, I decided to use technology to help plan more efficiently! Here is a list of some useful travel planning sites and apps that came in handy for my honeymoon pre-trip planning:

 

Skyscanner: for flights

My go to site for searching for cheap flights. Skyscanner is essentially a price comparison site for flights so you know you are paying for the cheapest possible flight for the route. If you are not in a hurry to book a flight, you can also set up Price Alert emails, that helps notify you if the price changes!

Free. Available on desktop, iOS and Android

 

Agoda: for hotels

There are so many price comparison sites out there for hotels, but Agoda is definitely one of my favorite! Their desktop and mobile interfaces are super user-friendly. They have tons of reviews for hotels that help with my decision making process, search parameters that make it really easy to narrow hotels for my choice etc. For people who are into collecting miles (utilizing their PointsMax programme) and cashbacks (via 3rd party site Shopback – see below), Agoda is great for both! For this trip, I booked my Venice and Santorini hotels via Agoda without much hassle – all with great reviews so I totally cannot wait.

Free. Available on desktop, iOS and Android

 

Airbnb: for accommodation

Having stayed in at least 8 gorgeous Airbnbs during my overseas travels since 2014, I am definitely a fan of this platform. Picking out a gorgeous Airbnb to stay in is actually one of my personal favorite things to do for every trip I plan. I love the fact that an Airbnb can be so uniquely furbished unlike most large chain hotels. And interacting with friendly and passionate hosts are always a SUPER PLUS point! For this trip, I have handpicked 3 accommodations in Rome and Florence booked via Airbnb and I absolutely cannot wait to share more pictures soon!

Free. Available on desktop, iOS and Android

 

Shopback: for cash rebates

I have written an entire article on the benefits of Shopback before, but there is no harm in repeating a good point! Shopback provides amazing cashback for online shopping, and TRAVEL is one of the categories that gives significantly high cashback rates of 6-8%. That is a ton of rebates you can get off your hotel and flight bookings ON TOP of your mile or reward cards. START SAVING FOR YOUR HUGE EXPENSES WITH A SHOPBACK ACCOUNT NOW!

Free. Available on desktop, browser add on, iOS and Android

 

Google Trips: for itinerary planning

This is my favorite discovery during this round of trip planning! Cannot believe I have never discovered this amazing Google feature before. Synced up with Google maps (which I already rely on heavily for trip planning previously), it allows you to organize your trip by listing locations on the map and even surfacing nearby places of interests. The best part of it: It gathers your travel information, from flight bookings, hotel bookings, train booking etc. from your Gmail inbox synced to the app so you have all your relevant trip bookings all in one easily accessible place. Did I also mention it works offline too?

Free. Available on iOS and Android

 

Triphobo: for itinerary planning

A friend’s recent recommendation. This is definitely for people who hate using excels or word documents to plan their itineraries, but still need to have all the plans in one place. It is super user friendly with drag and drop functions for suggested activities (& recommended durations), hotels and even logistics between places. I would recommend this platform more for planning a trip within one specific country, because it does not seem to support cross country logistics well for now.

Free. Available on desktop

 

 

PackPoint: for packing list

Once you have booked your flights and accommodation and planned out the itinerary, what is left is just to pack your luggage for the trip! Packing can be really hard if you have no idea where to start. This is where PackPoint comes in handy! A smart packing list app, PackPoint will organize what you need to pack based on length of travel, weather at your destination and any activities planned during your trip. The best thing is, you can share your list with your fellow travelers too! Save everyone some time!

Free. Available on iOS and Android

 

Thanks to these useful apps and websites, I’m almost done for the honeymoon trip planning! Let me know if you have any other apps or websites you think are useful for trip planning at citygirlat65@gmail.com and I can update this list in the future 😀