Our Favourite Travel Resources

After extensive travel around the world over the years, we have tried and tested many different travel planning resources, products and services. We have spent countless hours trying to find ways to not only save money on our travels but ways of doing it smarter. This is a collection of our favourite travel planning resources for booking accommodation, flights, transportation, tours, travel insurance, and more.

All items listed here are travel planning resources that we have personally used and highly recommend to others (otherwise, they wouldn’t be on the list). These are always the starting point in our search for travel deals.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Peta and Jonas

_{DISCLAIMER: This article contains affiliate links and Nomadic Retirement Travel are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. That means if you click a link and male a purchase, we may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.}

BOOKING CHEAP FLIGHTS

Google Flights for planning flights

Google Flights is an excellent tool for searching and planning, helping you explore routes, connections, and prices. Simply enter your departure airport and expand the map to view global flights and costs. Setting alerts for price changes on potential routes is also highly recommended.

Top Tip: We predominantly use Google Flights as our starting point for searching flights and then book direct through the airline’s website, or through a reputable third-party site such as SkyScanner or TripAdvisor.

Skyscanner for finding flights

We start our flight research and bookings with Skyscanner. It compares prices across all booking sites, consistently finding the best deals. Our favorite feature is the ability to select an entire country as a destination or choose ‘everywhere’ to find the cheapest flight options. Additionally, the calendar view shows the most affordable days and dates to fly.

Kiwi.com for connecting flights, trains and buses

Kiwi consistently displays the lowest airfares of any website. They offer a free flight guarantee and a hotel night if needed for connecting flights. Booking with Kiwi is ideal if you travel light and don’t mind layovers. Additionally, with Kiwi you can create combinations of flight, train, and bus tickets and offer them in a single itinerary.

Seat Guru for airline information

This site provides all the details for your upcoming flights, including seat layouts, comfort levels, plane amenities, baggage allowances, excess baggage costs, and check-in times and facilities. It’s perfect for information on long-haul flights!

AirHelp for delays and cancellations

Has your flight been delayed or cancelled? You might be entitled to compensation. Visit the ‘AirHelp’ website for expert guidance on rules and regulations. They take a 35% commission of any compensation you receive, but if you get nothing, you owe them nothing.

Priority Pass for lounge access

Priority Pass provides access to more airport lounges in more cities and countries than any other program. It’s the ideal way to spend your airport waiting time. Lounges offer quiet, connected spaces for relaxation or work, with food, drinks, and additional perks like showers and day spas to help you refresh and revive.

BOOKING ACCOMMODATION

Booking.com for hotels

Booking.com is our preferred accommodation booking platform. They offer an array of discounted hotels and apartments worldwide for longer-term stays, an easy filter and booking system, reviews and a flexible cancellation policy. Now that we are at Genius Level 3 we get even better discounts, room upgrades, plus money-back rewards!

Agoda for hotels in Asia

When we are travelling in Asia, we check Agoda for hotels, guesthouses and apartments as they have the biggest range of options and offer the best rates.

Vrbo for vacation rentals

The world’s leading marketplace for vacation rentals in 70+ countries around the world. They offer condos, cabins, lake rentals, beach houses, and more. Sometimes it works out cheaper to rent an apartment than to stay in a hotel!

Hostelworld for hostels

This is the best site for budget low-cost accommodation including hostels, guesthouses and B&B’s. It has the largest inventory, best search interface, and highest availability. We love that you can sort the reviews by the type / age of travellers so we can make sure we aren’t checking into a party hostel full of 18-year-olds.

Trusted House Sitters for house sitting

House sitting is a great way to save money when travelling and is an amazing resource for long-term travellers looking to slow travel. This is a great way for animal lovers who are willing to house and pet site in exchange for a free place to stay. The Trusted House Sitters platform has the largest selection of house sitting opportunities, and they vet all users carefully for safety. Get

BOOKING TOURS AND ACTIVITIES

Viator for tours and activities

Viator is a great site for finding tours or experiences wherever you are in the world – food tours, day trips, transfers between cities, anything! We always sort by highest reviews and read the most recent views prior to booking. They also have exceptional support if you need to reschedule or cancel.

N.B. TripAdvisor is owned by the same company as Viator and generally has the same tours, so it’s just a matter of personal preference.

GetYourGuide for tours and activities

We love using GetYourGuide to discover the best activities at our destination. They offer a wide variety of tours, with skip-the-line tickets, walking tours, and food tours being our favourites. Plus, their tours are often cheaper than those on other sites for the same or similar product.

Big Bus Tours for HOHO bus sightseeing

Though not our first choice for tours, we’ve used these open-top hop-on, hop-off (HOHO) bus tours when we had just 1 or 2 days in a city, like during a cruise port stop or layover. They’re a great, affordable way to get introduced to a city and see its top attractions.

Klook for popular attractions and hidden gems in Asia

Klook is excellent for booking in Asia due to its extensive range of activities and services, competitive prices (often better deals than the ones above), and user-friendly interface. It offers exclusive deals, skip-the-line tickets, and seamless booking for tours, transportation, and attractions.

Go City for multi attraction city passes

Go City passes eliminate the hassle of multiple entry fees and paper tickets to must-see attractions, offering a single price, one pass, and everything conveniently accessible on your phone.

TRANSPORTATION

Rome2Rio for trip planners

If you need to get from point A to point B, you’ll love the Rome2Rio website as much as we do. Enter your departure and arrival destinations, and it will display all bus, train, plane, car, or boat routes available, along with approximate distances and costs.

12Go.asia for booking transport in Asia

12Go.asia provides top-notch transportation booking services within Asia. It offers solutions for getting from point A to point B, combining various transport options like bus, train, and ferry, all on one website. It’s a great time and money saver for trip planning.

The Man in Seat 61 for train trip planning

If you enjoy train travel anywhere in the world, you need to bookmark this site! You will find information on routes, times, prices, and train conditions. This is our ‘go to’ site for planning our rail journeys.

Omio for booking trains in Europe and USA

Omio is a convenient one-stop shop for booking affordable train travel. Instead of navigating various country-specific websites in different languages, Omio simplifies the process and helps you find and book cheap tickets effortlessly.

Busbud for booking buses in 85 countries

Busbud is an online bus-booking platform that has compiled the world’s largest selection of bus tickets. Wherever you’re travelling, you can easily compare bus tickets from different companies based on cheapest price, shortest trip duration, or the best amenities, and book the best option for your next trip.

Flixbus for booking buses in Europe

Flixbus is the most affordable way to travel around Europe. The buses feature comfortable reclining seats, Wi-Fi, electrical outlets, and free luggage allowances.

RentalCars.com for rental cars

This website is excellent for finding and comparing car rental prices worldwide. We love how it allows us to easily compare prices from various car hire companies, ensuring we get the best deal every time.

Uber and Grab for rideshare taxi services

Uber and Grab are the two taxi apps we use when travelling. We use Uber in Europe, North / South America and South Africa, and we use Grab primarily in Southeast Asia.

BikesBooking.com for bicycles or scooters

In some locations, renting a scooter or bicycle is more a practical option for getting around. BikesBooking.com offers a great alternative to car rentals, comparing prices for motorcycles, scooters, quads, and bicycles worldwide.

Vacations To Go for finding cheap cruises

Looking for a discounted cruise? We recommend checking Vacations To Go to find cruise lines offering discounts and added inclusions. Easily search and filter by region, cruise line, port of call, and price per night. Note that prices exclude tips and port fees, but it’s a great starting point. We then contact our cruise agent directly for total cost and bookings.

iMoova for free (or close to) car, van or motorhome rental

This website connects you with companies that need help relocating their vehicles from one location to the next. Most will pay for petrol and allow several extra days so you can take your time and enjoy the trip.

TRAVEL INSURANCE

Our #1 travel safety tip is to NEVER travel without insurance! We have been thankful to have it on a number of occasions.

SafetyWing for longer term travellers

SafetyWing Travel Insurance specialises in insurance for longer term travellers. They have great coverage, competitive rates, great 24/7 customer service, and your policy can easily be extended as many times as you’d like, even from overseas. In addition, making claims is simple and the site is easy to navigate.

OTHER HELPFUL TRAVEL RESOURCES

Airalo for eSIM’s

Airalo is by far the most popular eSIM for travel. If you want the internet set up as soon as you land and avoid the hassle of physical SIM cards, then this is the way to go!

Trip Advisor for things to see and do and restaurant reviews

The use of the Trip Advisor website is a major part of our travel planning for any destination. We search for tours and attractions and compare prices on hotels to find the best deals. We also love reading the restaurant reviews to ensure we are getting the best possible food experience.

Expedia for ‘bundle and save’ option for hotels, flights and car combos

The Expedia website is extremely user-friendly and they offer competitive prices. We often check their ‘Last Minute’ search feature for great deals. Expedia is especially great if you want the convenience of combining bookings for an upcoming travel destination.

WayAway for cashbacks

WayAway is a travel aggregator that offers up to 10% cashback on flights, hotels, and car rentals. We love it because it lets us earn money back on our travel expenses. Plus, WayAway simplifies comparing prices and finding the best deals, ensuring you get the most value for your money.

TripIt for organisation of travel bookings

TripIt is excellent for organizing your travel. It consolidates all your bookings such as accommodation, transportation, activities, and more, into one convenient place.

Lonely Planet Travel Guides for destination research

For travel planning, we use Lonely Planet guides in addition to reading other travel blogs. We download the Lonely Planet guides as PDFs and save them on our phone for easy access anytime, without needing an internet connection.

TRAVEL PLANNING APPS

We also use a number of other tools for travel planning, and these are our favourite apps for travel planning.

_{DISCLAIMER: This article contains affiliate links and Nomadic Retirement Travel are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. That means if you click a link and male a purchase, we may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.}