Planning For Your Next Holiday: Tips & Resources

Where are you planning to go for your next holiday? It may be a road trip in your own country, a weekend escape, a week of relaxation at a beach resort, or an epic journey covering multiple countries. Whatever your plans are there are many new resources available that can make planning for your next holiday a lot easier.

There are many questions when you decide to plan your next holiday. Things like: Deciding where to travel; where to research destinations; how to find good deals on flights and accommodation; how to find your way around a place once you arrive? The best travel apps answer all these questions.

Roadtrippers Road Trip Planner

Roadtrippers road trip planner is a car travel planner that allows you to create ready-to-drive routes between point A and point B in minutes. This powerful route planner includes instant fuel cost estimation and a function to explore places within a set distance from your route.

Find and save places you want to visit using their general categories, sub-categories, and unique search. Your saved places sync with your phone for seamless navigation with your favourite maps app or use Roadtrippers’ in-app navigation.

What a great tool for planning your next weekend road trip or longer journey driving from one city to another. I wish this one had been available when I was travelling around my country Australia 10 years ago.

FlapTrip

FlatTrip is a cozy travel app that helps you build trips or find ready-made routes from other travellers.
You can tell it how you like to travel – cozy, wild, romantic or lazy and FlapTrip will craft a unique route in seconds.

The app uses AI to analyze thousands of data points to generate a complete itinerary, including attractions, restaurants and hidden gems, all tailored to your mood and budget. I could see how handy this would be for history buffs or foodies.

Tripit

I have recently become a big fan of the TripIt travel planning app. It organizes all your travel plans no matter where or what you book. It’s as simple as forwarding your confirmation travel booking emails to plans@tripit.com and it saves automatically within the app. This cuts out the need to have a printed out trip itinerary that takes hours to prepare. I love this one!

Booking.com

I have been using Booking.com for all my accommodation needs for ten years or more. It offers accommodation options for all budgets including hotels, hostels and homes, as well as flights, car rentals, tourist attractions and airport transfers. It retains all your booking information for each destination that means you don’t have to print out pages of hotel booking information. The website also boasts a loyalty program called “Genius” which gives you a 10% discount just for signing up.

Skyscanner

Skyscanner is the flight comparison site that I prefer to use. It is an excellent resource for flight information, airlines and routes. It searches all the airlines and looks for the quickest and cheapest routes. This is a big time saver for me and cuts out site juggling when you are looking for the best flight deal. Skyscanner also offers hotel options and car hire, so you can basically make all your bookings in one place if you so desire.

Eurail Rail Planner

During my couple of European trips, where I have used rail travel predominately, the Rail Planner app has been invaluable. It gives you up to date train timetables, train routes, travel times, prices and allows you to book. You can also save your trip with all the necessary information and use the app to show your train ticket when you get on the train.

Rome2rio

Rome2rio app has been invaluable on my European trips in the past two years. The app assisted me from getting from one destination to another pretty much anywhere I travelled. Rome2rio includes searches on over 200,000 train lines, 700,000 bus routes, 12,000 ferries and 50,000 flight paths. It provides numerous alternatives displaying travel times and the estimated cost.

Other Handy Travel Resources

Technology is a wonderful asset when travelling, so in addition to the above apps here are some my other recommendations:

• An international eSim card, is usually more budget-friendly than using your roaming data with your mobile provider back home. There are eSim cards that you can actually install prior to arrival into an overseas country that can quickly and easily be activated.

• Google Maps is a no-brainer when you’re trying to navigate your way around a city. Most smart phones have access to this handy app.

• Power banks are also extremely handy for charging your phone when you’re getting low on your battery. However, beware there are certain airlines that now won’t allow them on flights unless they have a country verification code on the back.

• Noise cancellation headphones are paramount for your long haul flight so that you can listen to music or movies, without the noise and disruption of other passengers and the crew. They will help you relax a lot easier.

• An eReader or iPad for reading or playing games. These weigh lighter and are more compact than lugging big books around. They will also keep you or your children entertained during the flight. Make sure you download a few movies, books or games prior to getting on your flight.

• A GPS tracker for your baggage allows you to easily see the status of your checked bags and provide real-time location tracking.

• An overseas multi-currency card like Wise allows you to spend money around the world with low conversion fees and zero transaction fees. The benefit of these cards is that they are often cheaper than a Visa or Mastercard for foreign transaction charges. 

• Google Translate is another handy app for foreign travel where language may be a barrier. You can translate between languages by typing or translate foreign writing by taking a photo and there is no internet required.

Finding Your Ideal Holiday Destination

The world is my oyster and sometimes I get completely overwhelmed with the large array of holiday destinations that are all encompassing. Here are some tips for finding your next holiday destination:

1. Make a bucket list – I actually do this annually, so that I keep track of where I’ve been and where I would like to travel to. My bucket list is ever evolving because when I hear about a wonderful travel destination I add it. It’s probably a good idea to narrow it down to say 10 destinations so that you don’t get too overwhelmed.
2. Work out when you can go and how long you to stay – This will possibly narrow your list down due to the fact that some destinations are too far in distance for a short holiday, or the weather may not be practical for travel at that time of year. Obviously avoid high humidity and wet seasons in some countries; high snowfall and sub-zero temperatures (unless this is what you prefer); special religious holidays in some countries, like Ramadan (month of fasting and prayer) or Nyepi (day of silence); and check out any current travel warnings to certain countries.
3. Consider the size of the country and the length of your stay – There is little point in trying to cover everything there is to do and see in a large country like India or China in a week. You would never do a big country justice unless you spend some time there. So don’t try to cover too much in a short time span.
4. What type of holiday do you want? Work out your interests and then decide which country really excites you the most. Do you want an adventure-filled holiday, a relaxing holiday on a beach, a luxury holiday on a cruise ship, a history and cultural holiday, or a budget-friendly backpacking type of holiday?
5. What’s your budget? Naturally this is going to determine where you can go. Not only consider what the flights and accommodation are going to cost. But think about how far your dollar (currency) will go in that country. For example, my Australian dollar does not really go far in Europe of the USA because of the terrible exchange rate.
6. Subscribe to Travel Deals – this is my biggest driver for finding my perfect holiday, because finding a good cheap holiday deal determines to a large extent where I travel next. There are plenty of email lists you can subscribe to: like your favourite airline, Travelzoo, Luxury Escapes, I Know The Pilot, Inspiring Vacations, and TripAdeal, to name a few. They send out regular emails to advise you of any special holiday packages or flights. Black Friday sales, happy hour sales and last minute deals are also worth looking at.

I must admit that planning a holiday is much easier than ever with all the information and technology that is available. It’s always good to read travel blogs (like mine), that give you a firsthand experience of the travel destination and relates vital information. We all know that word of mouth is always the best way to find out whether a holiday destination is worthwhile or not.

Get out there in the world and explore! The world is there before you, waiting to be explored.