This year has been the year of life changing travel apps for me. Since the explosion of travel apps and websites started around the time of Expedia and TripAdvisor. These were pretty life changing at the time but have since been copied (think Kayak and Skyscanner although I would the latter is a hugely improved offering) or have fallen out of fashion (TripAdvisor seems to be discredited more often than it is credited these days!).
BUT
In the past year I have been introduced to 3 apps which are truly unique and…well, life changing:
Pre-holiday planning : Inspirock
What is it?
I came across Inspirock completely by accident while researching a potential holiday in Jordan. This is an itinerary builder which will completely customise an itinerary based on your requirements and time frame.
How does it work?
Its so easy it will take your breath away. Enter your dates and destination of travel. Answer a few simple questions around your requirements – need kid-friendly and slow paced or fast paced finding hidden gems? Don’t want to deal with the hassle of hours of research? Press go and it will not only come up with a suggested itinerary but it will also have suggested additional activities that you might want to include. So, for example, our itinerary to Jordan didn’t include a trip to the Dead Sea, so we added it with one click. That then took us over our desired time frame so with another couple of clicks we were able to reduce the number of nights in a couple of places.
NOT ONLY THAT but it also includes recommended activities for the time you are in a place (categorised by wildlife, tours and sightseeing) as well as recommending hotels if you need them.
Is it worth it?
If what I have already just said doesn’t convince you, let me tell you that this will literally save you HOURS of research. If you are anything like me, you will spend days and weeks AGONIZING over where to go and what to see, prioritising it all just in case someone comes down with Delhi Belly or one of the Things has a meltdown.
Travel assistance : TripIt
What is it?
TripiIt is also an itinerary app but it doesn’t build the itinerary for you, rather it collects all the information in one place and keeps it in a handy little app for those moments when you would rather not be scrolling through 300 emails to find your hotel confirmation.
How does it work?
Another one that is so astonishingly easy it seems too good to be true! You set up an account using your email address. You forward all confirmation emails to [email protected]. All bookings are automatically loaded into an easy to navigate itinerary. That’s it. Literally it.
The app even includes like to airline sites so you can click through to online check in and will even give you directions fro, say, an airport car rental place to your hotel 3 hours away.
Is it worth it?
SO worth it! The itinerary is created for you and you can amend it as needed. It accepts flight confirmations, rental car details, airbnb or hotel bookings…The whole nine yards.
What if someone else made the booking? Have them forward it to your email, send it on to TripIt and it is automatically filed as if you had made the booking yourself. Don’t have a booking (staying with friends, for example) but will want directions from the train station? You can enter parts of the itinerary manually and it will connect the dots. I used this app in Italy and it was amazing.
On the move : Waze
What is it?
Waze is the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation app.
How does it work?
Whereas Google Maps uses data from our phones (hello big brother), Waze is a user driven app. You type in your destination and use it much like you would to get from Point A to Point B in any other map app. You can be but don’t have to be an “active user” – someone who shares information about the roads on your journey such as heavy traffic, accidents, police traps, brand new unannounced roadworks (where do we know that that could possibly happen?) or any other hazards along the way. They can even suggest good alternative routes.
If you aren’t interested in being an active user, you still use the app to navigate and to passively contribute to the data being supplied to you. So you might be asked if an accident reported an hour ago is still there or if the heavy traffic has now eased. In the meantime the app will offer you alternative routes, text an eta to your friend and find you a petrol (gas) station on the way.
Is it worth it?
A life-long fan of Google Maps I do find it hard to move away from it (for reasons even I can’t fathom). Yet this app is so clever and simple it makes you wonder why it wasn’t invented / discovered before.
So there you have it. There are some seriously clever people in this world who have created these inspirational apps and websites. I’m a bit app’d out at the moment so I try to limit the ones I add these days. But I never leave home without these life changing travel apps!
I didn’t know about any of these so very useful- thank you for sharing!
I still can’t believe they are so unknown given how amazing they are!
Love this post. We’re planning to travel soon and apps like this will definitely make it so much easier x
Thank you Zoe! Im a bit app’d out as there are so many these days but these apps are amazing!
Great post, with lots of very helpful tips! Thank you x
Thanks so much!
This is really helpful, I’ve never heard of these apps before but will definitely be checking them out for future travels
They are sooooo good! TripIt makes me look organised haha
Excellent. I use the Tripit app but I’m going to try out Waze.
I can’t believe TripIt isn’t more popular than it is!
These are such a good idea! Very glad to have found you via #TheListLinky 😊
Thanks Adele! I’m really loving #TheListLinky!
I havent heard of any of these and we are frequent travellers so definitely will be checking them out. #thelistlinky
No-one has! I find it mind-blowing as they are awesome!
These sound fab, I hadn’t heard of any of them! Especially those that actually research the area for you. Time saver!! Thank you! Kristie #TheListLinky