My goal is to get you on the road and traveling as quickly and efficiently as possible. Below you’ll find a giant list of everything you need to get started with your travel planning and have the best trip you can imagine.The list does contain affiliate links (meaning if you click them, I may get a small commission for your purchase at no additional cost to you). However, rest assured that I have only listed things that I use regularly and feel confident recommending.
Best Travel Gear
There are certain things that every traveler swears by and won’t travel without, especially if they’ve been traveling as long as we have. You learn what works best and what tools and accessories are worth it to pack along. Here are a few lists that include our favorite travel gear, plus reviews and comparison charts to help you choose your own favorite travel gear.
- Best Laptop for Travelers
- Best Carry-On Luggage Choices
- Best Luggage Sets
- Best Travel Pants
- Best Travel Purses
- Best Travel Backpacks
- Best Carry-On Sized Backpacks
- Best Budget Travel Cameras
- Best Walking Shoes for Travelers
- Best Packing Cubes
- Best Wrinkle-Free Men’s Travel Blazer
- The Best Wrinkle Free Travel Shirt for Men
- Gifts for Travelers
- Unique Travel Gifts
Travel Research Tools
These are great sites to use while researching your trip. Of course, there are hundreds of tools you could use, but I’ve come to rely on these the most heavily.
- Trip Advisor – Traveling soon? Find hotel deals & read millions of traveler reviews on TripAdvisor!
- Hopper.com – A flight research tool that helps you determine when is the best time to fly and buy, and helps you find the lowest fare.
- Pinterest.com – If you’re not sure where to go or what the top sites are in a particular destination, Pinterest is a powerful idea generator.
Booking Tools
It’s not always easy to save money on travel. Flights and hotels can be expensive! However, if you’re really savvy and know where to look, you can always find travel discounts and deals.
- Booking.com – Save with Booking.com, Planet Earth’s #1 Accommodation Site. No booking fees ever!
- HotelsCombined.com – The best hotel deals from all the top travel sites. Guaranteed.
- Discover Cars – Find the best deals on car rentals around the world.
- Expedia – Cheap airfare, hotels, car rentals, vacations and cruises at Expedia.com!
- Viator – Red Hot Discounts from Viator! Find and book tours and activities ahead and have more time for fun.
- Welcome Pickups – This is the fastest and best way to book a transfer from the airport to your hotel anywhere around the world.
Travel Apps
There are so many travel apps available that can help with all aspects of travel, but these are absolute musts for me. You can find all of these apps in the App store on iTunes or the Android Play Store.
- FlightAware – This app delivers up-to-date flight information in just about any format you want. You can view flights at any airport as a list or on a map, you can watch flights coming and going on the map, search for any flight by airline, airport, flight number or route.
- TripAdvisor – The app provides reviews for everything, just like the website, so I can find a good restaurant on the go, or even download city guides with tons of useful offline information about my destination.
- Google Translate – This app just got infinitely more useful because you can use it in offline mode. It translates up to 90 languages using voice, image, typing or handwriting. With this app, there’s really no such thing as a language barrier anymore.
- Kayak – My Trips by Kayak is a free travel planner that keeps track of all your reservations. If reservations are made outside of Kayak, you just have to email them to the system and they’ll be tracked as well.
Travel Insurance
I’ve never bothered with travel insurance for my trips before, because in all my travels I’ve never had a situation that warranted it, like lost luggage, needing to cancel my plans at the last minute or a serious medical issue. That is until I was traveling in Cuba and broke my ankle. It then became really clear that travel insurance is necessary. After all, we pay monthly for car insurance that we hope never to use. It’s always better to be covered, just in case.
- Ultimate Guide to Travel Insurance – It’s never easy to understand the terms and inclusions of travel insurance. This comprehensive guide will teach you everything you need to know about what is covered and how to go about finding the perfect plan for you.
- InsureMyTrip.com – Instead of going from site to site gathering quotes for travel insurance, use this website to compare dozens of travel quotes in one easy-to-use website.
Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links