25 Great Online Tools for Travelers and Vacationers

Most well-traveled people know that being prepared and knowledgeable is paramount if you want to get the most out of trips and vacations. Travelling around the world or even to places in your own country that you have never been to, can be a rewarding and fun experience, but if can also be a nightmare if you are not fully prepared for the trip.

Don’t let uncertainty and a lack of information ruin your travels – inform yourself before you pack your bags and head out into the unknown.

Here are 25 excellent online tools that you can use to get the most out of your travels. They will not only help you plan and prepared for your trip, but also help you get around and have a worry-free time in your destination of choice once you have arrived.

Find the best deals

Travelling is an expensive hobby, but there are many sites out there that can help you find the best deals and book the best possible travel plans and accommodations within the limits of your planned travel budget.

1. Kayak

An all-encompassing site, that will not only help you find the cheapest airfares, but will also aid you in finding the perfect accommodations and much more. The search engine that this site offers is very easy to use and it will allow you to define your price range and personalize your search criteria in order to find exactly what you are looking for at the price you are willing and able to pay.

2. Travelocity

Probably the most popular and most commonly recommended site if you are looking to find great deals on flights. Even though it’s most popular for finding plan tickets, it can also help you with train tickets, rental cars and hotel rooms as well.

3. Farecast

This site enables you to find the best deals for flights and hotels with its ability to fairly accurately predict whether or not prices for the tickets or rooms you are interested in are expected to go up or down in the coming days.

If you are someone who is dedicated enough to keep an eye on the site regularly, it can really help. The future prices that the site gives you are never really a sure thing, but they often depict price trends very accurately.

4. InsideTrip

If you are looking for a site that is solely dedicated to airfare and flying, this is one of the best. Not only will it help you find the cheapest tickets, but it will also give you information on connections and a lot of other useful information you will need when flying.

The site also allows users to rate their flights, showing you which airlines people have had problems with and which ones they recommend the most in terms of customer service, punctuality and other key factors that go into picking the best flight.

5. Yahoo Travel

Powered by the Yahoo search engine, this is one of the best places to find great deals on flights and hotel rooms. The site’s search engine does a great job of searching all of the relevant online ticket retailers and gives you results quickly.

Get helpful reviews

Deciding where you want to go is probably the most difficult part of travelling. The world is vast and the options are almost endless. These are some of the best sites to go to if you want to find out about particular destinations and see whether or not they look right for you. They are even great for people who have to go somewhere on business, since they make it much easier to get to know the place you are visiting ahead of time.

6. Trip Advisor

TripAdvisor is great because people who have been to destinations give their honest reviews, and you can literally find millions of reviews here from almost every imaginable destination. You can even make your search really specific and instead of reading reviews of Germany you look for reviews on the best places to have a hamburger in Munich, for example.

7. World66

This is a service that allows users to create their own digital travel guides, which other people can later reference when they are looking for reviews and information regarding specific locations.

8. Virtual Tourist

A very informative site that is also fun to browse. Not only will you get reviews, but you will get tons of great pictures, maps and great tips for just about anywhere.

9. TravBuddy

Another great site that allows you to create your own account and then keep a personal blog of places you have been to in the past. Not only are you giving information about various destinations to other people, but you are also preserving memories for yourself online. One of the best places to find tips and check out pictures of destinations that were taken by real people and haven’t been edited or Photoshopped.

10. EpicTrip

Not only does this site have reviews, it also has great virtual tours of many destinations. This site is geared more towards students and younger, more adventurous travelers, but it can be helpful for just about anyone.

Network with other travelers

Saying you have no one to travel with is no longer an option thanks to so many great social networks for travelers. Here are some great sites that will get you in contact with people who have similar interests and love to travel and talk about where they have been.

11. Dopplr

This is a community for frequent travelers where you can share your experiences and ask for advice or information from others. It is a great site to use in order to allow people to help you make the best itinerary possible for your trip.

12. Ridester

If you are on a tight budget and need someone to share expenses with on your trip, this is a good place to start. If you are driving, just list when you are driving and what route you are taking in order to find people who might want to join you and help split the costs. Or you can search the many trips that are already posted to see if there are people heading your way.

13. Matador Travel

This is a travel site that is geared towards the rugged outdoorsmen mostly. If you are into activities like hiking, rafting or fishing, this is a great place to meet people who share your interests and love talking about these types of trips and giving recommendations. If you’re a raft guide, you can take advantage of sites like these in order to offer your services to adventure lovers.

14. TravelersforTravelers

An excellent site for trying to talk to and meet people who live in a place that you plan on visiting. It’s a great place to find your own personal tour guide if you happen to hit it off with someone online.

15. TravelSidekicks

If no one in your immediate circle of friends wants to accompany you on a trip that you are dying to go on, there is definitely someone out there who would be interested. This is a perfect place to find a travel buddy or companion either to split costs or to just have some good company.

Know your conversions

There are a lot of things that you are going to have to convert if you are travelling outside of the country. Of course, you will have to know conversion rates between the money you have and the local currency, but there are also many unit conversions that you are going to have to make as well. Here are some great sites that will help you with all of this conversion.

16. Unit Converter

This unit converter is pretty all-encompassing and will convert just about any measure, including weight, distance, and it will even help you with time zones when travelling.

17. Oanda

Easily one of the best sites if you are looking for the most accurate currency converters around, especially if you travel a lot and need to constantly convert your money into different local currencies.

18. EXRX Converter

A length and distance converter that is incredibly fast and easy to use.

19. Convert World

Another great site that lets you convert just about any unit you can think of – currency, mass, volume, and even wind speed! The best part is that it supports tons of different languages as well.

20. Converticious

A very simple site to use that can help you convert temperature, distance, weight, time and even data byte.

Find reliable maps

If you are out on your own and don’t plan on being led by a tour guide during the entire duration of your vacation, you are going to need some maps. Maps and https://www.globosurfer.com/best-hiking-gps/ services will not only help you find what you are looking for, but also prevent you from getting lost in a place you are completely unfamiliar with and losing a lot of precious time in the process.

21. GoogleMaps

This site is probably the most widely used one as far as mapping tools are concerned. You will be able to get easy-to-follow directions to anywhere and even see a street view so you know what the destination looks like when you get there.

22. AskCity

This is a great mapping tool because it allows you to draw on the maps and make your own notes, which a lot of people find important when they are travelling.

23. TeleNav

The perfect tool for helping you in not getting lost. It is a mobile GPS tool that will let you know where you are, as long as you have Internet service.

24. 3D Tracking

A good tool for people who are traveling in groups but like to split up and do their own things as well. This tool will allow you to follow all of your companions via GPS so that you know where they are at all times, even when they are on the other side of the city.

25. AccuTracking

Another great tracking site to know where someone is going and is located. If you have a family member visiting and they are not familiar with the area, this is a good thing to get for them so that you never lose track of where they are, and so you are able to make sure that they get back safely.

IMAGE CREDIT : Intrepid Travel

This article is written by David Lazar. He is a blogger at CometDocs. If you wish to write for us, kindly check this.