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The best trip planner apps to make your travels easier

Booking a trip can be an exciting yet daunting task. As if booking airfare, hotel, and transportation weren't enough, you also need to consider food, sights, and attractions. As a travel lover myself, I often dread planning and preparing for a trip. Not only do I never have the time, but I often get oversaturated by the vast amount of information found online and the fear of getting scammed. 

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Over the years, I've found the best websites and apps to help smooth out the planning process. These apps help me keep track of all my reservations, send me booking reminders, and guarantee I always find the best prices -- because there is nothing worse than falling for tourist traps or overpriced offerings. 

Whether you are a spontaneous or a nitty-gritty planner traveler, ZDNET has tested and reviewed the best trip planner apps on the market. Our top pick for the best trip planner site and app is Booking.com due to its easy-to-use user interface, extensive booking capabilities, and pricing. However, since not every trip or traveler is the same, we've included several options to help you plan and stay organized during your travels. 

Keep reading to learn more about ZDNET's expert-tested and reviewed trip planner apps. 

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The best trip planner apps of 2023

Booking.com, best overall trip planner.

• Multiple bookings
• Great deals
• Can earn points from bookings and reservations
• Easy to use
• No group planning
• Can't organize bookings per trip

Booking.com features:   Platform: App and website |  Compatibility:  iOS and Android |  Pricing:  Free |  Booking:  Yes |  Group planning:  No

When planning my trips, I always make a stop at the Booking.com app, especially when reserving hotels. I find their user interface visually appealing and easy to use, and that it provides just the right amount of information I need when scrolling through hotel suggestions. Personally, I enjoy that I can add my top picks to my favorites with a quick tap of a heart, glance through reviews, look at cancellation policies, and even find out how far away hotels are from key spots. Through Booking.com, you can also book flights, car rentals, taxis, and city attractions, making it a great all-in-one place to plan and book upcoming weekend getaways or longer vacations. While I have personally never used the car rentals, taxis, or city attractions components of the app, I enjoy knowing that if I ever needed to, I can quickly hop on my phone and glance at the latest offerings. 

My favorite feature when using Booking.com to plan trips is the offers and promotions it displays for users. In the app, when you click your profile, you can see your "Genius" loyalty program status as well as discover the best deals around the world for your specific chosen dates. My only critique of Booking.com is that it does not enable group trip planning or let you organize your bookings per trip. This means if you are planning a trip with a friend, only one person can book and have access to reservations. 

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Best trip planner for organization

• Synced with e-mail inbox
• Organizes reservations no matter where you book
• Works offline
• Can't make any bookings
• Need to pay for advanced features
• UI could use an upgrade

TripIt features:   Platform:  App and website |  Compatibility: iOS and Android | Pricing: Free or $49 per year | Booking: No | Group planning: Yes

In terms of planning a trip, creating an itinerary, and keeping all your information in one place, TripIt is one of the best travel apps to keep yourself organized. When you first create an account, TripIt will sync with your inbox and automatically add all of your upcoming flights and reservations to your account. You can then modify each trip to include as little or as much information as you'd like. As someone who likes to be spontaneous when traveling, I usually only add the essentials: flight information, hotel reservations, and important documents. However, if you like to plan your trips down by the hour, you can also include activities, restaurant reservations, transportation, and more in your trip plan to share with fellow travelers.

As your trip approaches, TripIt will also send you packing reminders, give you COVID-19 travel guidance, and show transportation options. While you can get most of the essential features within the free version of the app (this is the one I use), you can also pay $49 a year to get advanced features such as check-in reminders, real-time flight alerts, point tracking, and even notifications for drops in airfare prices. 

Keep in mind that while TripIt gives you transportation options and finds places near your hotel, you cannot book or make any reservations directly from the app. The app is solely used to organize and keep track of all of your travel plans in one place, no matter where you book them. 

Best AI trip planner

• Personalized travel itinerary
• Hotel booking
• Can modify recommendations
• Group planning enabled
• Only available as a website
• No flight or restaurant booking

Guide features:   Platform: Website  Compatibility: all major browsers |  Pricing:  Free | Booking: Yes, but hotels only | Group Planning: Yes  Generative AI is everyone's favorite buzzword this year, and slowly but surely, it has been making its way across all industries -- including the travel industry. Guide is an innovative AI travel planning tool that creates personalized travel itineraries based on your preferences. (Full disclosure, it's also owned by ZDNET's sister company. It's currently in private beta, but you can join a wait list.) All you need to do is select your destination, the dates, whether you are traveling alone or in a group, your budget, and the types of activities you are looking for, and Guide will do the planning. 

After generating a trip itinerary for you based on your prompt, Guide then lets you modify and customize the itinerary to your liking. I recently used Guide to plan a six-day trip to Austin, Texas, and this was the feature I enjoyed the most, since I had specific restaurants and activities I wanted to incorporate into my trip, but I also needed some additional recommendations. While you can't book flights or restaurant reservations through Guide, you can book and find great hotel deals powered by Expedia on the platform. 

Guide will also give you an overall budget for your trip, a packing list, and a comprehensive list of things to know about your destination -- which may be helpful for some more than others. While my trip to Austin was a solo trip, Guide has a feature where you can invite other fellow travelers to collaborate in planning your trip through Guide's chatbot, GuideBot. This chatbot also works sort of like ChatGPT, where you can ask GuideBot questions about your trip, your destination, or recommendations. Keep in mind you can not ask GuideBot to directly modify your trip for you, and instead need to manually do it yourself -- believe me, I tried. 

Tripadvisor

Best trip planner app for reviews.

• Countless reviews
• Used by travelers worldwide
• Variety of information
• Booking capabilities
• Great for local spots
• Booking is not its strongest feature and you may not always find the best deals
• Doesn't vet reviews

Tripadvisor  features: Platform:  App and website |  Compatibility:  iOS and Android |  Pricing:  Free |  Booking:  Yes |  Group planning:  No

Reading customer reviews is one of the most important steps when planning a trip. While you shouldn't base all of your decisions on reviews, you should consider past customer experiences to get a feel for the brand and company you are about to trust, or the experience you are going to pay for.  When it comes to travel reviews, Tripadvisor is the best trip planner app to rely on. Since the platform has so many reviews for restaurants, activities, accommodations, and locations all over the world, it is always easy and convenient to log onto the app or website to help you make an educated decision. (However, remember that not all Tripadvisor reviews are legit, since the platform does not independently verify customer postings.) Beyond reviews, TripAdvisor also lets you book hotels, restaurants, things to do, and more while also providing detailed insights into their offerings -- including cancellation policies, ratings, and features. 

Tripadvisor's "Travelers' Choice" best-of list is also a popular part of its platform, allowing visitors to see top-rated destinations, hotels, restaurants, and things to do around the world. With Tripadvisor, you can plan a trip yourself from scratch, hire a trip designer, or get a custom itinerary built by AI. 

Best trip planner app for transportation

• Great multi-mode travel comparison
• convenient and seamless transportation booking
• Multiple currency and language availability
• Flight deals and suggestions are not the strongest
• Limited offers depending on the country or city of travel
• Not the most reliable customer service

Omio features:  Platform:  App and website |  Compatibility:  iOS and Android |  Pricing:  Free |  Booking:  Yes, transportation only |  Group planning:  No

I first discovered Omio when a friend recommended it to me while I was studying abroad in Spain, and ever since I downloaded it, it has become my go-to app for booking the best deals and fares on transportation within Europe. The concept behind Omio is simple: You plug in your departure and arrival location, including the number of people you are traveling with, and add whether you are looking for a one-way or round-trip journey. Omio will then show you the best deals by train, bus, or plane to and from your desired destination, including how much time each option will take you and the number of stops. 

The German-based travel booking site is great at aggregating travel information from multiple sites, allowing you to view all of your transportation options in one place. This is incredibly beneficial when planning trips within Europe since there are several ways you can cross each border and often various languages and regulations to keep in mind. Omio is set in English but has multiple additional languages available, as well as currency options. During my time abroad, I solely used Omio to book all of my transportation, including planning a 17-day trip across seven different European countries. Overall, using Omio was not only convenient and seamless but also helped me save hundreds of dollars by helping me maximize my travel time by switching between flights, trains, and buses. 

However, since returning from Europe, I have not used Omio as much as I thought I would -- maybe because I have a car and take most of my trips by plane. And Omio's flight deals and suggestions are not the strongest compared to Booking.com or Skyscanner's, which heavily focus on flight deals. I have also found they have some limitations depending on the country or city you are traveling in. Be mindful of the deals and tickets you buy through Omio since some tickets are non-refundable, and some customers complain their customer service is not the best -- although I have yet to have any issues with them. 

What is the best trip planner app?

Booking.com gets our vote for the best trip planner app due to its wide selection of accommodations, its points and promotions offerings, and its easy-to-use user interface. Not only does Booking.com help you find the best deals throughout your trip, but it will also help you stay organized throughout your trip by keeping all of your reservations in one place. To determine which trip planner app or combination of trip planners is best for you, check out this comparison chart below. 

Which is the right trip planner app for you?

The best trip planner app ultimately depends on your travel and planning style. If you like booking and planning everything in one place while also earning points and getting great deals, then Booking.com is your top app. However, if you are looking for a place to keep all of your accommodations, reservations, and activity details organized, then TripIt is a better app for you. Check out the following chart to help you find the best trip planner app or a combination of apps for you to plan your next adventure. 

How did we choose these trip planner apps?

To find the best trip planner apps, we drew upon real-life experiences and tested their performance and capabilities during our latest trips. Ultimately, we weighted the following factors when choosing which trip planners to include on our list: 

• Features: Each app can vary significantly with the features it offers, whether it is solely to book flights and hotels, help you plan your next trip using AI, or help you find the best deals and booking information, each app on this list can help you address several common inconveniences that present themselves while planning that next adventure.  
• Compatibility: An app is of little use if it does not work with your devices, so we look to see what compatibility each trip-planning app offers and which platforms you can access it from. Personally, I enjoy apps that combine an app and website component since this quickly helps me switch between my wide computer screen and my tiny yet portable iPhone screen. 
• Customer reviews: We study real customer reviews and ratings to evaluate customer satisfaction and service. This is incredibly important since most times when you travel, you visit an unknown city or country, and you should be mindful of past experiences others have had. 
• Cost : Most trip planner apps are free, but you may have to upgrade to receive special access to exclusive features or deals. If your app is already free, it means you only have to pay a small amount (often unnoticeable) when you book your accommodations. 

What is a trip planner app?

A trip planner app is an app that provides organizational features for your upcoming trip. It is often free and incorporates trip planning tools, whether you are traveling by ground, water or air.   

How does a trip planner app work?

A trip planner app can incorporate special features, like an itinerary, calendar, reservation and booking hub, and map assistance. Depending on the app you choose, there is even trip-sharing with friends and family to simplify the entire trip planning process.  

How much does a trip planner app cost?

Most trip planner apps are free, but some may offer in-app purchases to upgrade or enhance your experience. Within this list, only Tripit costs money, but only for their advanced features version, which costs $49 a year. However, you can get access to most if not all, trip-planning features, through their free version. 

Are there alternative trip planner apps worth considering?

As I mentioned earlier, trip planning heavily depends on your personal style of travel and preferences. However, whether you like to plan your trips down by the minute or prefer to just have the basics, there are several apps that can optimize your planning. Here are a few apps worth considering that almost made it onto our list: 

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• Español (España)

An easier trip, each time

Imagine checking one place for your travel details and getting a heads up as things happen throughout your trip. See why life without TripIt is a distant memory for millions of travelers.

You handle the booking, we'll take it from there

Unlike other travel apps, TripIt can organize your travel plans no matter where you book. Simply forward your confirmation emails to [email protected] and in a matter of seconds, TripIt will create a comprehensive itinerary for every trip.

“I’m on the road 100 days a year and TripIt is my go-to-app. It’s such a powerful tool in the hands of a traveler. There’s simply nothing like it on the planet.”

Helpful reminders and alerts so you don't miss a beat

Packed with features that give you a leg up on changes and help you make the most of all your trips, TripIt Pro is where the magic happens.

“I love knowing exactly when my flights are, when they are delayed, what gate to leave from, and all the other amazing TripIt Pro features.”

Know where to be and when

Need a reminder when it's time to leave for the airport? Not sure where to eat in the airport or near your hotel? TripIt has you covered.

“My favorite business travel app so far is TripIt. Carrying all of my itineraries, it saves me during my ‘Where am I, what do I do next?’ panic attacks.”

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The 8 Best Trip Planner Apps to Help You Travel Better

Looking for a trip planner app? From AI trip planners to group-trip planning apps, we’ll review the best ones to help make planning trips with friends a breeze.

Let's face it, life can get pretty crazy sometimes.

That's why we're all about taking that sweet escape and hitting the travel road—it's our much-needed break from the everyday chaos. But, you know how it goes, just when you're ready to unwind and start planning your trip, you're hit with a mountain of stuff to do.

Sorting out bookings, arranging schedules and then trying to align all these plans and paperwork with your travel buddies. It's enough to give anyone a headache!

For many of us, though, planning a holiday or organizing travel itineraries is the starting point of the fun. It's like the first wave of excitement that keeps us pumped and ready for the adventure ahead.

My go-to when it comes to making planning easier? A trusted trip planning app! Thank goodness they exist and are becoming more and more available.

A well-designed trip planner app is a true lifesaver in the travel planning journey.

What Are Trip Planner Apps?

Anytime you’re planning a trip, you’ll want to figure out things to do, places to see and activities to experience.

After all, if you’re visiting a new city for the first time, you won’t know everything the city has to offer.

Even if you’re returning to a city because you loved it so much from a previous vacation, maybe you want to try new restaurants and tourist attractions to spice things up.

Trip planner apps help you discover a city and build itineraries. These are especially helpful when planning trips with friends because maybe everyone wants different things.

Good trip-planning tools should enable you to collaborate with travel buddies when planning a trip and offer central repositories where everyone can stay on top of what’s happening.

In short, trip planning apps have become a hit because they make life so much simpler when you're trying to put together your travel plans.

You'll find tons of these apps out there, each with its own special twist that makes trip planning a breeze.

A top-notch trip planning app should be all about making the itinerary planning process a walk in the park. It should help you piece together the details without breaking a sweat, so instead of being buried in organizing, you're actually getting stoked for your journey!

What is the Best Trip Planner for All Travelers?

Every traveler is different, and so are the travel apps.

This is why I've rounded up the best trip planning apps, each catering to a different type of traveler. You no longer have to be stuck with the same old Google Sheet or notes app that isn't making your life easier, especially when planning for a group.

Though not all travel apps help with trip planning when it comes to building activity itineraries. Some of the best travel apps focus more on booking flights or accommodations; other online tools like packing apps are for backpackers to help them prep their gear.

Here, our main focus will be on trip planning apps specifically so you can find the best one for you to build, edit and share travel itineraries using the features they offer.

So presenting the 8 best trip planning apps you'll want to download and try out, each with its own specialties!

8 Best Trip Planning Apps for Stress-Free Travel

1. 🎯 the best social trip planner - pilot.

I admit that I'm a bit biased. But hey! The team wouldn't be building Pilot if we didn't think it was the best or if we were fully satisfied with the other options on the list.

Making travel plans, collaborating and seeing what experiences friends and family have taken or want to take.

Why You’ll Like It:

Pilot is a brand-new social trip planner that helps you discover and build travel itineraries connecting you to resources everywhere.

As a social trip planner, Pilot makes travel planning an immersive experience more than a mere task because you can do it with your favorite travel mate(s) or yourself!

Pilot makes it fun and easy to share and relive your favorite travel memories with many useful features.

Whether it’s brainstorming ideas, seeking inspiration, voting for places, or setting up a budget, Pilot has got you covered.

My personal favorite? The fact that you can set different icons for different type of itinerary items and you can use color-coding!

Its user-friendly interface is a delight for perfectionists who love categorizing events, activities, and attractions in different forms. It'll integrate all the travel ideas you have gathered from the web in one place.

Travelers can also use the app to import essential travel details like flight booking numbers. If you're looking for something more fun than a plain-old Google doc or spreadsheet to plan your trip, but that's just as flexible, you've come to the right place!

Why You Might Not Like It:

If planning trips yourself isn’t your thing, Pilot may not be ideal, but our team does offer assistance for free to work with you on making a personalized trip based on your interest.

Pilot's also in the early stages with tons of cool new features being added every week. While we're still building a lot, including a mobile app coming real soon, you'll already find it super useful!

Top Features:

• Plan trips together in real-time with your travel crew, friends or family!
• Chat with your travel crew & vote on travel itineraries!
• Import and store your travel information for offline access.
• Create notes, reminders, packing lists, and wishlists!
• FlightDeck , Pilot's blog, contains an extensive database of destination guides, things to do, and where to stay for free!
• Totally free!
• On the web and Android (iOS id coming soon!

Alternatives:

• MyLike and Pebblar

2. 🌎 Best Autosync Travel Planner - TripIt

A minimal & old school business travel planner to organize all the essential details for work trips.

TripIt is straightforward in what it does. It gathers and syncs all travel-related booking and confirmation emails related to flights, transportation and accommodation to form an itinerary. This way, you don’t have to spend time searching for them individually.

What's great about TripIt is the ability to automatically import and sync your booking and ticket reservations via email forwarding. This will input your booking or any ticket information onto your planner without you needing to do it manually.

For example, if you have your flight information, Airbnb reservations, and event tickets in your email, all you'll have to do is forward them to TripIt. They'll automatically sync them into a master itinerary for you to use.

If you find yourself setting multiple alarms for the airport, TripIt will automatically remind you when it’s time to leave based on your ticketing information.

TripIt Pro, the premium version, sends important alerts regarding flight status, delays, and gate numbers, improving your experience even more. The app also has a neighborhood safety score which can be really helpful for solo travelers, female backpackers, and anyone.

We think the app is best suited for busy professionals on business tours and last-minute travelers who don’t have the time to sort through their trip details.

If you believe that travel planning should be fun and as exciting as taking the trip, TripIt might not be for you. TripIt doesn’t scream “fun."

It's owned by the enterprise technology company SAP, which means the interface is very formal and stiff, so probably not what you're looking for if your trip is for leisure. But it might be great if you're looking for something more strict and business-like.

If you’re looking for features other than organizing booking details, such as interesting travel content, guides for inspiration, and the ability to add specific attractions, you’re outta luck.

It’s also not a collaborative trip planner. Itineraries can be shared, but it's hard to do much collaboration on them if you're taking a group trip. Best to use this one if you need to travel for work.

• Automatically imports travel details from your inboxes.
• The basic version is free, but…
• You'd probably need TripIt Pro, which costs $49 per year, to get the full value.
• iOS, Android, and web
• Trip Case and Trek Friend

Still unsure if you should use TripIt? Make sure to check out our in-depth review of TripIt if you'd like to learn more about its features + pros & cons!

3. 💡Best Travel Inspiration Tracker - HipHerd

Travelers who want to save their travel inspiration in one place and don't need or want planning functionality.

HipHerd makes sure you don’t lose track of exciting destinations, inspiring travel stories, adventure trips, and other information you come across when surfing the web at random.

Essentially, you can gather and save travel ideas at your own pace using this platform. This way, you'll have a ton of interesting attractions lined up when you start planning an itinerary.

You can also create boards for each destination you plan to visit, categorize relevant details, and share them with others for real-time collaboration. Once you have sorted your itinerary, it will be displayed on a map to picture your trip at a glance.

If you’re looking for a travel planner, HipHerd will not deliver. The travel itinerary extension can help you store inspiration and destinations, but you’ll need another travel planning app to help you with the actual planning.

HipHerd isn't for you if you’re looking for essential features like the ability to store important travel details like flight information and track your budget to give you an idea of expenses.

Top features:

• Curate mood boards for destinations.
• Downloadable Chrome Extension.

4. 🕺 Best Trip Planner for Local Experiences - ViaHero

Travelers hunting for authentic local experiences that don’t care for flexibility.

Some travelers prefer their travel experiences to be a slice of local life without being herded into tourist traps.

ViaHero connects travelers with locals in the destinations they wish to visit. This way, you can access insider information, get tips to navigate around, and find ways to avoid overpaying just because you are a tourist.

The local guide will curate a travel itinerary with your suggestions, taking care of transport, accommodation, and food arrangements. It saves you time planning trips, sorting through attractions, and organizing an itinerary. You get it all done for you, by a local expert!

You can’t use ViaHero to travel anywhere in the world. It have a limited list of destinations to choose from with connections to local guides.

ViaHero also lacks the flexibility a travel planner should have for travelers who want full control over their travel plans.

It’s also expensive and may not be ideal if you love planning trips yourself and only want suggestions and advice from locals on where to go and what to see!

• Connect with local travelers and have authentic experiences from local insider information.
• Guides to local and authentic travel.
• $40 per day for a custom-made itinerary, and more for groups.
• No free version or free trial.
• TravelSherpa

Check out our in-depth ViaHero review if you'd like to learn more about what its features are + pros & cons!

5. 🚗 Best Road Trip Planner - RoadTrippers

Anyone who only wants to plan a road trip.

As the name suggests, the RoadTripper app is specially built for road trip enthusiasts who want to have a heads-up about interesting attractions along the chosen route.

It also shows dining and lodging options that come in handy for people on long journeys. Every interesting stop is pinned on a map so that you can add what’s interesting to your itinerary.

There’s also the ability to search for specific attractions using filters. Once done, the itinerary can be edited, saved, and shared with others who partake in the trip. Talk about useful!

But should you try Roadtrippers Plus? The premium version of Roadtrippers allows you to extend your trip, adding up to 150 waypoints onto your journey. It's also ad-free!

For one, if you don’t plan on taking road trips often, the subscription will cost you a bit, $35.99 annually. While Roadtrippers have the basic version for free, it’s very limited in features.

The app is also not very user-friendly in terms of navigation, so you’ll most likely need to bring your laptop along with you on your trip and use data to access your travel itineraries.

Top Feature:

• Gives you info on lesser-known attractions
• Their paid version costs $35.99 per year
• Google My Maps

Check out our Roadtrippers app review if you'd like to learn more about the features that come with the app + pros & cons!

6. 🔨 Best Itinerary Builder/Planner - GEOVEA

Travelers who are super planners, serious about the time schedules, budgeting, and logistics of the trip down to the fine details.

GEOVEA aims to make itinerary building easy for travelers with its detailed user interface. Once a destination is selected, activities for each day of the trip can be selected and dragged into time slots.

It also allows you to keep track of transportation, accommodation, and other bookings made, including what’s yet to be done. Then, you can estimate costs for each activity and edit them later on. You can share your itineraries with friends and family as well.

If you’re looking for an app, this might not be the travel planner solution for you. GEOVEA’s main drawback is that it’s only a web-based platform, although travel content can be viewed using mobile.

Secondly, it’s not a platform for collaboration to plan trips in groups, although itineraries are sharable.

Third, it's not super flexible. So if you like to plan your trip your way, you might just be better off with some of the other options on this list.

• Intuitive itinerary builder with integrated services like Yelp.
• Easily track expenses, transportation, lodging, etc.
• Sharable to your travel friends and family!
• Standard package is free with a limited number of itineraries.
• Other subscriptions are available for $29.99 and upwards for a year.

7. 💬 Best Forum-Based Travel Planner - TripAdvisor

Travelers that want tips and recommendations from other travelers and book accommodations, flights, and things to do straight from the same platform.

TripAdvisor is one of the largest leaders when it comes to review-based travel bookings.

With their comprehensive public forums, you can find just about any information you’d need for any destination, transportation, attraction, or accommodation. You’ll also be able to book and create your trips straight from their app!

TripAdvisor makes it easy to navigate different activities, explore different options, and compare prices and ratings of different accommodations.

If you want any control over planning your trip, TripAdvisor is certainly not the app for you. The trip planner from TripAdvisor is not very user-friendly and fun to use.

For example, it’s almost impossible to import other bookings or information into your travel planner.

That being said, it's a great way to browse through all the different options out there. You'll likely find a lot of ideas that you hadn't thought of before!

Top feature:

• A platform to share and read public reviews and recommendations and book all without leaving the app.
• Late database of reviews and ratings.
• Trusted platform amongst millions of travelers
• TripAdvisor Plus ($99/year) - discounted rates on over 100,000 flight prices, hotel bookings, experiences, and car rentals.
• WebOS, iOS, and Android

8. 🗺️ Best Map-Based Trip Planner - Sygic Travel

Travelers who want more advanced map functionality when planning their travel itinerary, including the option to access their itineraries on a map even when offline (though this is a paid feature in Sygic Travel).

Formerly Tripomatic, Sygic Travel is a trip planning and itinerary maker that's available on the web and as an app. The best thing this trip planner has going for it is the great GPS capabilities.

It'll allow you to create itineraries for cities, input flight and hotel bookings, add in already programmed attractions as well as custom locations.

The Sygic trip planner has a bit of a clunky interface. It doesn't make it feel as fun as when I use other planners to organize my itineraries.

Other issues you may have with Sygic include that you're unable to make a multi-city trip, you need to pay for useful features like offline capabilities, and there are lots of places missing like restaurants.

Time to Get Planning Your Trip!

So, this is my list of the top trip planner apps.

Make sure you find one that helps you plan a trip with friends so you can have a fun, stress-free vacation.

If you're up to trying out an up-and-coming trip planner, join us on Pilot! We specialize in planning trips with friends so you and your crew can experience the ultimate fun together. Plus, it’s free!

Disclosure : Pilot is supported by our community. We may earn a small commission fee with affiliate links on our website. All reviews and recommendations are independent and do not reflect the official view of Pilot.

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16 Best Travel Planner Apps for planning a trip in 2023

Simplify your travel plans and with the best trip planning app for travelers..

Best Travel planner apps to plan a trip easily

Looking for the best travel planner app to plan a trip but don’t know where to start? With so many options out there, choosing the right trip planner app can be overwhelming. That’s why we’ve taken the guesswork out of it and have gathered up the very best available apps to make your vacation planning smoother than ever!

From budgeting and organizing your itinerary, to booking flights and finding locally recommended attractions, we’ve found the perfect trip planner app for any traveler.

What is a travel planner app and how do they work?

Trip planning apps or travel planner apps are great tools for travelers to use to make their trips easier, stress-free, and more organized. These handy applications allow users to create overall trip plans, detailed itineraries, and search for activities during the excursion. From finding the best flight prices, or hotel deals to discovering points of interest in a destination city or country, tripping planner apps provide a variety of services for travelers. You can also use these apps to plan a road.

Nowadays, most travel planner apps also have features that make trip plans automatically sync with your social networks and offer access to other travelers’ experiences with different locations around the world. They can even provide historical information about any place you may be visiting! Below we will go over some of the best trip planner apps.

What is the best travel planner app?

1. google trips – great for planning a trip from start to finish.

When planning a trip, Google Trips is one of the best trip-planning apps available. It can help you stay organized by giving you access to all your reservation and travel information in one place so it’s easy to find what you need.

You can plan your whole trip from start to finish with activities and guided tours personalized for you and choose from suggested itineraries curated by local experts. Since all of your details are in one spot, you don’t have to worry about lugging around printed documents or paper tickets – just open up the app when needed and go!

2. TripIt – helps you organize all your plans in one place

TripIt is one of the best trip planner apps available for those looking to make their travel plans a breeze. This app lets you organize all of your travel plans in one convenient place, including reservations, trip itinerary, and essential documents like passports or confirmation pages.

It will help you plan your entire trip. It even has features to help make your trips go more smoothly by giving you access to flight statuses, train timetables and more. You can easily check up on your travel details at any time or even share them with friends and family! With TripIt, organizing your trips has become simpler than ever before.

3. Trip advisor – find great hotels, restaurants, and things to do near you

Planning your next trip can be made much simpler with Trip advisor – the best travel planner app. It reveals the top rated hotels, restaurants and attractions near you, so that no matter what kind of travel adventure you seek, Trip advisor will help you find it all.

With this powerful, intuitive trip planning app, you know all the best spots to stay and dine anywhere in the world. Plus with things to do conveniently collected in one place, a whole world of exploration awaits. Whatever your plans are – business or leisure – let Trip advisor be your go-to travel companion!

3. Kayak – compare prices on flights and hotels easily

Planning a trip can often be incredibly stressful, but with apps like Kayak, the experience is much more straightforward. With Kayak’s user-friendly interface, it’s easy to compare flights and hotels so you can always get the best deal.

Whether you’re looking for somewhere within your budget or fancy splurging on something special, Kayak makes it effortless to plan out your trip.

It’s quickly become one of the best trip planner apps out there, allowing travelers of all kinds to swiftly find their perfect holiday destinations while getting great deals in the process.

4. Skyscanner – search hundreds of airlines for the best deals

Skyscanner is an ideal trip planner app for anyone looking for the best flight deals. This convenient app allows you to explore hundreds of airlines and find the perfect itinerary for your next adventure.

Whether you’re planning a simple weekend getaway or a lengthy global journey, Skyscanner can help make it easier than ever to organize your detailed itinerary, car rentals and search for flights that meet your budget and preferences.

All you have to do is enter your destination, dates, and other details, and in seconds you’ll be presented with countless options. So take advantage of this easy-to-use travel planner today, and make booking your next vacation as stress-free as possible.

5. Hopper – get notified when it’s the best time to book a flight

If you’re planning a trip and want to find the best possible deal on a flight, Hopper is the perfect travel planner app for you.

As one of the best trip planner apps available, its features are particularly useful when it comes to finding the right deals.

Hopper notifies users when it’s the best time to book a flight so that they can get their desired results from their trip planning.

With options to track price changes and suggest cheaper alternatives, this travel app will enable you to track expenses, to book smarter and save more money for your dream vacation.

6. Wanderlog Trip planner app – Trip Planning Made Easier

Wanderlog travel planner app is one the best available travel itinerary apps. This popular travel planner app offers travelers an easy and user-friendly way to organize their vacation plans.

With Wanderlog Trip, you can keep track of flights rental car, and accommodation, create itineraries for your trip plan for each day of your trip plans offline on your journey.

you can also track of travel expenses and make notes about activities or other important trip details – all in one convenient location. It also has a built-in currency converter to help you stay on top of costs while abroad.

Wander Log integrates with popular travel websites like Expedia and Kayak to make sure you get the best available prices on flights, hotels and more.

Planning a trip with friends? Make it easy with this helpful app! Invite your tripmates by sharing a link to the itinerary or simply add their email address. It’s like Google Docs but for travel planning, allowing everyone to collaborate in real-time.

Set permissions to let people edit or just view your plans, and stay organized by accessing flights, hotels and attractions all in one app.

Import flight and hotel confirmations directly into your itinerary by forwarding emails, or save time by simply connecting your Gmail account. With features like these, Wander Log Trip App can make any trip easier and more enjoyable than ever before.

5. Pack Point Travel app – Makes packing an easy task

With more and more people venturing around the world, many travelers have quickly realized this also entails a level of planning and organization before departing. One app, Pack point, can make pre-trip packing a breeze.

By utilizing a user’s destination and length of stay, Pack point formulates personalized packing suggestions that include all necessary items for the upcoming journey.

And on top of these suggestions, the app also grants access to weather forecasts at the vacation spot while furnishing an editable checklist so there is no chance of leaving something behind.

With Pack point taking care of details such as what type of attire works best in certain locations, travelers can focus more on the adventure aspect versus stressing about what should be brought along.

So what are you waiting for? Make use of one of the most popular travel planning apps and start packing!

6. The Freeform Travel planning app – Get Inspired to Travel

Whether it’s a dream vacation in the Caribbean or a spur-of-the moment camping trip in the woods, it can be tricky to find the perfect place to travel. With The Freeform app, you’ll never be stuck for ideas again.

This intuitive, easy-to-use travel planning app connects users with relevant travel experts and unique destinations around the world.

Let yourself be inspired by user ratings, vibrant photo galleries and engaging videos that cater specifically to your needs.

Plan a fantastic vacation without all the effort—and take advantage of exclusive discounts when you book through The Freeform!

7. Roadtrippers – Best Road trip planning app

Roadtrippers is an app created to change the way you plan your road trips. It is designed to be a comprehensive and user-friendly road that takes the hassle out of planning your next road trip.

Quickly find the best road trips across the country, and customize any trip with drag-and-drop tools. You can easily see all attractions located along any route, including historic sites, roadside oddities, eateries, lodging, local culture and more.

Each browsable layer is interactive, so you can easily view what attractions are located near each other or plot multiple stops for your excursions. With Roadtrippers you can start planning custom road trips today!

8. Road trip Planner App

Exploring the open road just got better with Road Trip App! It’s the perfect travel companion for anyone planning a road trip – whether you’re going on an a cross-country adventure or just want to get away for the weekend.

This app offers detailed features, user-friendly visuals and turn-by-turn navigation to help plan trips quickly and easily. You can plot destinations on maps to get an overview of your journey.

Create multiple stops along the way, find scenic spots, attractions and other points of interest, and share your route with friends and family—all in one place! Road Trip Planner is one of the best trip planning apps for road a trip

9. Roadie Road trip and RV

. Roadie is the best trip planner app out there to help make your road trip tri[ adventure. It makes route and group travel planning simpler, faster and more interactive than ever before.

With reliable online and offline maps both, the ability to save points of interests in an organized list, and a search function for tourist attractions such, hiking trails and national parks. This app ensures that all of your needs for the perfect road trip are taken care of. Start your engines and hit the open road with confidence knowing you have Roadie on board guiding you through your epic journey!

10. Hotel Tonight – Last Minute Hotel Deals

Planning for a trip can be stressful – there are so many different elements to juggle and keep track of! But with Hotel Tonight, the task just got a lot easier. This app is designed to make last minute hotel deals more accessible and convenient than ever before.

With its fast booking process and seamless integration into your travel itinerary, you can book quality accommodation up to seven days in advance as well as score exclusive discounts. So stop stressing about where you’re going to stay on your next getaway and let Hotel Tonight take care of it for you!

11. Polarsteps – Keep Track of Your Journeys

Polarsteps is a trip planning app that lets you easily stay organized and on-track while travelling around the world. Whether you’re on a road trip or visiting multiple countries, this app provides the perfect platform to document and keep track of your journey.

Allowing you to share your experiences with friends and family along the way. It allows you to create interactive maps, share photos, plan trips and even calculate the distance traveled. With Polar Steps, every step is just a little bit easier, making it one of the best travel planning apps available today.

12. Rome2 Rio – Best Trip planner app for Complex Trips

Rome 2 Rio is a trip planning that helps managing all the moving parts of an upcoming trip plan anywhere in the world. Tour any destination around the world or cities in the united states. Not only can Rome2Rio provide the best route options for whatever mode of transportation. – buses, trains, flights, driving – but they also give you an exact cost estimation.

By knowing your cost, there are no surprises at checkout time. In addition to calculating your route, Rome2Rio gives detailed information about each stage of your trip duration of your journey and even reviews from other users who have taken the same trip, so you know exactly what to expect. It is great to plan an international trips. When I visited London , Paris , Amsterdam ; it made it easy to plan my multi city European Trip. Start planning with confidence knowing that Rome2Rio has you covered and ready for your next adventure!

13. SYGIC Travel – Best Trip planner app to explore the World

SYGIC Travel is the perfect travel companion for wanderlust seekers, offering a comprehensive set of innovative features to help plan and make the most of every trip.

It takes the hassle out of organizing an itinerary, allowing travelers to easily discover destinations, find places to visit and explore exciting attractions while on the go.

From mapping routes and saving favorite spots, to providing up-to-date information about points of interest and personalized recommendations.

SYGIC Travel provides all the tools needed to plan an amazing journey around the world. Enjoy a stress-free traveling experience with SYGIC Travel as your guide.

14. Google maps

Google Maps is one of the best travel planner apps for any traveler. With a comprehensive maps and accurate navigation, it can help you find your way anywhere in the world. It also provides turn-by-turn directions so that you don’t get lost on the road or in a new city.

Through satellite imagery and street view, you can explore a destination before even visiting it. Most importantly, Google Maps can help you avoid traffic jams and other problems, allowing you to get to your destination faster.

Whether you’re planning your own trip, a road trip or just visiting somewhere nearby, Google Maps is an essential tool for finding your way around and staying safe when on the go.

15. Travel spend-Best budget planning app

Travel Spend is the ultimate trip-planning app. With budgeting tools and helpful visuals, it gives travelers peace of mind by helping them stay within their budgets. Users can set a budget before leaving home and log individual expenses.

It also includes the date, type of purchase, merchant, amount spent and currency used. For an accurate overview of their spending habits. Plus, Travel Spend App also includes instant notifications when certain thresholds are met.

If exceeded so travelers can make quick adjustments without going over-budget. This way it helps travelers stay withing budget.

It is no surprise Travels pend is one of the best travel planning apps for budgeting. Travel Spend is the perfect for any traveler who wants to manage their finances and trip budget on the go!

16. Via Hero- Best Travel planner apps for solo Travelers

If you’re looking for the best travel planning app to help you get the most out of your vacation, look no further than Via Hero. Via Hero connects you to expert local trip planners who will craft a personalized itinerary based on your preferences and needs.

As part of this service, they provide a guidebook with all the essential information and insider knowledge, making it easy to explore the most interesting places. For those who want more support while traveling.

They offer an additional service for only $10 per day where travelers can reach out to that local via text or phone and get helpful advice throughout their journey. This app is also great for solo travelers looking to connect with locals. Use this travel planning app for exploring new cities or just seeking a fun beach vacation. Via Hero works with any trip.

Planning a trip can be overwhelming, but thankfully there are plenty of great apps to help you. From Google Trips, a one-stop shop for all your planning needs, to TripIt, an app that helps keep everything organized.

Skyscanner searches hundreds of airlines for the best deals – there’s an app out there that fits everyone’s needs.

Find best Hotels and restaurants near you with Trip advisor or comparing prices on flights and hotels easily with Kayak.

Use Hopper is a deal finder that notifies you when it’s the best time to make flight bookings – these trip planner apps provide the tools needed to plan a successful trip! So which is your favorite?

Comment below and subscribe to our mailing list to stay up-to-date on more helpful tips and tricks. Happy traveling!

What is the best trip itinerary planner?

Top travel plans apps for for 2023. Hopper flights & hotel bookings. Tripit: Travel Planners. Sygic maps travel planners. Packaging. Skyscanners. Road trips: Travel planning tool. Location Finder website. b.

Is Wanderlog or TripIt better?

Trips to the pros can be incredibly costly. Travel Planner software offers many more free features than ever. So paying 49 for the tripit pro service is expensive. The free version isn’t too bad. Wandering provides a number of advantages free of charge, such as itinerary design and activities suggestions.

Is there an app that will plan a trip for you?

Unlike other travel apps, TripIt organizes travel plans for you regardless of what you booked. Send the confirmation emails to [email protected]. In minutes TripIt creates a detailed itinerary for each of the trips. I travel 100 times a year, and TripIt is my favorite application.

Which map tool is best for trip planning?

Google Maps – Best in easy to navigate directions. The biggest route plan application is Google Maps. Almost anyone can use this program to travel to another city, but they haven’t even discovered it has the ability to plan routes for several stops.

Is Wanderlog worth it?

Wander Log is a travel planner’s favorite application. From solo travelers to groups and from well planned to those that just want to have one place to find out and offer activities. Wander log also offers an excellent interface that can be easily adapted for all your travel needs!

How do I plan a trip with friends app?

Wanderlog is the app that helps travelers plan trips on the fly or by plane, organized access flights and hotel reservations and show them the places to explore. Share a travel guide with others for inspiration before you leave.

Grace Ashi is the founder and Editor of Metropolitan Girl.

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The 19 Best Travel Planning Apps for Every Type of Traveler

December 1, 2021 15 min read

Planning your next travel adventure can be both exciting and stressful. While searching for amazing destinations and attractions to visit is always fun, keeping track of all of the information relating to your trip isn’t the easiest task. 

If you’ve been using Google docs and sheets or simply storing travel inspiration, confirmations, bookings, and reservations in your email, there’s a better way: using a travel planning app! 

You can discover an array of travel itinerary apps on the market, such as Wanderlog , a free and easy-to-use travel itinerary planner. But deciding which is best for your needs can be challenging. To help, we’ve put together this list of the 19 best travel planner apps on the market. 

To create this guide, we started by searching for the top trip planners online and in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. We then tested these apps and looked at user reviews to create this ultimate list of the best travel planning apps. This extensive list includes a range of apps, from road trip planning apps to itinerary planning apps. No matter what type of traveler you are, we have you covered. 

If you’re looking for a way to simplify travel planning and organization, keep reading! 

Best Overall Travel Planner App: Wanderlog 

We truly believe that Wanderlog is the best overall travel itinerary planning app on the market. Wanderlog allows you to plan detailed day-by-day itineraries, import all of your trip information, and search activity suggestions. It’s also perfect for group travelers and those traveling via a range of transport methods, from flying to taking a road trip. 

You can use Wanderlog in-browser, or download the app for iOS and Android. Wanderlog is 100% free to use, and this free version offers access to almost all of the apps’ features. There is an upgrade option, Wanderlog Pro, that offers added benefits with a one-week free trial.

Wanderlog Features

Activity Suggestions and Access to Pre-Created Trips 

You can search third-party websites and add things to do to your itinerary from online guides, like Tripadvisor or Google Trips. Wanderlog also offers activity suggestions, and you can view trips created by other users for inspiration. 

Storage and Organization of Travel Information 

When using Wanderlog, you can manually add travel information or automatically import reservations, bookings, and other email confirmations by syncing with Gmail. This travel information includes flight info, bus or train reservations,  accommodation details, rental car confirmations, and more. You can also add expenses for places and items on your itinerary, and manage your total budget.

Itinerary Creation 

As you upload travel information and add activities you want to undertake on your trip, a day-by-day itinerary will be created. This itinerary is incredibly easy to edit, and you can add notes to each stop. 

If you don’t need a day-by-day itinerary and want more flexibility in your plans, you can simply create lists, for example, a list of things to do or restaurants to try. 

Access to Maps 

When you add stops to your itinerary or lists, they’ll be displayed on a map. The map feature makes it easy to see where all the attractions you wish to visit are located, allowing you to plan the most efficient itinerary. 

Road Trip Planning

Wanderlog now offers the ability to plan road trips! You can add start and end destinations, plus unlimited stops along the way, and your road trip route will be shown on interactive maps. 

It’s super easy to rearrange these plans, and you can even use our “Road Trip Optimizer” to generate the most efficient route. The total time and distance of your road trip journey will be displayed too.  

Group Collaboration 

Wanderlog makes collaborating with others in your travel group a breeze! You can easily collaborate with others traveling with you by simply adding their email to your trip. Alternatively, you can just share a link to the itinerary. Having done this, all members of your group can collaborate on the plans in real-time. 

Wanderlog Pro Added Features

• Offline access to itineraries and maps
• Exporting of maps to Google Maps
• Auto scanning of travel confirmations in Gmail
• Road trip route optimization  

Who Is Wanderlog For? 

Wanderlog is the best app to plan travel for every type of traveler. From solo travelers to groups, and from the highly organized traveler to those that simply need one place to store information and activity suggestions. Wanderlog also has a highly user-friendly interface, and best of all, it’s free to use! 

Who Is Wanderlog Not For? 

Wanderlog is great for all travelers! Whether you want to organize your travel details, search for an array of activities to enjoy on your trip, or collaborate with fellow travelers, the Wanderlog travel planning app won’t disappoint. 

Does Wanderlog sound like the travel itinerary planner for you? Download the app today ! 

Best Road Trip Planning App: Roadtrippers

If you’re looking for road trip planner apps, Roadtrippers is one of the best options out there! This app is created exclusively for those traveling via car. It not only maps out the best routes for you to follow but also offers suggestions of things to do along the way. 

Roadtrippers can be used online and via their iPhone and Android app. Roadtrippers offers a free Basic version and a paid-for version called RoadTrippers Plus, which costs $29.99 per year.  

Roadtrippers Features

Custom Route Maps

Roadtrippers calculate the best route for you. Simply enter your road trip start and end destination, plus stops along the way if applicable. You can choose the fastest route or ask Roadtrippers to suggest additional stops along the way. 

Activity and Attraction Suggestions 

As just mentioned, Roadtrippers offers suggestions on things to do along your road trip route. These suggestions include activities to try and attractions to visit, as well as dining and accommodation suggestions. 

Gas Cost Estimations 

Once you have a route mapped, Roadtrippers provides an estimation of the total gas cost. This feature is great for those operating on a budget. 

Navigation 

Roadtrippers also help guide you once you set out on the trip with in-app navigation. This feature allows you to stay within the app instead of switching to another navigation app, like Google Maps. 

Roadtrippers Plus Added Features 

• Offline maps
• Collaboration features, allowing multiple travelers to add to the road trip itinerary 
• Live traffic updates 
• Special promotions from Roadtrippers’ travel panthers, such as discounts on hotels 
• Dark mode 
• No in-app ads 

Who Is Roadtrippers For? 

As the name suggests, Roadtrippers is ideal for people planning road trips. The app is helpful for all types of road trip travelers, from those looking for a quick route from A to B to those wanting to visit an array of attractions along a multi-city route. 

Who Is RoadTrippers Not For? 

This app isn’t optimal for those planning different types of travel experiences. For example, if you’ll fly to one city and then want recommendations for tourist attractions, this isn’t the right app for you. You also miss out on features without a paid account, so if you want to benefit from all of a travel apps’ features for free, you may not be interested in RoadTrippers. 

Want to learn more about Roadtrippers? Read our in-depth Roadtrippers review ! 

Best Travel Planning App for Trip Information Organization: TripIt

TripIt is one of the relatively well-known itinerary planning apps that stores all your trip details, like transport and accommodation information, in one place. TripIt can be used via web browser or an app for iOS or Android. 

TripIt has both a free version of the app, with limited features, and a paid-for version called TripIt Pro. You can also purchase TripIt for Teams which is targeted at business travelers.

TripIt Pro: $49 per year with a 30-day free trial

TripIt Teams: Starts at $29 a month for one to ten users 

TripIt Features

TripIt allows you to upload your travel information to one place. Things you can upload include flight details, hotel bookings, and activity reservations. You can manually upload information or email it to TripIt. 

TripIt Pro Added Features 

• Transport fare trackers
• Check-in reminders
• Flight updates
• Seat upgrade information 
• Airport security wait time updates 
• Loyalty/rewards program points tracker 
• Baggage claim location notification 
• Interactive maps
• Ability to share plans with others 
• Features to add documents to your itinerary, such as photos or PDFs 

Who Is TripIt For? 

This is a great app for those that only want to store and organize all the information they already have relating to a trip in one place, and have access to this information on their phone. It’s also very easy to use. 

Those that also want notifications related to their trip all in one place will appreciate the features offered by TripIt Pro. 

Who Is TripIt Not For? 

TripIt is quite a basic itinerary planner. In addition, TripIt doesn’t offer suggestions on things to do in the city you’re visiting. These drawbacks mean that TripIt is best for those that only want to store all of their travel information in one place.

If you’re looking for an app that offers travel suggestions, such as activities to try or landmarks to visit, this isn’t the app for you. Travelers looking for a free travel itinerary app will probably not be interested in TripIt either (you should instead try Wanderlog that’s 100% free to use!) 

Unsure if TripIt is right for you? Read our detailed TripIt review to learn more about the app.

Best Travel Planning App for Documenting Your Trip: Polarsteps

Polarsteps allows you to document your entire trip, along with creating itineraries. This travel app can be used in-browser or via an app and is one of the best free travel planner apps, as you can access all features at no cost. You can pay for a printed travel book with pictures and notes relating to your trip. These books start at approximately $40 for a 24-page book.

Polarsteps Features

Trip Itinerary Creation 

You can create a trip itinerary and add as many stops as you like. These stops include different cities, countries, and landmarks/places of interest. A map showing each stop will also be generated. 

Addition of Images, Videos, and Notes 

For every stop added, you can also upload pictures, videos, and a description of the place. This feature is ideal for those looking to document their adventure and makes Polarsteps somewhat of a digital travel scrapbook. 

Access to Pre-Created Trips

You can follow other users (as you would on social media networks) and access their pre-created trips. This is the one discovery feature on the app to help you find additional places to visit. 

Sharing Features 

It’s easy to share trips with other people, like friends and family. You can add followers to your trip, which allows them to see everything you’re doing. Multiple people, however, can not edit and add to a trip from different accounts. 

Who Is Polarsteps For? 

Polarsteps is recommended for those that want to document their entire trip with images, notes, and the like. It’s also perfect for those taking long, multi-city trips, although can be used by those taking shorter trips too. 

Who Is Polarsteps Not For? 

This app isn’t recommended for those looking to create an itinerary that simply keeps all of their travel information in one place. If you don’t want to document your trip via images, notes, and videos, Polarsteps probably won’t be worth using. 

The app also isn’t great for those looking for activity suggestions, you can access the trips of others for ideas, but the Polarsteps will not offer streamlined activity suggestions itself. 

Read our detailed Polarsteps review to discover more about this app. 

Best Alternative to Print Travel Guides: Lonely Planet Guides

Lonely Planet is an extremely well-known travel guide brand. Recently, they launched an app, Lonely Planet Guides, that is quickly becoming one of the  best travel planner apps. Lonely Planet Guides offers attractions and landmark suggestions for over 1,000 cities. You can also access videos, curated collections, and phrasebooks. 

Lonely Planet Guides is accessible via an app for iOS and Android. There is a free version, but it’s very basic, so paying for a subscription is necessary in most cases. Lonely Planet Guides pricing is as follows: 

• One Month: $4.99
• Six Months: $21.99 (or $3.67 a month)
• One Year: $39.99 (or $3.33 a month) 

Lonely Planet Guides Features

Information on Places of Interest 

You have access to information on landmarks and attractions for the majority of cities on the app. This feature is great for discovery and allows you to find the best things to see and do in the city you’re visiting.

If you don’t have a paid subscription, you can only access info on four places of interest per month. 

Custom Maps and Bucket Lists 

If you discover places of interest that you want to visit, you can add them to a map and/or bucket list. Once in the city, you can open your map to easily see where all the attractions you want to visit are located. 

Without a paid plan, you can only add four locations to your map each month. 

Curated Collections

Access to pre-created collections of things to do is available. These are often categorized, for example, the best markets or restaurants to visit. 

Ability to Purchase Tours and Other Tickets 

If you discover an attraction you want to visit or a tour you want to try, you can purchase tickets via a third party directly in the app. 

Paid Subscription Added Features 

• Access to phrasebooks for 19 languages 
• 360-degree immersive experiences 

Who Is Lonely Planet Guides For? 

The Lonely Planet Guides app is ideal for those looking for a digital alternative to traditional print travel guidebooks. It’s also a good choice for those going on a multi-city trip as you have access to information for thousands of cities across the globe, all from your phone. 

Who Is Lonely Planet Guides Not For? 

Lonely Planet Guides isn’t recommended for travelers that are looking for free travel planner apps. It’s also not the best option for those looking to create complete itineraries that include transport and accommodation information as well as places they plan to visit. 

Get all the details on this travel planner app by reading our Lonely Planet Guides review . 

Best Travel Planning App for Those That Want to Explore Like a Local: ViaHero

ViaHero is a travel planning app with a difference. Instead of planning your itinerary yourself, locals to the area (called “Heroes”) will create an itinerary and personalized guidebook for you. Understandably, this comes at a cost. You’ll be charged $40 per day of itinerary planning, with the maximum paid for a guidebook usually being $125. 

Destinations covered include cities in North America, Central and South America, Asia, and Europe. 

ViaHero Features

Custom Guidebook Creation  

After highlighting the types of activities and attractions you’re interested in, your “Hero” will create an itinerary and guidebook. 

A Personalized Map

You’ll also get access to a custom map that features each location mentioned in your guidebook. 

Booking of Activities and Other Travel Arrangements 

If things on your itinerary need booking (and booking doesn’t require prepayment) your local “hero” will make these arrangements for you. 

Ability to Communicate with Your “Hero”  

You can get in touch with your local “hero” at any point before and during your trip. This feature allows you to request changes to your itinerary and ask questions if needed as you explore the city.  

Who Is ViaHero For? 

ViaHero is one of the best travel planner apps for those that have limited time to plan their own trip, plus a decent budget for someone else to do so for them. It’s also a great choice for those that like to explore off the beaten track and get recommendations from locals instead of visiting tourist hotspots. 

Who Is ViaHero Not For? 

Due to the cost, ViaHero isn’t a good option for those traveling on a budget. It also may not be a great choice for those that are visiting a city for the first time and want to see the most popular landmarks and attractions. 

Being a newer service, only “heroes” from a limited number of cities are available at this time. If you’re visiting an area without a local “hero,” you won’t be able to use the service. 

Best Travel Planning App for Those That Love Reviews: Tripadvisor 

Tripadvisor is another of the itinerary planning apps that’s well-known to the majority of travelers. Along with a browser version, Tripadvisor has a convenient app that can help with everything from booking accommodation to discovering places to visit. 

Tripadvisor is free to use and has information for almost every city across the globe. Tripadvisor will offer an overview of the city you search for, along with hotel, restaurant, and activity recommendations. Best of all, all suggestions include reviews from travelers who have visited. 

Tripadvisor Features 

Things to Do  

Tripadvisor suggests a range of places to visit and activities to try in the destination you’re visiting. Along with searching the “Things to Do” section, you can search for specific landmarks and attractions to get more information on them. Whichever way you search, you’ll also have access to reviews from travelers who have visited the landmark or attraction or tried the activity.  

Restaurants 

You can also access restaurant suggestions for the destinations you’re heading to. Again, reviews from those who have dined at each establishment are available. You can also select categories, such as types of cuisine, to narrow down your search. Many restaurants offer the option to reserve via Tripadvisor too. 

Hotels 

Looking for a place to stay? Tripadvisor has you covered! Simply input the dates you need accommodation for, number of guests, and other filters like budget, if applicable, to view hotel results. You can then go straight to the hotel website from Tripadvisor or view deals from hotel booking sites like Hotels.com. 

Itinerary Maps and Lists

When you find activities you want to try, landmarks you intend to visit, and restaurants you wish to dine at, you can add them to a map and list. By adding these things to a map, you can easily see where everything you want to do is located, and develop day-by-day plans. Unfortunately, you can’t create an actual day-to-day itinerary via Tripadvisor. 

Who Is Tripadvisor For? 

This app is great for learning more about attractions, landmarks, restaurants, and accommodation via reviews. If you like to hear opinions from real travelers before committing to plans, you’ll appreciate Tripadvisor. It also has amazing discovery features, making Tripadvisor ideal for travelers that are looking for suggestions on things to do in the locations they’re visiting. 

Who Is Tripadvisor Not For? 

Tripadvisor isn’t ideal for planning day-to-day itineraries. While you can create maps and lists of all the places you want to go, these can’t be separated into individual days. That can be frustrating for travelers, especially if going on a multi-day or week trip. 

Using Tripadvisor to access reviews and combining this research with a full travel itinerary planner, like Wanderlog , is recommended.  

Other Itinerary Planning Apps to Consider 

While we rank the above five as the best travel planner apps on the market, the following eight apps are worth checking out too!

GEOVEA allows you to plan trips, store details like flight and accommodation info, and search for activity suggestions. This travel planning software also has budgeting features. You can estimate the cost of the activities included in the itinerary to see the overall cost of your trip. 

While you can use the company’s website on your phone, there isn’t an app. The standard version of the software is free but comes with limitations. To have full access to the app, you must purchase a subscription which starts at $29.99/year.  

Hipherd is one of the best free travel planner apps for those looking for a place to store travel inspiration. It allows you to save a range of travel content that you find across the web, such as travel articles, videos, and other information on destinations you want to visit.  

As with Pinterest, you can create “boards” to organize content by destination or other categories. You can view the collections of other users too. You can also create maps that show all the attractions you want to visit. Best of all, Hipherd costs nothing to use. 

Inspirock is a free travel itinerary planning  software that creates day-to-day itineraries for you based on data you input. Once a list of suggested places to visit has been generated, you can edit the itinerary to remove and add activities. You can also access accommodation suggestions, car and flight deals, and booking links. 

Learn more about this travel planner by taking a look at our Inspirock review ! 

Jubel is one of the great itinerary planning apps for those that are looking to discover new destinations. You start by answering a questionnaire to highlight travel likes, dislikes, and other preferences. A customized itinerary for a surprise destination is then created for you. This service does come at a cost, with Jubel users needing a trip budget of at least $1,500 for a solo-traveler trip or $1,100/per traveler for multi-person trips. 

Pilot 

Pilot is one of the free travel planner apps that’s perfect for travelers wanting to create itineraries as a group. You can add travel information, like flight bookings, to your online account, along with adding the activities you’ll do each day to an itinerary. It’s also easy to collaborate on one trip itinerary as a group. As mentioned, Pilot is free to use, but there is not a mobile app, so you must use the software in-browser. 

Portico 

Portico is another recommended app for planning itineraries, organizing travel information, and searching for activity suggestions. Travel confirmation emails (transport bookings, accommodation reservations, etc.) can be added manually or simply email them to Portico to add to your account. You can also search for travel inspiration in-app and add places you want to visit to itineraries and lists. Portico is free and can be used in-browser or via an iOS app. 

Tripscout 

Tripscout is one of the best travel planner apps for trip inspiration and high-quality travel content. You can search an array of content in-app to learn about new destinations and attractions. If you discover things you’d like to do and places you’d like to go, you can add them to lists, itineraries, and maps to begin planning your next adventure! Tripscout is also always free to use. 

Tripsy 

Tripsy is another organization-focused itinerary planning app. This app stores travel information, such as flight confirmations and other transport info, restaurant reservations, and the like.  You can also get notifications, for example relating to your flight status, and can easily share your itinerary with friends and family. 

You can integrate your plans with third-party maps and calendars and can email confirmations as well as adding them manually. Tripsy has a free and paid-for Pro version that offers additional benefits, including unlimited itineraries. 

The Best Travel Apps for Flights and Hotels

Need transport or accommodation deals? These four travel planner apps are here to help! 

Snaptravel 

Snaptravel offers amazing deals on flights and hotels. Simply enter your travel dates and destination(s), and a selection of customized offers will be served to you. Customers benefit from rate and fare reductions of 30-50%, and Snaptravel is free to use. 

Discover more about saving on hotels and flights with this app by reading our Snaptravel review . 

Scott’s Cheap Flights 

Scott’s Cheap Flights provides users with incredible flight deals out of their local airport. You’ll receive deal emails each day with fare reductions of up 90% off applied. Scott’s Cheap Flights offers a free version and paid-for options, which allow you to receive business and first-class deals and add multiple departure airports. 

Read our Scott’s Cheap Flights review to learn more about this company! 

Dollar Flight Club 

Dollar Flight Club is another company offering steep discounts on flights. Enter your departure airport at sign-up and you’ll be emailed daily with great deals to an array of destinations. There is a free version, but this only offers access to 20% of deals. For the best results, upgrade to Premium ($69/year) or Premium Plus ($99/year.) Users can expect to save 60-90% on flights, however, you don’t have the option to get deals for specific destinations.  

Want to find out more? Read our Dollar Flight Club review . 

RometoRio 

Rome to Rio offers an array of transport options that work with your trip and are bookable through the app. This free app can show you flights, car rentals, buses, and trains that will allow you to get from point to point on your itinerary. While Rome2Rio isn’t a deal-based app, you can also benefit from cheaper transport rates when using the app. You can also find accommodation and activity suggestions via Rome2Rio, but cannot create itineraries.

Not sure which of these travel planner apps to choose? Give Wanderlog a try ! It costs nothing to do so, and we guarantee that you’ll love it.

The 8 Best Travel Budgeting Tools of 2023

You will never travel without this app again

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10 Best Travel TRIP PLANNER APPs To Have in 2024

In a fast-paced world where the stress of work and school is overwhelming, we all need a break to de-stress our minds. Traveling is one good way to take your mind off of stressful things – a breather. And a scheduled vacation gives you something to look forward to.

Whether it’s a local trip alone, a family holiday, or a getaway with your best friends, it just excites you to wish the day would come faster. 

10 Best Trip Planner Apps in 2024

The freeform app.

• TripIt: Travel Planner

Hopper – Flight & Hotel Deals

• Sygic Travel Maps Trip Planner

Roadtrippers: Trip Planner

Tripadvisor, travelspend: track travel expense & trip budget, tripcase – travel organizer app, travel planning apps for your next trip.

The Freeform app is an endless whiteboard that lets users add information from a variety of websites, photos, videos and files.

Because the boards are kept in iCloud, they can be accessed from any device anytime inspiration hits. While you and your travel companions plan your dream trip, the specifics can be shared with several individuals working together on the same whiteboard, making them an ongoing work in progress.

The Freeform app is free to iPhone users on iOS 16.2, iPad users on 16.2, and Mac users on Ventura MacOS Venture 13.1. 

Download the brand-new app here .

Read our full post: Apple Launches New Travel App Freeform – What to Know

Wanderlog Trip Planner App

Wanderlog is your all-in-one destination for planning future trips, sharing travel guides, and blogging past trips.

Its trip planning features are incredibly flexible: you can research destinations and activities, organize reservations by connecting your email, and map out a day itinerary with start/end times. You can also add notes and links all throughout.

Everything is stored offline so you can access your itinerary when traveling abroad. For road trips, it calculates the time and distance between places and exports them to Google Maps (and there are no limits to the number of stops you have on a trip!).

Plus, there’s a fun social component: collaborate with friends on itineraries, write your own travel guide, and blog about past trips. Wanderlog is available on the web and on your smartphone, so you can seamlessly plan while at home and on-the-go.

iOS  /  Android

TripIt: Trip Planner App

If you need any help organizing the dozens of itineraries, TripIt is the app for you. Users simply need to forward your flight, hotel, restaurant, and car rental confirmation emails to [email protected] and the app will create a free master doc for each of your trips. The best thing about this app is that you can get access to your itinerary anywhere, even without an internet connection. 

In addition, the Pro version will find you alternative routes for canceled flights and send out notifications for delayed flights, cancellations, and more from the airlines. 

iOS / Android

Rome2rio is a versatile travel planning app that simplifies the process of finding and booking travel options. It’s a handy tool for travelers seeking to explore various transportation choices between destinations. Rome2rio offers users a comprehensive view of travel options, including flights, trains, buses, ferries, and even driving directions.

Key features of Rome2rio include:

• Route Information: The app provides detailed information on different routes, including estimated travel times, costs, and the number of transfers required.
• Booking Integration: Users can book flights, train tickets, and other transportation options directly through the app, streamlining the booking process.
• Map Integration: Rome2rio integrates with maps, allowing users to visualize their travel routes and explore nearby attractions.
• Multi-Modal Travel: It offers options for combining various modes of transportation, making it easy to plan complex journeys.
• Accurate Pricing: The app provides real-time pricing information, helping users make informed decisions based on their budget.
• Offline Access: Rome2rio offers offline access to previously searched routes, which can be handy when traveling without a data connection.

Hopper is an amazing trip planner app to have on your phone. The app predicts airfares up to 1 year in advance, with 95% accuracy. It analyzes over billions of flight prices and hotels within the day – telling you whether to book your trip now or wait for just a little longer.

Here’s how it works: Key in your destination and a color-coded calendar will display the cheapest and most expensive date to fly. The app will then recommend you to either book the flight now or sit it out and wait for airfare to get cheaper. Also, you can filter predictions to custom-fit your trip – remove long layovers, extra fees, restrictions, and more. 

And if you worry about missing out the cheap flight bookings, don’t be! Hopper will send you a notification when fares have dropped to its lowest point.

SYGIC Travel Maps Trip Planner

Sygic Travel Maps , the new version of Sygic Trip Planner, is the first travel app to display all of the attractions and places a traveler needs to see and visit on a single map.

Sync your trips with the Sygic Travel app and find hidden gems in all cities you visit. The app boast a large database that allows you to find the best hotels, tourist attractions, museums, restaurants, bars, and stores wherever you go.

This mobile app also let you download offline maps and guides, which come in helpful when traveling to remote locations with poor or non-existing Wi-Fi.

It also has a dedicated section to worldwide places of interest for travel business. Get location information for individual cities, countries, continents, or the entire planet.

The app is available in 18 languages.

iOS / Android iOS

Planning on a cross-country road trip ? Roadtrippers is the app for you! Not everyone is fond of waiting long hours at the airport while sitting through your red-eye flight. Hit the road with your friends instead.

Roadtrippers provides everything you need to know on your road trip. Just enter your starting point, destination, and let the app do its work for you! From camping sites to rest stops, outdoor activities, exciting adventures along the way that you didn’t know existed. This app is the perfect buddy for your road trip regardless of your mode of transportation – a sedan, a rental car, or a huge family RV.

Most of us dream of going to places! But planning an amazing trip to places we have not been to is pretty hard as you don’t know where to stay, what to do, places to eat, and adventures to try. We mostly rely on recommendations, most of which are not even right, that we find online. 

TripAdvisor has over millions of travel recommendations on hotels, top dining spots, must-do experiences, and treasured gems to over 8 million destinations at your perusal. It is an all-in-one app that lets you book tables at restaurants and compares low prices on hotels and flights.

You can also follow friends and travel experts for advice that match your interests, watch videos, and read articles. In return, you can share your experiences, reviews, and helpful guides for other users too!

Setting up a budget for your trip is easy, however, sticking to it is hard. TravelSpend will help you with that. It starts with entering your budget and expenses over multiple days so you don’t go overboard. The app helps you in sticking to your budget effectively.

Being in another country is not a problem at all: enter your expenses in any currency and the app will automatically convert it to your home currency.

Track your travel expenses whether going on a solo around-the-world trip or backpacking holiday with your best friends. The app allows you to share your trip with your friends and track your expenses together. Pay debts, split bills, and check your balances – all in the app!

TripCase, a comprehensive travel organizer app, has emerged as a popular choice among travelers seeking a streamlined and efficient way to manage their journey details.

Here’s a breakdown of its key features and functionalities:

Centralized Itinerary Management : TripCase allows users to consolidate all their travel details, including flights, hotels, and car rentals, into a single, easily accessible itinerary.

Real-time Flight Alerts : The app keeps travelers informed with up-to-the-minute notifications on flight statuses, including delays, cancellations, and gate changes.

Itinerary Sharing : TripCase offers a sharing option that enables users to send their travel plans to friends, family, or colleagues.

Travel Directions and Maps : To aid navigation in unfamiliar locations, the app provides directions and maps.

Nearby Recommendations : TripCase offers recommendations for restaurants, attractions, and other services close to the traveler’s location.

Document Storage : For added convenience, the app allows users to store essential travel documents digitally, ensuring that important information like passport details, visas, and insurance policies are readily available.

Customizable Notifications : Users can customize their notification preferences, choosing what types of alerts they receive and how they are notified, tailoring the app to suit individual needs and preferences.

iOS / Android 

Hi, great List. I couldn’t travel without my Apps! I have one App you could check out =) Its called ” ATM Fee Saver” and it gives a list with all ATMs and their fees and limit. I found it super helpful and it really helped me to save some money. Best regards, Charlotte

Thank you for your suggestions! Those apps are very useful and various

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The 10 Best Road Trip Planner Apps for 2024

Save time, money, and energy with these apps so you can focus on the fun instead

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We love road trips! Planning them can be fun but, let's be honest, also stressful. The right road trip planner apps can take some of that stress away by helping you plan, organize, and manage travel before and during your trip. We've researched and tested these apps to help give you peace of mind so that you can spend more time enjoying your trip.

The Ultimate Map App for Planning Your Route: Roadtrippers

Access to free and convenient travel guides.

Share-ability so friends can join in on the planning process and suggest places to visit.

The app can use up the battery life of your device quickly. Take a car USB charger with you.

Built for travelers, Roadtrippers helps you create your route while allowing you to discover great places as you plan it out. Add a new place to your itinerary to work it into your trip.

The app features an easy-to-use interface. In addition to covering the U.S., it also covers Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Download For:

Automate Your Trip Planning and Organization: Google Travel

Automatic trip organization via Gmail integration. 

Offline access so you can see your trip information even when you don't have an internet connection.

Limitations with customizing some day trips exactly the way you want.

You can count on Google to make your trip planning a breeze. Pre-constructed day plans are available for hundreds of the world's most popular destinations, which you can customize to your liking.

It's one of the most versatile travel planner apps out there, giving you one convenient place to see your hotel, rental car, and restaurant bookings.

Find and Book a Last-Minute Place to Stay: Hotels.com

A fast, easy-to-use booking feature.

For every 10 nights you book through Hotels.com, you get one night free, provided it's the average daily rate of those 10 nights.

No option to easily cancel if you change your mind.

Whether your road trip itinerary changed, or you haven't decided on a place to stay yet, Hotels.com can help you find a place and book it when you're on the go, even when it's super last-minute. You can sort and filter hotels, see the amenities they have to offer, compare prices, and catch a glimpse of how many rooms are available.

This is the app you'll want to have handy if you want to see in-depth hotel details at a glance and need to find a place to crash ASAP without breaking the bank.

Find Local Restaurants, Read Reviews, and Make Reservations: OpenTable

Lots of great filter options and suggestions.

Access to gorgeous, high-quality images of menu items and informative reviews from other users.

Reported problems and inconveniences with their built-in reward system.

Searching for specific restaurants is more difficult than simply looking at what's around in the area.

Deciding on a place to eat in a new area is quick and hassle-free with OpenTable. See what's nearby, filter restaurants by cuisine, see photos of what's on the menu, make reservations, and get personalized recommendations based on your preferences.

OpenTable is known to be one of the top  location-based food apps  available, so you know you can trust its information when you're dying for something to eat.

Navigate Like a Local: Waze

Hands-free navigation with voice commands.

Alerts-only mode for road hazards and police.

Share up-to-date ETA with friends.

Spotify and Apple Music widgets get in the way.

Cluttered maps can be confusing.

Higher battery usage than Google Maps.

Waze  is a community-driven travel app that shows you the shortest possible route to your destination. Like Google Maps, Waze makes real-time adjustments for traffic jams and other obstacles—but Waze is often more accurate since it caters specifically to drivers.

The app syncs with your Google Calendar and can tell you when you should leave for appointments based on traffic. There's also a cool option to record your own voice and use it for directions .

Know Exactly When and Where to Make a Pit Stop: iExit Interstate Exit Guide

Access to detailed summaries of what's at the next exit (including gas prices at nearby gas stations).

Search for the next 100 exits from your location.

The app can only be used on major U.S. exit-based highways.

No offline access, so you'll use your data plan while you're on the road.

Making a pit stop for food, gas, or a bathroom break is easy when you have the iExit app. Using your device's GPS, the app offers helpful suggestions for when and where to stop based on your location along the highway.

Whether you're looking for well-known franchises like Starbucks and Walmart to convenient amenities like free Wi-Fi and truck or trailer parking, this app has you covered.

Find the Cheapest Fuel Nearby: GasBuddy

An in-app gas payment feature.

Opportunity to save 10 cents per gallon on your first fill-up and five cents per gallon on every fill-up after.

The app can take up a lot of data and battery life as it runs in the background.

GasBuddy is an app specifically designed to find nearby gas stations and save money on gas. Use it to find the cheapest gas in your area and filter gas stations by amenities like car washes, restaurants, and bathrooms.

It's the app you want to have if you're serious about finding the cheapest gas around. Information comes from users like you, so you have the most up-to-date prices.

Download For :

Never Forget an Item: PackPoint Premium Packing List

Access to a built-in library of items to pack with the ability to add or remove items as needed. 

An elegant, intuitive app interface.

Can't input multiple destinations for a single trip.

Not a free app.

PackPoint helps you make sure you have everything you need based on where you're going and what you're doing. In addition, the app takes into consideration the length of your trip and the expected weather conditions. Perhaps best of all, this app turns a mundane chore into something that's actually quite fun.

Find Out Where to Park and How Much It Will Cost: Inrix ParkMe

ParkMe is the only app that also includes street parking and parking meter rates where available, in addition to parking lots.

Real-time updates on available parking spots.

Rates and hours may be inaccurate in some areas.

ParkMe claims to be the world's largest and most accurate parking database. It allows you to purchase your parking spot through the app and compare prices across parking providers to help you save more money.

If you're road tripping around major cities in the U.S., Canada, or Europe, this app can be a huge help. You can even compare parking options and prices so that you always get the best deal.

Automate Your Itinerary: TripIt

Automatically creates itineraries from your inbox.

Widget displays trip details on your home screen.

Annoying amount of alerts by default.

If you're planning a trip, you'll likely have a lot of confirmation emails for hotels, appointments, restaurants, and attractions. TripIt syncs with your inbox and uses that information to compile an itinerary so that you don't have to scramble for it.

The free version is fine for road trips, but if you ever fly, the premium version gives you the option to upgrade seats and track reward miles.

In addition to your phone, laptop, and tablet, other travel tech essentials include chargers, headphones, travel adapters, cameras, luggage trackers, and off-grid communications

Yes. You can use Google Maps as a trip planner through the “Places” and “My Maps” features. Both the Google Maps website and app let you save locations to lists and get directions.

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30 essential travel apps every traveler needs before their next trip

When it comes to planning and taking a vacation, travelers rely on their phones now more than ever.

Travel apps are a source of inspiration and are extremely useful for booking and managing logistics — even making restaurant reservations or finding a great fitness class wherever in the world you're flying next.

From apps that help with everything from day-of hotel bookings and last-minute flight changes to those that serve as guidebooks and foreign-language dictionaries, travel is infinitely easier thanks to technology.

Apps can help you navigate a new city, make currency conversions, pack a perfect suitcase and even provide on-the-ground local expertise. Whatever you need when you hit the road, there's an app for that.

We've rounded up the most-loved apps here at TPG. Some may be obvious, and others more obscure, but either way, get ready to download.

Best apps for researching and booking trips

In addition to the apps for the airlines you fly most frequently and your favorite hotel brands, these apps can help you save money on flights and accommodations.

Hopper has changed in recent years from just offering a price prediction tool for flights to being a true online travel agency. The app helps travelers find the cheapest flights, hotels and rental cars.

Of course, Hopper also still offers its signature price prediction technology to help you plan out when to book, as well as travel protection options and a price freeze to help you lock in the lowest possible price on hotels and flights.

Kiwi is used mainly to book flights, but it also helps you book hotels (using its partnership with Booking.com) and car rentals (using its partnership with RentalCars.com).

Some of the app's most interesting features include the "Deals" section, which pulls in discounted flights, and the "Travel hacks" section, which includes options for hidden city ticketing, throwaway ticketing (making one-way flights more affordable) and free price alerts.

Hotel Tonight

A dream for last-minute travelers, Hotel Tonight ( now owned by Airbnb ) lets you book stays for the same evening up to a few months in advance in thousands of cities worldwide. Available hotel rooms are categorized into sections like basic, luxe, hip, charming and solid, so you can select what works for your vibe. Take advantage of the daily drop feature, where you swipe to find a personalized deal with a special price only valid for 15 minutes after unlocked.

At TPG, we love a good loyalty program, and HT Perks, the app's nine-level reward program, is extensive. Not unlike a video game, you "level up" by reaching specific spending thresholds on the app, and you'll gain access to perks like discounts, VIP customer support and credits. Also, your levels never expire, so you can only continue to move up.

To book home rentals instead of hotels, use the Airbnb app. After entering your destination and dates, you can filter results based on the home type, price, requisite amenities and more. If you find something you like, you can book directly through the app.

The app is ideal for managing your trips while on the road — you can access all your bookings under the "Trips" tab, where you can view your reservation (and the address or directions), contact the host or change your reservation. Once you have a booking, you can also explore and book local experiences in your destination, such as wine tastings, kayak tours, hikes, shows and concerts.

We can't talk about travel apps without mentioning the TPG App. Use it to track your credit card, airline and hotel points balances; earn points and miles efficiently through using the right credit card ; and research how many points or miles you'll need to book your dream getaway. You can even curate your own news feed so you see the news and advice that matters most to you first.

The TPG App is available for download on iOS . Android users can join the waitlist here .

Related: The TPG App has arrived — here's why you should download it now

Best apps for organizing a trip

From keeping all your documents in order to perfectly packing your suitcase without forgetting a thing, these are the best apps for organizing travel plans.

TripIt declutters your itineraries and documents by keeping them organized in one place. You can set your reservations to automatically send to TripIt, which lets you view travel confirmations, flight itineraries, tickets, hotel and Airbnb booking information, rental car reservations, ferry tickets and driving directions without ever leaving the app.

TripIt also makes it simple to share your trip plans with whoever picks you up from the airport or train station or anyone else who may need to coordinate with you. TripIt Pro subscriptions cost $49 per year and include extras like real-time flight alerts, security wait times, baggage claim information and updates on your loyalty reward programs.

Roadtrippers

Perfect for organizing that epic road trip you've always wanted to take, Roadtrippers plans out your driving route and lets you book hotels and activities along the way. The app is especially useful for finding interesting and off-the-beaten-path roadside attractions, cool restaurants and can't-miss landmarks you can bookmark.

A Roadtrippers Premium membership includes offline maps, live traffic information, overnight RV parking and more for $59.99 per year. For those looking to only venture on a few road trips per year, the app also offers a Pro ($49.99 per year) and Basic ($35.99 per year) membership.

PackPoint takes all the stress out of packing . The app shows you what to bring based on the length of your trip, the weather in your destination and any activities you're planning along the way. If you have access to laundry facilities at your destination, PackPoint even allows you to account for washing your clothes and wearing them multiple times.

Just download and install the app, type in the city you're visiting and plug in your travel details. So, stop waiting until the day before your trip — or the hours before you have to leave for the airport — and start packing now.

Best apps for navigating the airport and flights

Track flights, navigate airports and find airport lounges with these apps.

LoungeBuddy

LoungeBuddy offers access to premium airport lounges around the world, regardless of the airline or class you're flying. When you create a trip in the app and type in the credit cards you currently hold, it will tell you which lounges you have access to based on the airports you'll be transiting through and how to purchase access if you don't already have it.

You can purchase access on the day you're traveling or up to two months in advance if you're the plan-ahead type. If you prefer to search by lounge or lounge program, the app will tell you exactly what is needed to use them.

Priority Pass

Priority Pass offers access to more than 1,300 lounges worldwide and provides meal vouchers at select airport restaurants across the world for an annual fee starting at $99.

Several cards, including The Platinum Card® from American Express , the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve , offer Priority Pass memberships for all cardholders (enrollment required). Otherwise, you'll have to pay an annual fee to be a member and, depending on your membership tier, a fee to enter each lounge on top of the annual fee.

To use the Priority Pass app, enter the name or code of the airport you're in, and Priority Pass will pull up the lounges or restaurants that you have access to, including photos, hours, amenities and specific location information. For more information on the Priority Pass Program and how to gain lounge access, click here . Enrollment is required for select benefits.

Related: The best credit cards for Priority Pass lounge access

FlightAware

The FlightAware app allows you to track flights online, see a live map of a flight and check on delays, cancellations and gate changes. This app is especially helpful if you have a tight connection or want to track your flight.

It's also useful when picking up friends and family at the airport, as you can track their flight and see updated landing times or delays. AvGeeks will enjoy digging into flight statistics, flight maps and community aviation discussions on the app.

Best apps to use during your flight

Timeshifter.

What better way to cure jet lag than with an app? Timeshifter actually helps you avoid jet lag long before your flight takes off and also offers inflight and post-flight suggestions. The app relies on neuroscience research about sleep and circadian rhythms to provide personalized recommendations, taking into consideration your age, gender and normal sleep patterns — as well as specifics about your trip and travel plans. Timeshifter maps out when you should avoid or seek light, take a nap or try to stay awake. It even tells you if you should consider supplementing with melatonin or caffeine.

Your first jet lag plan is free, then $9.99 per plan, or you can enjoy unlimited plans for a year for $24.99.

Flying can cause anxiety — or provide a welcome relief from constant contact with our digital devices. Either way, use travel as an opportunity to relax, meditate or listen to soothing sounds that will lull you to sleep or a deep, relaxed state. Or, perhaps, you'll simply find it helps pass the time during a long flight.

Calm offers meditations on topics such as self-awareness, calming anxiety, breathing, lowering stress levels and happiness, among others. The app also has music options for focusing, relaxing and sleeping, as well as stories for adults and content for kids.

A limited selection of meditations and music is available for free (which you can download to use when you're offline or in flight). The premium version of the app costs $14.99 per month or $69.99 annually.

OK, so Netflix isn't really a travel app, but it can be a lifesaver during a long flight on an aircraft without seatback inflight entertainment or at the airport during an unexpected flight delay or boring layover. If you have a Netflix account, the app allows you to download your favorite shows onto your device to watch offline.

Just make sure to download your shows while connected to Wi-Fi before flying and check them again preflight to make sure they haven't expired (you can usually renew any expired downloads, but you must be connected to Wi-Fi or data to do so). Monthly prices vary depending on the plan.

Another app that's not really a travel app, Spotify can still be incredibly useful during tedious travel moments — just pop in those noise-canceling headphones and listen to your favorite music, meditations, podcasts and more.

The app's Premium plans (prices vary) allow you to download all your content offline on your phone, so you'll have it during long flights or when you don't have data or Wi-Fi access. Whether you want to take a morning jog in Bali to your favorite tunes or pass the time with a podcast on the metro in Barcelona, Spotify has it all.

Best apps to use in your destination

From exchanging money and sightseeing to communicating and knowing all the local tips and tricks, you don't want to land in a foreign city for the first time without these key apps.

XE Currency Converter

The XE Currency Converter app quickly provides live, up-to-the-minute currency rates, then allows you to store and view them even when you're offline. You'll never need to wonder if you're really getting a good deal in another country if you have this app.

Google Translate

Google Translate is a translation app that allows you to do it all — translate into more than 100 languages by typing, access 59 languages offline, translate via photo, translate bilingual conversations and even use the handwriting tool to translate.

The app is simple to use, too, with icons at the top you can click on to draw, take a photo, speak or type.

Not quite sure how much to tip when traveling internationally? GlobeTips will advise you on how to tip appropriately in more than 200 countries. It also offers a tip calculator for easy math. Globe also has apps for currency conversion, unit conversion and more that may be useful for travelers.

Related: The ultimate guide to tipping while traveling

For travelers globe-trotting with friends and family members or simply splitting the cost between groups, Tricount calculates shared costs and splits bills so you don't have to think twice about who owes what. Just enter your trip and currency and invite your travel mates to join your trip.

Each time someone pays for something, you enter the amount in Tricount, and the app splits everything up. You can also snap and store photos of receipts in the app. At the end of your trip, it will show the balances of who owes who what, making it easy to settle up.

Metric Conversions

Never be baffled by Celsius temperatures or suitcase weight in kilograms again with the Metric Conversions app . Whether you're measuring flour to cook at your Airbnb, figuring out distances for your Europe road trip or deciding whether to take a sweatshirt with you during your walking tour of the Great Wall of China, this app has you covered with easy conversions in volume, weight, temperature, area and more.

Google Maps

Google Maps is essential when visiting a new city (or even for getting around your hometown). You can map locations, get directions (walking, driving, public transportation, ride-hailing services and beyond) and see how crowded your subway will be in select cities .

You can make restaurant reservations, save your favorite spots and read and write reviews of attractions, eateries, shops and more. Make sure to download specific city or area maps ahead of time for offline access if you know you'll be without internet at your destination. For obvious reasons, the app works best when your GPS is turned on.

WhatsApp is a handy messaging service for travelers abroad as it uses an internet connection to avoid SMS fees.

It works like most other messaging apps: You start by creating an account, then add your friends and family members to contact and voila! You're able to call, video chat and send messages, images, voice memos, gifs and files just as you would in, say, iMessage (but with Android users too). You can also download WhatsApp on your Windows or Mac computer.

Best apps for planning activities

Traveling is about more than just getting from point A to point B. If you're looking for activities to add to your itinerary, check out these apps.

Meetup is an app designed for interacting with locals and other travelers who have mutual interests or shared hobbies. Whether you're traveling or at home, take what you love and do more of it with Meetup.

The app shows you groups that are formed around particular interests in your city, including yoga, photography, cooking, wine tasting, hiking, cinema and other activities. You can join groups to get updates on particular events you may want to participate in. The app can even help with networking, as there are many groups dedicated to business and technology. You might even be able to join a coworking group. Travelers with kids can participate in family-friendly meetups, and it's a great way for solo travelers to make friends and connect with others.

TheFork is one of the most useful resources for making restaurant reservations in Europe. Similar to OpenTable or Resy, the app lets you browse different restaurants by category and make reservations. TheFork features more than 60,000 restaurants in cities like London, Madrid and Geneva, as well as spots outside of Europe like Sydney, Australia.

The biggest perk is that many restaurant reservations come with discounts — in some cases, you can get up to 50% off your meal just by reserving a table through TheFork. Since we here at TPG are always down for earning rewards, make sure to monitor your YUMS — TheFork's reward system. You'll earn YUMS with each reservation, and when you hit 1,000, you receive a discount on your bill. Foodie travelers should also consider downloading these apps , too.

Happy Cow helps vegan and vegetarian eaters locate more than 180,000 restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, farmers markets and grocery stores in over 180 countries around the world. The app allows you to filter by not only vegan and vegetarian but also gluten-free and cuisine types. You can also read reviews and get recipes on the app as well.

The app does cost $3.99, but it's a one-time expense.

TripAdvisor

Besides reading reviews of restaurants, hotels and attractions, you can book almost anything on TripAdvisor, from vacation rentals and restaurant reservations to tours and tickets.

The app has grown to include almost all things travel, allowing you to search by destination or interest (like the outdoors, food and drink, family or by the water, for example), which can give you inspiration for a trip or help you get your activities, meals and accommodations organized before traveling or on the fly.

With over 400,000 curated trails, AllTrails can help you find the hike or walk perfect for you and your group. It's not just mountain trails — AllTrails offers city walks, too, like easy meanders through the Marais district in Paris or peaceful strolls through Bangkok's Lumpini Park in Thailand.

See photos, updated weather predictions and key information about each route and connect with other travelers through reviews and forums. Access to AllTrails+ is $35.99 per year, which offers perks like offline maps and wrong turn alerts.

Best apps for staying safe

Use these apps to stay safe when traveling.

Smart Traveler

Smart Traveler is a free service that offers tips and information specifically for U.S. travelers. You can see what visas and vaccines you'll need before traveling and where to find help if you need it during your trip.

Register your trip on the app, which gives your information to local embassies and consulates in your destination. If there's any kind of disaster or tragedy, the local embassy can contact you to see if you need help.

TripWhistle

Another app dedicated to keeping you safe, TripWhistle maps your location and allows you to easily text or send your GPS coordinates or location. It also provides emergency numbers for firefighters, medical personnel and police in nearly 200 countries. After all, 911 is only for U.S.-based emergencies: Each country has its own specific emergency number.

Yes, Uber (or any local ride-hailing service app) is convenient, but it may also keep you safe. Using this app when traveling means you'll never get stuck wandering around in an unfamiliar area late at night or have to deal with unscrupulous taxi drivers trying to scam you. Uber also has in-app safety features such as an emergency assistance button which will allow you to call local emergency services right in the app.

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The best trip-planning apps for Android and iOS

The best trip-planning apps can make the difference between an OK trip and a great one. As people start ramping up their travel plans again, the right app can help to design trips that are affordable, comfortable, and safe. Trip-planning apps for iOS and Android can help us store travel documents; remind us of gate, confirmation, or seat numbers; and allow us to plan ahead by showing reviews of restaurants, museums, and landmarks. If your trip plans are too ambitious to remember by heart, try on one of these trip planners for size.

• TripIt: Travel Planne‪r
• PackPoint Travel Packing Lis‪t

TripAdvisor

Roadtrippers, travelspend, sygic travel maps offline & trip planner, google maps.

If you need further help with your travels beyond trip planning, check out our roundup of the best travel apps .

TripIt: Travel Planne‪r

TripIt is a powerful, easy-to-use, comprehensive travel-planning app that lets you create master itineraries for your trips. All you have to do is forward reservations and bookings to its dedicated email address, and it will create a single itinerary for your upcoming excursions. Even when you’re offline, double-check the app for where you need to be in the next hour, day, or week. Other handy features include neighborhood safety scores and the ability to plot road trips on a map. If you upgrade to the Pro version for $49 per year, you’ll receive flight status alerts, terminal notifications, and updates on the length of airport queues.

iOS   Android

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Wanderlog is a fully featured app that saves all your reservations, flights, and tickets in one place to create a single itinerary for your trip. You can view your plans on a map, which is perfect if you’re traveling everywhere by car. You can also use the app to share plans and itineraries with friends, who can also update your plans and add their own details. All of the plans you make are stored offline, while you can also add activities during your trip, such as eating or sightseeing. The app also provides links to reviews and guides for each place you’re visiting, so you’ll never be short of ideas. Recent versions offer improved lists of top restaurants for thousands of places around the world via thousands of top blogs and Google search results. You can now use the app to track expenses and budget for your trip.

Kayak is a solid trip-planning app that lets you compile all of your reservations and bookings into a single itinerary and share it with friends and family. It augments this basic feature with its flagship price comparison service for flights, hotels, and rental cars. In addition to using the app to plan where you’re going, it also links with the best flights for getting there, as well as the best hotel rooms and cars. It promises exclusive deals that aren’t available anywhere else. Once you’ve booked a flight or reservation, the app saves everything to your itinerary, making it a one-stop shop for your travels. Recent versions have improved management of your active search filters for quicker results on the go. If price fluctuations are a concern, you can freeze an entire set of results for a given number of days by paying a small fee.

PackPoint Travel Packing Lis‪t

We’ve all been there. You set off on your much-awaited beach holiday, only to forget your swimwear. PackPoint Travel Packing List promises to avoid repeats of such mishaps with packing lists. Not only can you create a manual list yourself, but the app will recommend items to take based on the info you provide, such as the kind of trip you’re going on, planned activities, the time of year, and the destination. It’s an excellent way of ensuring that you don’t leave home without all-important clothing, accessories, or gear. If you don’t mind paying $3, you can also check out the similar Packing Pro  for iOS.

TripAdvisor is one of the most exhaustive mobile trip-planning apps you can find. It lets you plan trips and build itineraries, and add places, events, landmarks, restaurants, and other destinations to your schedule. Most notably, it also offers millions of reviews, images, and videos related to any place you may be thinking of visiting, meaning that you can really research your trip before planning just where you’re going. Everything you add to your planned trip will be visible on the map, while you can also find deals and book tickets via the app. It also offers forums for users to share information, and you can add your own reviews. While you’re traveling, the app offers a variety of recommendations, so you don’t even have to plan anything beforehand. Recent updates have rebuilt the app to improve planning, booking, and traveling. You can now save, organize and share travel ideas with Trips and discover places nearby on a map. You can seek guidance on where to stay, what to do, and where to eat from travelers who have already visited a location. You can access health and safety information for hotels, restaurants, and experiences and book them with free cancellation.

iOS Android

As its name suggests, Roadtrippers is aimed mostly at road trip fans. It lets you plan car-based voyages across the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, plotting stops and layovers along the way, whether at landmarks, restaurants, or hotels. If you’re short on ideas, the app offers recommendations, and there are ready-made trip guides for some of the more popular areas and regions. The app is free to use, but if you want to add more than seven waypoints to your trip, you’ll need to upgrade to the Roadtrippers Plus, which costs $7 per month or $30 per year. This subscription lets you collaborate with friends and offers offline maps, custom maps, and access to exclusive deals. This update improves the app’s RV-friendly routing with additional error reporting and further optimized routes for hauling propane.

If you’re worried about navigating around a busy metropolis, Citymapper is the answer. It provides different travel options for your trips in urban centers, showing you the various means of travel available and how much they cost. It shares public transport schedules and lets you subscribe to particular bus and train lines. Other helpful features include alerts for when you need to get off a bus or train, info on accessibility options and wheelchair access, and the ability to access public transport maps offline. The app works with most of the biggest cities in the U.S. (and some in other countries), though it may not be relevant if you’re traveling off the beaten path. Recent versions feature voice instructions for walking, cycling, scootering, and public transportation, complete with calendar sync, routing, and turn-by-turn instructions. It now covers all of Taiwan, including major cities.

TravelSpend is a budgeting app for trips, aimed at backpackers and anyone else who may travel for extended periods of time without having a planned endpoint. It lets you enter expenses, receipts, and purchases, compiling all of your entries into helpful visualizations that indicate your spending patterns. You can also use the app with friends, who can collaborate with you on drawing up budgets and entering expenses. You can also split bills and fees among your companions so that each person knows exactly what they should set aside. You can even export your data from the app so that you can work on your expenses when back at home. The app is free to download and use, but you can remove ads and activate some extra features for $4 per month or $18 per year. Recent versions set the last used payment method as a default for new expenses.

TripCase caters to the business and professional traveler. Once you’ve signed up for the app, you can forward all of your confirmations and reservations to its email address, and they will be added automatically to your itinerary. You can also add items and locations manually, building up a schedule that can then be shared with others. The app also lets you search for new flights and hotel bookings, while it sends you status information, terminal and gate information, and seat maps. You get a one-month free trial, but thereafter it requires a subscription of $6 per year.

Sygic features a detailed and in-depth trip planner that lets you view maps offline and plot where exactly you intend to travel. You can build your itinerary step by step, where the app provides estimated travel times and walking distances for each of your stops. It also offers specifics like opening hours, fees, links, and photos for over 50 million locations, including landmarks, galleries, restaurants, parks, hotels, beaches, and nature spots. Major cities even feature their own dedicated guides, helping you to plan your trip to see the most interesting places. You can also share plans with friends, book hotels and accommodations, and view 360-degree videos that can help you decide where to go on your next vacation.

Google Maps is arguably the best navigation app you can download right now, but it’s also a valuable resource if you’re planning a trip. Not only does it offer directions for travel by various means, but you can also find recommendations for restaurants and cafés regardless of where you are. Anyone can upload photos and reviews of the places they have visited, so you’re sure to encounter more helpful info on Google Maps than with any other trip-planner. You can’t construct an itinerary using the app, but you can use it to find flights and trains to desired destinations. You can also use it to plan road trips, with the Directions feature letting you add stops along the way.

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Having a second phone number can be handy for a variety of reasons. Perhaps you want to separate your business and personal calls, or you want a junk second number that you can use to sign up for services so you can avoid giving out your personal number to so many places. That's particularly importance with the frequency of annoying spam calls and messages that can pile up when your phone number is made public. You might also want a second number to use in situations where you want to be able to contact people occasionally but you don't necessarily want them to be able to reach your personal device directly, like when internet dating or using an app like AirBnB. Whatever the reason, there are many situations where having a number that you can give out which you can make use of but isn't directly tied to your personal life like your main phone number is can be important for safety and security.

While you could get a second SIM card (or even an eSIM), an easier option for casual use is to use an app that lets you set up a second phone line. Whether you're after an Android app or an iPhone app, you'll find plenty of options to get a second phone line, including some which are free to use. We've hunted down some of the best options for apps that will give you a second phone number for whatever reason you need it, and we're sharing them with you below. Vyke

iOS 17 brought a number of new iPhone features and optimizations to the table, and one of these tweaks adds a few cool layers of entertainment to your FaceTime experience. It’s called FaceTime gestures, and once it’s set up correctly, you’ll be able to send 3D animations to your friends and family during FaceTime video calls. You’ll even be able to trigger the animations with physical gestures!

Getting your phone ready for action doesn’t take much time or effort, but we put this guide together to walk you through the process nonetheless.  How to make a FaceTime gesture in iOS 17

Apple started the whole idea of a smartphone, so it's probably no surprise that it makes some of the best on the market. Of course, they are known for being quite expensive, especially if you want to grab the best iPhones, which will easily run you close to or over $1,000. Luckily, there are some great iPhone deals you can take advantage of, whether unlocked or through a carrier. There are also some other alternatives in the form of refurbished phones. Now, a lot of folks do sometimes shy away from refurbished gear, but it's important to note that many, if not all, refurbished phones come with a guarantee and extended return windows, so you shouldn't worry about getting something defunct. Also, refurbished phones tend to be substantially cheaper than new ones; plus, they do cut down a lot on e-waste, so you are helping the environment.

Either way, we've gone out and found some of the best refurbished iPhone deals out there to save you a little bit extra. We've found a pretty wide range too, so be sure to checkout all the deals available below. iPhone XR -- from $166 iPhone XR Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends / Digital Trends

25 Best Apps For Vacation Planning To Save Time, Money, and Keep You Organized

Best apps for vacation planning to simplify and streamline your trip planning process: find the cheapest flights, book last-minute hotel stays, and keep your itinerary organized in one place.

Traveling offers a wide range of benefits that contribute to well-being, personal growth, and overall happiness. It’s one way to escape from reality, even if for a little while. Most would agree the best and worst part of traveling is planning the trip itself. However, by taking ownership of your travel plans, you have full control over your itinerary, but on the other hand, travel planning isn’t always easy or fun.

Raise your hands if you hate packing? Unpacking? Yeah, that’s us! 

Travel planning requires lots of coordination, tracking moving pieces from booking flights, hotels, tours, and even dining reservations. 

While you can use pen and paper to keep it all organized or a spreadsheet, a handful of travel apps can also do the trick. In a digital age, travel planning apps are the best way to go. 

These apps enhance your travel experience and save you time and effort managing various aspects of your trip. They organize and track flight bookings, hotel reservations, car rentals, and activity confirmations, making it easy to access everything you need at your fingertips. Some even provide access to exclusive deals and discounts that’ll help you save money on travel expenses.

If you’re wondering which apps to use to plan your trips, keep reading for our favorite travel planning apps — these are the best apps for vacation planning that will simplify organizing your trip including apps for cash back, packing, booking last-minute hotel stays, converting currency, and more. 

Read Next: 12 Ways To Maximize Summer Travel Savings  

Click here to listen to the podcast episode or press play below.

Useful Trip Planning Apps To Download Now

Table of Contents

1. Tripadvisor: For Reviews and Recommendations 

2. cardpointers: for picking the right credit card to use, 3. tripit: for itinerary planning , 4. travelspend: for expense tracking , 5. going: for finding cheap flights , 6. google translate: for language translation, 7. momondo: for flight price comparisons , 8. hopper: for booking flights and lodging , 9. the points guy app: for maximizing points and miles, 10. wanderlog: for vacation itinerary planning, 11. rome2rio: for transportation routes, 12. waze: for car gps navigation , 13. gas buddy: for saving money on gas, 14. roadtrippers: for road trip planning, 15. packpoint: for packing with confidence , 16. xe: for currency conversion , 17. hotelsbyday: for daytime hotel booking , 18. sygic travel: for itinerary planning , 19. hoteltonight: for last-minute hotel stays, 20. my disney experience: for disney trip planning , 21. rakuten: for earning cashback, 22. happycow: for vegan meals .

• 23. FlightAware: Tracking Flight Routes

24. WhatsApp: For Communication 

25. airbnb: for booking and corresponding with hosts.

Tripadvisor is one of the world’s largest travel sites. It’s a go-to for travelers seeking reviews, information, and recommendations for hotels, vacation rentals, tours, restaurants, and attractions. 

Here’s how TripAdvisor works .

Discover where to stay and the best things to do by reading honest reviews from other travelers who have been there. 

Not to mention, Tripadvisor Plus, a membership program offers discounts on hotels and experiences, and exclusive benefits to subscribers like spa credits and complimentary breakfast. 

Click here to listen to the podcast episode all about Tripadvisor or press play below.

CardPointers is the best app for on-the-go credit card selection management at checkout. This helps you maximize your points and miles suggesting the best credit cards to use based on spending category. CardPointers will help you feel confident knowing you’re always using the best credit for each purchase. 

TripIt is a trip itinerary app which keeps all your trip planning in one place. One of the main features is its ability to put together customized travel itineraries. After booking a flight, hotel or attraction, forward your travel plans to [email protected]. Sync travel plans to your calendar and share. 

No more frantically searching through your inbox, TripIt extracts relevant details from confirmation emails for all travel related bookings. It then creates an organized master itinerary based on all that information — available even if you’re offline. 

If you’re looking to consolidate your itinerary and organize your paperwork, TripIt ensures all your information is available right at your fingertips, in one place.

If you are looking for a travel budget app, use TravelSpend to plan your vacation budget and track travel expenses. Traveling can become pricey quickly, but TravelSpend will help you manage those expenses and avoid overspending throughout your vacation. 

Read Next: Financial Tasks To Complete Before Vacations

Going, previously known as “Scott’s Cheap Flights”, shares cheap flight alerts right to your phone. Helping you find the lowest airfares to your desired destinations, Going features deals to over 900 destinations around the world. 

Google Translate is an essential travel app if you’re traveling to a country where you don’t speak the native language. Not only will it help you translate over 100 languages in real-time but it can also prepare you before your trip by helping you learn a few basic words or phrases.

Other helpful features include reading text out loud so you can hear the pronunciation and taking a photo which can come in handy when trying to read street signs or menus. 

Helpful Tip: If you’re interested in learning how to speak another language, consider Babbel or Duolingo.

Momondo is a valuable tool for comparing prices. The app generates flight options from different airlines and online travel agencies based on your departure city, destination, and travel dates. It also provides users with the option to compare accommodation prices and car rentals. 

You’re also able to identify the most cost effective travel days using Momondo. 

Their “Inspiration” section offers travel ideas, articles, and guides to help you discover new destinations and possible itineraries. 

Hopper is a mobile travel app primarily focused on finding and booking flights and hotels. Its price prediction technology lets users know the best times to book an affordable flight or hotel. They’ve also recently introduced a “Refundable Tickets” feature that is super convenient allowing users to book flexible tickets that can be changed or canceled without pricey fees.  

Originally a popular travel website, The Points Guy app helps users track how to maximize spending to earn points and miles across their credit card portfolio. 

Not only will this app help you track rewards and earn valuable points and miles , but will also suggest recommendations for the best cards to use plus redeeming your points at the best value. 

Research how many points you’ll need to book your next getaway and read TPG articles on the go. 

In summary, this app will help you navigate the complex world of travel rewards, helping you become a points and miles expert in no time!

This is a great planning app for any trip you have in mind — whether you’re interested in taking a road trip, a tropical vacation, or a flight across the world. 

One of its main features is itinerary organization where users create detailed itineraries they can easily  share with tripmates. 

Perfect for group travel planning, this group trip planning app conveniently supports collaboration between travelers by allowing users to plan on the same itinerary. 

This travel app assists with finding the best routes and transportation options to get from one place to another. Use Rome2Rio for short trips within a city or a long-distance journey between countries. Get an overview of transportation options, including flights, trains, buses, ferries, and more. 

Waze is a GPS navigation app that supplies users with real-time traffic updates and route planning. 

Unlike other navigation apps, Waze users are able to actively contribute data to improve the accuracy and usefulness of the app. It contains so many helpful features informing you about traffic conditions, accidents, road closures, and any other incidents that may affect your route and travel time. 

Gas Buddy is a mobile app and website designed to help you find the cheapest gas prices. Almost everyone tries their best to save money on gas, so it’s a super valuable tool. 

Gas Buddy offers rewards if you pay through their mobile app. It tracks real-time gas prices and allows users to set up price alerts. These price alerts let you know when gas prices drop or rise in a certain area, so you can take advantage of low prices. 

Enjoy taking road trips? Looking for an app to help plan road trips? Or an app to plan road trips with multiple stops? Roadtrippers is the travel planning app for you.

Designed to help roadtrippers discover, plan, and navigate their trips, this app suggests major attractions and destinations to visit then travelers can customize their itinerary.

Select starting and ending points, as well as add stop points along the route. Choose to follow popular pre-planned routes or create your own custom itineraries. The app also provides recommendations for hotels, campgrounds, motels, and restaurants along your route and at your destination.

Read Next: What To Bring on a Road Trip: Your Road Trip Packing List

For all my forgetful travelers, this one is for you!

PackPoint is a travel packing app that can help you create organized and personalized packing lists for trips. It ensures you don’t forget essential items when packing, whether it is for a vacation, business trip, or a camping adventure. 

All you have to do is input details about your destination, trip duration, activities planned, and weather forecast. PackPoint handles the rest by suggesting a recommended packing list to fit your needs.

Read our PackPoint review here .

When traveling out the country, having a currency conversion app is essential. Xe is one of the many currency conversion apps you can use to make informed money decisions when traveling to different countries. Input your dollar amount and pick what currency you’d like to convert to. 

HotelsByDay offers daytime hotel booking services, allowing travelers to book hotel rooms for a few hours during the day instead of the traditional overnight stay. 

HotelsByDay is useful for travelers who need a place to recharge, work, or freshen up. 

The app is flexible so you’re able to choose the check-in and check-out times that best suit your needs. HotelsByDay is a great short-term stay option and extremely convenient.

Sygic Travel offers detailed information about thousands of cities and attractions worldwide helping users create personalized travel itineraries. These itineraries consist of attractions, activities, and accommodations. 

Sygic Travel helps travelers plan their days effectively and even offers pre-made day plans for various destinations. The app also has a built-in navigation feature that can guide users to their selected points of interest. 

Read our Sygic Travel review here and see why we think Sygic is one of the best travel itinerary apps.

Designed to help users secure hotel accommodations quickly and conveniently around the world, HotelTonight specializes in last-minute hotel bookings. It lets travelers find and book discounted hotel rooms for the same day or within a few days in advance. HotelTonight often provides users with discounted rates and exclusive deals. 

My Disney Experience serves as a comprehensive tool for planning and managing a trip to the Walt Disney World theme parks. It features tools for planning, managing reservations, virtual queues, and more. 

Designed to streamline your Disney World experience, this app helps guests make the most of their visit and reduce wait times for attractions, dining, and other activities. It includes the Genie+ feature, which allows you to enter rides through faster lightning lanes instead of waiting in stand by lines.  

With Disney Experience, easily plan out your day and access Disney resources.

While this one isn’t a travel app, Rakuten helps you receive cash back on all types of purchases including travel bookings. The cash you earn back can end up being used for travel experiences, so it’s a great app to take advantage of regardless if you’re planning a trip or not.

Learn more about how Rakuten works here . 

Download HappyCow to find vegan meals, restaurants and cafes in over 180 countries worldwide. Search by food delivery, takeout, Gluten-free, and more. 

23. FlightAware : Tracking Flight Routes

Track flights in real-time and see where an aircraft is worldwide. This app is helpful when you have a tight layover or you want to see how weather conditions will impact arrivals or departures. You can also check on gate changes and cancellations.

If you’re traveling internationally or want to stay in contact with friends and family members on the road, WhatsApp uses Wi-Fi instead of charging a text message fee. Through WhatsApp, call, send files and photos, video chat, and more. 

If you use Airbnb for short-term rentals, the Airbnb app is a must.

Browse through all types of vacation rentals like cabins, yachts, castles and everything in between. Book and manage reservations right on the app and quickly send messages back-and-forth to hosts.

Read Next: Airbnb Etiquette Do’s and Don’ts For Guests

Overall, travel planning apps provide convenience, organization, and valuable information that can help you make the most of your travels and create unforgettable experiences. With so many resources available to make your travel planning experience easier, we know there’s likely an app already out there for what you’re needing help with. 

Which travel apps do you love? What others vacation planning apps should we add to our list? 

Victoria Jean-Louis is a college student who enjoys writing. She keeps herself involved with a mental health nonprofit, law academy, national honor societies, and more. She’s a native New Yorker who loves traveling and experiencing new places. She majors in Law & Society and looks forward to attending law school within the next few years. Other than that, she’s your average young adult that cherishes her family and friends.

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7 best travel budget apps for your next vacation

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The summer travel season is picking up, and with this increase in demand comes higher prices on everything from airfare to hotel rooms and more.

At the same time, high inflation continues to impact travel , making budgeting more important than ever. Even if you’re using travel credit cards to offset some of the costs, it’s important to have a budget for all other expenses.

Whether you’re traveling alone or with a group, it can be challenging to track costs and avoid overspending. Luckily, you don’t have to do this entirely on your own. There are lots of great trip budget planner apps that will help you plan travel and track your budget. Some of them even make it easy to coordinate with a large group and split expenses evenly.

If that sounds right up your alley, you’ll want to review our seven best apps to help you travel on a budget:

Best travel budget apps

With so many great travel budget apps on the market, you might be wondering which one to get. It really comes down to your travel style and needs. Are you traveling solo or with a group? Do you need a simple budget tracker or do you want planning tools? There’s something out there for everyone, but here are the best options:

Managing your expenses when you’re traveling for work can be challenging. Expensify lets you track your travel expenses easily. This app lets you upload and share receipts with your accounting team for reimbursement.

If you’re merely tracking expenses for tax purposes, Expensify offers several handy tools. The GPS calculator automatically tracks your eligible mileage for you, so you don’t have to enter it manually. The app also lets you create expense reports by scanning receipts or entering time worked, for billing purposes.

Sign-up is super easy. All you have to do is provide your email address to set up an Expensify account. You can start using the app immediately, which is free for most users. A “Collect” account, which includes accounting and payroll tools, costs $5 per month. Meanwhile, a “Control” account costs $9 per month and allows for multiple approvers, setting expense policies and custom reporting tools.

When you sign up for Expensify, you can get a seven-day free trial of the Collect and Control memberships.

PocketGuard

PocketGuard markets itself as the “#1 budgeting app for college students and overspenders,” but it’s actually a great vacation budget planner as well. That’s because the app uses the “in my pocket” feature to calculate how much disposable income you have available. You can then allocate this towards your travel budget.

All you have to do is provide your income and spending information. PocketGuard will calculate your disposable income accordingly. Vacation planning may not be a priority for you if you’re in debt, but PocketGuard will recommend a strategy for paying it off in the most efficient way. You can use PocketGuard to set financial goals, save money and plan for future travel as a reward.

If you’re a seasoned business traveler, you may already be familiar with the Concur suite (and in some cases, you may be required by your employer to use it). If you aren’t, get ready to meet one of the most robust, full-featured business travel solutions available today.

Within the SAP Concur suite, you’ll find separate modules for managing travel plans and submitting reimbursement requests for travel-related expenses. Concur Expense’s ExpenseIt app for travel expenses makes it easy to take pictures of your paper receipts and automatically categorize them to submit as expense reports. Meanwhile, Concur Travel lets you book your own business travel or make arrangements with your company’s preselected carriers, hotels, and other providers.

SAP Concur offers travel management solutions for organizations of all sizes — from small businesses to enterprise leaders. Business owners and managers can try Concur Expense and Concur Travel for free; individual users who have access to these tools through their employer can download the iOS or Google Play app to get started.

If you’re traveling with a group, it’s not always practical for each person to pay for their own expenses. Pulling out multiple credit cards to cover the group dinner bill is possible, but booking group tours and even airfare can be a hassle when done individually. That’s where Splitwise comes in. The app lets users track shared expenses and the balance owed by each person. This transparency can make it much easier to determine who owes what at the end of a group trip.

Simply download the free app, add group members and each of you can enter shared expenses as they occur. The app will divide up the total equally among all group members. PayPal and Venmo are both integrated into the app, allowing you to seamlessly settle up at the end of the trip.

Bachelorette parties can be challenging in so many ways, but the BACH app simplifies things with budgeting and planning tools designed to make bachelorette parties less stressful. Users can budget, plan and book all activities associated with their bachelorette party. You can even add your friends to the app to communicate and make planning decisions easier, as well as divide up expenses in the app.

While BACH is marketed around bachelorette parties, you can use it to book any type of group activity in participating cities. Use it to plan your girls’ getaway, Friendsgiving, reunion or virtually any other excuse to gather close friends. The BACH app is free to use, though there is a processing fee when you make a booking.

Trabee Pocket

The Trabee Pocket app provides both budget and expense tracking in a user-friendly interface. Trabee lets you set a budget and then enter your expenses to track how much you’re spending in different categories. The app also provides currency conversion, so you can get an accurate sense of your spending.

At the end of your trip, you can even export your expense data to a PDF or CSV file for future budgeting and tax purposes. Overall, this is a solid app if you want a free spending tracker app. Trabee is available on iOS and the Google Play store.

The great thing about Tripcoin is that you can use it without an internet connection, which is especially important if you’re traveling through remote areas. The app’s Dropbox integration also makes it possible to back up your data in case you lose your phone.

Tripcoin’s user-friendly interface makes it easy to set up a trip and break down your spending each day by expense category. You can find out how much you’re spending on transportation, meals, activities and other travel expenses, making it a great way to stay accountable and on top of your budget at each destination.

Tripcoin supports over 150 currencies, converging your spending automatically based on current exchange rates. This ensures accuracy in your budget tracking and ensures you don’t have to perform this tedious task yourself.

The bottom line

With the summer travel season on the upswing, having a travel budget tracker is more important than ever. Planning a vacation on a budget is one thing, but sticking to it can be very challenging. By utilizing some of these apps, you can stay on budget, cut down on unnecessary expenses and plan your travels more efficiently .

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There's an easier way to plan and organize your trips—here's how

May 14, 2019

[[read-time]] min read

Travel planning is complicated. The number of tools and amount of information you need to sift through when deciding where to go, where to stay and what flight to take can be time consuming and overwhelming. That’s why today, we’re simplifying the way we help travelers plan trips with Google across devices.

When you’re planning a trip—whether you’re on desktop or mobile—we want to help you find the information you need, fast. Last year , we simplified trip planning by making navigation between Google Flights, Hotels, and Trips easier on smartphones. We’re now rolling this out on desktop as well. You can either go to google.com/travel or search for something like “hotels in Tokyo” or “Vancouver” to find travel information from a variety of sources in one place.

As you plan a trip, your research and reservations will be organized for you in Trips. As we continue to evolve Google Trips, we’re making this information more accessible at google.com/travel, and in Google Search and Google Maps. We’re also adding a few new features to make planning and organizing your trips easier.

One place for all of your trip details

Last year , we started adding your trip reservations for things like hotels and flights to a trip timeline for your upcoming trips, when you’re signed into your Google account and you’ve received a confirmation in Gmail. When you go to google.com/travel, you can now make edits directly to your trips timeline, and in a few weeks you’ll be able to manually add new reservations as well.

Whether you’re packing your bags or finalizing your travel dates, the weather is an important part of every trip. You’ll now see the weather for any upcoming or potential trips at google.com/travel—so you can make sure you’re prepared, rain or shine.

Keep track of research and keep planning

It often takes days or weeks to plan a trip. When you need to pick up planning again, we’ll keep track of your trip research across Google. Recent searches, saved places and flights you’re tracking are added automatically to your trips when you’re signed into your Google Account. Soon, we’ll add viewed things to do and saved and viewed hotels to your trips. When you want to continue planning, all of your research will be waiting for you at google.com/travel. If you don’t want to see private results, you can opt out by adjusting your results and web & app activity settings.

When you’re ready to continue researching other parts of your trip, scroll down to see travel articles and find out more about a destination like suggested day plans, popular restaurants around your hotel and events happening during your dates.

Continue planning on-the-go  

When you’re on-the-go or visiting a new place, we’ll do more to highlight things to do, restaurants and more with Google Maps. For instance, last year we made it easier to find the best places to see and things to do when using Google Maps to explore a new place. Now, we’ll also help you get the lay of the land when you’re traveling by pointing out popular neighborhoods nearby and what they’re known for.

And in the next few months, your trips—including reservations for things like hotels and restaurants—will be accessible in Google Maps, too.

Our goal is to simplify trip planning by helping you quickly find the most useful information and pick up where you left off on any device. We’ll continue to make planning and taking trips easier with Google Maps, Google Search and google.com/travel —so you can get out and enjoy the world.

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A new advisory committee to improve flight emission estimates

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New ways to browse hotels and save money on flights — plus other tools for summer travel

New ways to drive hotel bookings and reach travelers.

5 sustainability updates from 2022 that are good for you — and the Earth

Let’s stay in touch. Get the latest news from Google in your inbox.

18 Group Travel Planning Apps That Make Life Easier

Planning a group vacation with a number of different people can be a fun yet challenging endeavor. It requires effective coordination, communication, and savvy budget management. Whether you’re the group leader or just a member of your traveling group, you should check out the best group travel planning apps that will make the process smooth and simple.

*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. Please check out our  disclosure policy  for more details. Thank you for your support!

Table of Contents

Group Travel Planning Apps to Organize Your Next Trip

There are a variety of mobile apps that are designed to simplify vacation planning and help while you’re traveling on the trip. In this comprehensive guide, we have the top-notch mobile apps that are the very best for group travel planning, whether it involves accommodating different budgets, organizing an unforgettable friend group getaway, or discovering expert tips for the best deal on anything from train tickets to hotel rooms.

1. Wanderlog

​Wanderlog is the ultimate travel companion when you’re planning for a diverse group of friends, each with their own unique budgets and preferences. Whether you have a smaller group or you have a lot of group members in your travel party, this comprehensive travel app empowers every member to contribute their preferences and financial constraints. Hopefully this will ensure a smooth, fun trip for the whole group. 

From finding budget-friendly hotel choices to meticulously mapping out the best time for spa appointments, Wanderlog covers every aspect of your adventure. It can even create a detailed itinerary to help you get started.

With its seamless integration with Google Maps, you can easily chart your course and discover the hidden gems that will make your group trip the best thing you’ve ever done together.

Wanderlog offers a free version with basic features, but it also has a premium paid subscription plan called “Wanderlog Pro” for advanced features. Download on App Store or Google Play

2. Shared Notes (iPhone)

​ Communication is key when coordinating a group adventure, and Notes on iPhone helps you maintain clear and concise group texts and notes. From hashing out travel dates and sharing to-do lists to keeping track of key things to remember during your journey, this feature keeps the whole group informed and organized.

Shared Notes is a built-in feature on iOS devices, and it’s free to use. All you have to do is create in your Notes app and then select that you want to share.

​ Handling expenses for a large friend group can be a challenge, but Tab simplifies it by helping you keep track of who owes what. This app’s seamless functionality makes sure that everyone enjoys the whole trip without any financial hiccups, allowing your group to focus on the fun of your adventure.

Tab is a free app for  splitting expenses . Download on App Store or Google Play

4. Trip Splitter

The mobile app Trip Splitter is an indispensable tool for meticulous expense management. Its ability to maintain a comprehensive record of spending is particularly valuable when dealing with different budgets and a variety of preferences. 

Whether you’re tracking expenses for a long-term trip or ensuring that everyone contributes their fair share at dinner, this app has got you covered.

Trip Splitter offers a free version with basic features, but it also has a premium paid subscription plan for additional features. Download on App Store or Google Play

5. Splitwise

Managing expenses — even with a large group of people — becomes a breeze with Splitwise . This free travel planning app is designed to create fairness and financial transparency. No one wants to be bogged down with financial worries during a trip, and Splitwise ensures that everyone enjoys their vacation without worrying about budget disparities. 

It’s a reliable tool for tracking who owes what, making sure your friend group’s budget remains intact throughout your adventure.

Splitwise is a free app for expense splitting and management. Download on App Store or Google Play

6. Facebook Group (FB Group)

​ Creating a private Facebook Group is a great way to facilitate communication about trip plans within your friend group. It’s also one of our favorite platforms to use when  planning a family reunion . This is a versatile platform for discussing everything from the tourist attractions you want to visit to organizing group conversations and answering questions from your fellow travelers.

The platform allows for discussions, event planning, and real-time updates. This is a great free travel app for keeping everyone in the loop.

Creating and using private Facebook Groups is free. Download on App Store or Google Play

7. WhatsApp

​ Using WhatsApp is the perfect way to coordinate a travel-based group chat instead of working your way through texts with everyone’s phone number or email threads when planning. It’s an ideal platform for coordinating plans and sharing arrival times with your friend group. 

Stay connected, share travel ideas when planning, or meet up locations when at your destination. You can make the most of your adventure with this reliable messaging app that ensures everyone is on the same page. This app uses your device’s data or wifi to send the messages, so it doesn’t charge you any international rates. 

WhatsApp is a free messaging app. Download on App Store or Google Play

​GroupMe elevates group messaging with advanced features like event planning and location sharing. It is perfect for keeping everyone informed and connected during your friend group’s journey. Using the app is a simple way to ensure that every member of the group can be a part of the process of working out travel details, and helps you stay connected while traveling.

GroupMe is a free messaging app. Download on App Store or Google Play

​ Streamlining the planning process for your group of friends is effortless with TripIt . This sophisticated app automatically generates a master itinerary that includes hotel bookings, real-time flight alerts, and key things to do during the trip. 

This trip planner app also keeps all of your confirmation numbers for hotel reservations, flight information, and rental cars all in one spot. It’s a must-have tool for ensuring everyone in the group is well-prepared and informed.

TripIt offers both a free version with basic features and a premium paid annual subscription plan called “TripIt Pro” for enhanced features. It’s great for keeping all of the important details in one place. This is one of the best travel planner apps out there. Download on App Store or Google Play

​Band is a fantastic communication hub for friend groups, offering document sharing via Google Docs, creating shared photo albums, and maintaining group chats for discussions.

This is the best way to keep everyone engaged and informed about the latest developments and ideas throughout the planning process and the journey.

Band is a free communication app. Download on App Store or Google Play

11. Coordle

​ When coordinating activities for groups with varying preferences, Coordle shines by simplifying the process of finding the best time for group activities and excursions and allowing all planning to happen in one centralized app. It ensures a good time for everyone, making it easy to have an unforgettable adventure. 

Coordle offers a free version with basic features, but it also has a premium paid subscription plan for additional features. Download on App Store or Google Play

12. Family Album

​ Preserving cherished memories is easy with Family Album, a private photo-sharing app that lets you create dedicated photo albums to relive the highlights of your adventure with your friend group. Share expert tips and insider knowledge through images and captions that encapsulate your experiences.

Family Album offers a free version with basic features, but it also has premium paid subscription plans for more storage and features. Download on App Store or Google Play

13. Shared Photo Albums

​ Capture every moment of your adventure by using Shared Phone Albums, available for use on both iOS and Android devices. Ensure that each member of the friend group contributes their photos to create a complete visual narrative of the experiences from your trip.

This feature is available on iOS and Android devices, and it’s part of the phone’s functionality. It’s one of the best free travel planner apps for organizing your group’s memories.

​Troupe makes decision-making easy within smaller groups by facilitating the process of selecting activities and planning excursions together. It ensures that the travel itinerary aligns with the diverse preferences and expectations of your friend group, guaranteeing a well-rounded adventure that everyone will love.

Troupe offers a free version with basic features, but it also has premium paid subscription plans for additional features. Download on App Store or Google Play

15. Tripline

Tripline introduces a creative quality to your group travel experience by enabling the creation of captivating interactive travel maps. These maps serve as an engaging showcase of your journey’s route and highlights. This makes it easier for your friend group to relive the adventure and share their travel tips with others.

Tripline offers a free version with basic features, but it also has premium paid subscription plans for more advanced features. Download on App Store or Google Play

16. TravelSpend

​TravelSpend is great for streamlining expense management. It simplifies the process of splitting costs among friends or family members with real-time expense tracking, and it converts currencies automatically. TravelSpend empowers group travelers to stay on top of their financial commitments, making it easier for everyone to enjoy the trip without financial stress. 

Thia app also offers analytical data about your spending so that you can track what you’re spending the most (or the least) on. 

TravelSpend is a free app for tracking travel expenses. Download on App Store or Google Play

17. Google Maps

​ Google Maps has a function called My Maps that can be used to create personalized maps for different destinations. It’s a great addition to your next trip with family and/or friends. 

You can drop pins on the best places to visit, separate maps by different cities, pin the must-try restaurants, landmarks, and museums, and navigate to the nearest transportation hubs. Everyone can share this travel map, making it essential to have it on everyone’s phones.

It also works as a typical map app showing the best routes and travel time between destinations. You can also get offline access if you don’t have phone service.

Google Maps is a free application that works on Android and iOS. Download on App Store or Google Play

18. SaveTrip

SaveTrip is another app that can be used by family members to plan trip itineraries together. You could work together on each day, or split your trip days between family members and let everyone plan a day. 

After you have planned your days you can present your ideas to the group. The next step is to vote on things, set a budget, and agree on travel. You can even make a vision board using the notes tool. 

Once you take the trip, you can manage a budget, share costs, and use the integrated Google Maps feature to get around. 

This app is free to download and use. Download on App Store or Google Play

Mastering the art of group travel planning with different budgets and varying preferences can be challenging. With these indispensable mobile apps, it can be an easy experience that allows everyone to relax and have fun. With apps like these, you can be your own travel agent. Use these travel apps to put together a successful trip with all of your friends and family.

From expense management to communication and itinerary planning, these apps cater to every aspect of group getaways. So, gather your favorite people, download one of these great travel tools, and get ready to easily make some amazing travel plans!

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Note: Empower is formerly known as Personal Capital. In February 2023, Personal Capital completed its rebranding as Empower.

Empower is a comprehensive wealth management firm offering an easy-to-use interface, free financial tools, cash management accounts , and more. Moreover, you can link your bank account, credit cards, brokerage accounts, and more to Empower's budgeting app for assistance with managing investments and retirement planning. 

Empower offers personalized retirement planning services, tax-optimization strategies, data-driven portfolio construction, and access to a range of investable securities. Individual investors, financial professionals, and plan sponsors can use the firm's assortment of financial planning services and trading tools. 

You can open a self-directed or professionally managed account to access thousands of mutual funds , ETFs, individual equities, and fixed-income securities. Retirement plans, custodial accounts, and socially responsible investing are also available. 

Is Empower Right For You?

Empower is a great platform for professionally managed ETF portfolios, retirement planning, socially responsible investing, and private client services. DIY traders can benefit from a do-it-yourself investment account with no account minimum and commission-free trading. However, automated service and management are quite expensive.

Empower is pricey, requiring a minimum of $100,000 for its wealth management services. Plus, it charges hefty AUM fees. You'll pay up to 0.89% per year to use its services if you have less than $1 million in your account. 

If you're a newer investor and looking for lower minimum requirements and fees, check out our picks for the best investment apps for beginners .

Empower: Overall Rating

Empower pros and cons, is empower trustworthy.

Empower is one of the largest retirement services providers in the US, administering about $1.5 trillion in assets for more than 18.5 million investors through the provision of retirement plans, advice, wealth management and investments. As such, it is subject to close oversight by government agencies, including the US Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

In late 2022, Empower faced a lawsuit that accused the company of using fraudulent sales practices. The plaintiffs claim that Empower neglected its fiduciary duties by manipulating investors to invest in Empower accounts when cheaper options were available elsewhere. An Empower representative said this was unfounded, and the lawsuit hasn't been settled yet.

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Empower's goal-based investment accounts are a flexible, low-cost alternative to Empower's expensive digital wealth management services. You can invest in a wide range of mutual funds, ETFs, stocks , CDs, and more with no minimum investment, no maintenance fees, and commission-free stocks and ETFs

An Empower Investment Account is designed for self-directed traders looking to save outside of retirement savings. Additional features include automatic investments, unlimited access to your money, and optional debit card or check-writing features. 

You can also open an Empower Premier Investment Account either as a do-it-yourself investor who wants access to a financial advisor , or as a hands-off investor wanting a professionally managed account. My Total Retirement (or Managed Account Service) provides professional investment accounts.

Although the Premier Investment Account requires no minimum investment, you'll need at least $5,000 in your account to access Empower's managed services. 

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You can open a Premium IRA or a self-directed brokerage IRA through Empower. Both of these account options are available as traditional or Roth. The platform also offers SEP IRAs and a guaranteed retirement income plan.

An Empower Premium IRA is available as a self-directed or managed account, providing more than 130 mutual fund options for no initial minimum investment requirement. Mutual fund trading is commission-free. You can access professional guidance from an advisor and comprehensive financial planning.

The Brokerage IRA option is a DIY retirement plan offering mutual funds, ETFs, fixed-income securities, and individual equities. It doesn't come with professional account management or access to advice and guidance from an expert. But you'll still get access to the platform's free online investing and planning tools, and commission-free trades for stocks and ETFs. 

Digital Wealth Management

Empower's wealth management service includes a professionally managed portfolio, unlimited advice, and help with retirement planning from the platform's advisory team. The company separates its portfolio management offerings into three tiers:

• Investment services : This level is best for those with $100,000 to $250,000 in assets. It offers unlimited access to financial planning and retirement guidance. Plus, you'll get a personalized portfolio of ETFs, copious digital planning tools, and support from human advisors.
• Wealth management : The wealth management tier takes things up a notch. It gives you two financial advisors who offer ongoing guidance and support, and it supplements this with a personalized portfolio and tax optimization strategies. Plus, you'll be able to take advantage of specialists in real estate , stocks, and more. You'll need over $250,000 to qualify, but not more than $1 million. 
• Private client : Reserved for those with more than $1 million in investment assets, this tier offers private equity investments, specialist support for wealth and retirement planning, two financial advisors, and priority access to its Investment Committee and specialists. Note, though, that the private equity option is only available to those with $5 million or more invested.

As for investment types, the first tier only offers ETFs. Empower's wealth management tier offers ETFs and stocks, while its private client services focus on ETFs, stocks, bonds, and private equity investments.

Although Empower's fees are quite high compared to similar platforms, it still charges less than most traditional advisor firms. While Empower charges 0.89%, traditional advisors usually charge 1%.

Investors can choose between two different portfolio strategies: 

• The Personal Strategy: With the Personal Strategy, Empower invests your money into a globally diversified portfolio of stocks and ETFs. It relies on both its technology and advisor oversight to build portfolios, and each includes portfolio rebalancing, tax optimization strategies like tax-loss harvesting, smart weighting, and advisor access.
• Socially Responsible Investing: With this socially responsible investing portfolio, you can have the platform focus your portfolio on companies that have high environmental, social, and corporate governance ( ESG ) standards. Empower primarily focuses on US and international equities and with these portfolios.

Empower Fees

Empower's Investment Accounts have no initial minimum requirements. However, Empower's wealth management services require significantly high minimums, with the lowest tier requiring a minimum of $100,000 for access to unlimited advisor guidance and professionally managed accounts. 

AUM fees are tiered: 

Empower Retirement Advisory Services also tiers My Total Retirement managed accounts based on account balance:

Brokerage IRAs with balances under $100,000 are charged a $35 annual maintenance fee. Accounts with balances over $100,000 have no annual maintenance fee.

Certain mutual funds have no fees, while others charge $25 per trade with an additional $5 per exchange fee. Options cost $0.65 per contract (+$19.99 if traded over the phone). US Treasury securities, corporate bonds, and agency bonds cost $20 per transaction.

Empower — Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Empower is a comprehensive wealth management and investment platform offering self-directed and professionally managed portfolios across multiple asset classes. Get access to fiduciary advisors, customized financial planning, free budgeting tools, and a suite of retirement-related account features and resources. 

Empower is a great online platform for retirement planning and saving. Not only does it offer IRAs, but Empower also has goal-based retirement planning tools, spending plans, a recession simulator, money management resources, and more. 

Empower's wide range of financial planning services and investment features may benefit beginners willing to meet the high wealth Management minimum requirements for passive-investing strategies and professional advisor access. However, Empower benefits people with complex financial situations and high net worth most. 

Empower vs. Merrill Guided Investing 

Empower and Merrill Edge suit passive investors who don't want the daily legwork of maintaining an investment portfolio. Merrill Edge's accounts — Merrill Guided Investing Online and Merrill Guided Investing with an Advisor — are better options for those searching for lower minimum requirements.

Empower and Merrill Guided Investing offer similar fees, but Empower is better for investors who want access to a wider selection of investment types. Empower's wealth management services and financial tools are also difficult to beat. Whereas Merrill Guided Investing offers the option of guidance from one advisor, two of Empower's tiers of service offer access to multiple dedicated advisors.

Merrill Edge review

Empower vs. Vanguard Personal Advisor Services 

Regarding fees, you'll pay less in all aspects with the Vanguard Personal Advisor Services account. But Empower's wealth management services give you access to more investment types than Vanguard does.

Empower clients with lower balances pay higher fees, and customers with higher balances pay lower fees. The same applies to Vanguard's wealth management account. But Vanguard requires a $500,000 minimum investment to get access to a dedicated fiduciary. 

Vanguard Personal Advisor review

Why You Should Trust Us: How We Reviewed Empower

We examined Empower using Personal Finance Insider's rating methodology for investing platforms to compare and examine account types, pricing, investment options, and overall customer experience when reviewing investing platforms. Platforms are given a rating between 0 to 5. 

Investing platforms generally offer multiple assets, trading tools, fees, and other resources. Some investing platforms are better for more advanced investors or active investors, while others may better suit beginner investors and passive investors. Empower was evaluated with a focus on how it performed in each category.

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Watch CBS News

Biden is canceling $7.4 billion in student debt for 277,000 borrowers. Here's who is eligible.

By Aimee Picchi

Edited By Alain Sherter

Updated on: April 12, 2024 / 3:29 PM EDT / CBS News

The Biden administration on Friday said it's canceling $7.4 billion in student debt for 277,000 borrowers, with the recipients scheduled to receive emails today to alert them to their loan discharges. 

The latest effort extends the debt relief provider under President Joe Biden after the Supreme Court last year blocked  his administration's plan for broad-based student loan forgiveness. With the latest batch of loan cancellations, the White House said it has forgiven about $153 billion in debt for 4.3 million student borrowers. 

Biden, who had made student loan relief a major campaign pledge, is tackling an issue that affects about 43 million Americans with a combined  $1.7 trillion in student debt. It's a burden that some borrowers and their advocates say has harmed their ability to save for a home or achieve financial milestones, an issue that was echoed by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in a conference call with reporters. 

"I talked to a teacher in New York this week who took out a loan for $30,000," Cardona said Friday, "and after over a decade of paying and being a teacher the debt was $60,000, and she was saying that the interest was so high that the payments that she was making wasn't even touching her principal."

He added, "We are fixing a broken system. We're relentless and taking steps to transform a broken system into one that works people across the country."

Here's what to know about who is eligible for the latest round of forgiveness.

Who qualifies for the student loan forgiveness?

Three groups of people qualify under the latest round of debt relief, the White House said. 

• $3.6 billion for 206,800 borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan.

About $3.6 billion will be forgiven for nearly 207,000 borrowers enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, an income-driven repayment program, or IDR, that the Biden administration created last year. 

The White House said borrowers who are getting their debt discharged under SAVE had taken out smaller loans for their college studies. The plan allows people to receive forgiveness after they made at least 10 years of payments if they originally took out $12,000 or less in loans to pay for college; borrowers with larger loans are eligible after 20 or 25 years of repayment, depending on what types of loans they have. 

 "You sacrifice and you've saved for a decade or more to make your student loan payments, and you originally borrowed $12,000 or less, you're going to see relief," Cardona told reporters. "An overwhelming number of those who qualify for SAVE were eligible for Pell grants and come from low- and middle-income communities."

• $3.5 billion for 65,700 borrowers in income-repayment plans.

These borrowers will receive forgiveness through "administrative adjustments" to repayment plans where loan servicers had made it tougher for some borrowers to qualify for relief.  

"These are people who paid for a long time but were being deprived of relief because of administrative and servicing failures," Cardona said. "These people met the contract of their loan" and will receive forgiveness.

• $300 million for 4,600 borrowers through Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).  

The PSLF program is designed to help public servants like teachers and government employees achieve debt forgiveness after 10 years of repayment. It's a program that started in 2007 but had been plagued with complex rules that effectively hampered people from getting their debt discharged, with only 7,000 receiving loan forgiveness prior to the Biden administration. 

With the latest round of discharges, the Biden administration has forgiven $62.8 billion in loans for 876,000 borrowers through PSLF. 

Are there legal challenges to Biden's debt forgiveness plans?

In two separate lawsuits, Republican attorneys general in 18 states are pushing to have the SAVE plan tossed and to halt any further student debt cancellation. They say the SAVE plan oversteps Biden's authority and makes it harder for states to recruit employees. They also contend the plan undermines a separate cancellation program that encourages careers in public service.

It's unclear what the suits could mean for loans that have already been canceled. A court document filed by Kansas' attorney general says it's "unrealistic to think that any loan forgiveness that occurs during this litigation will ever be clawed back."

—With reporting by the Associated Press.

• Biden Administration
• Student Loan

Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.

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US likely to enact a law soon that could ban TikTok nationwide

House speaker johnson plans to package tiktok legislation with critical aid for ukraine, israel and taiwan, and send it to the senate. president joe biden vowed to sign it into law., by scott wong and kyle stewart | nbc news • published 3 hours ago • updated 3 hours ago.

Legislation that could ban TikTok in the U.S . unless it cuts ties with its Chinese parent company is on a path to quickly get to President Joe Biden’s desk and be signed into law.

According to NBC News , the bill, which has the backing of Biden and key members of Congress, would allow the administration to ban the popular video-sharing app nationwide if it does not divest from China-based ByteDance within one year.

A similar bill already passed the House in a lopsided, bipartisan 352-65 vote in March. But it’s been stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where Commerce Chairwoman Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., had been looking to put her mark on the bill.

Now, the House is planning to package a slightly revised TikTok bill with billions in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, all but guaranteeing the potential TikTok ban will become law.

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Under the strategy used by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., the House plans to pass the combined foreign aid and TikTok package Saturday night and send it to the Senate, setting up a possible vote in the upper chamber as early as next week.

In recent weeks, Johnson’s team worked closely with the White House on the package and Biden has already said he will swiftly sign into law the broader package, which also includes other  GOP national security priorities  like the  REPO Act  and sanctions against Iran. Biden backed the original TikTok ban legislation in the House as well, though his  campaign has an account  on the app.

TikTok doubles ad buy to fight potential U.S. ban as Congress moves to fast-track legislation

Vinod Khosla and Palantir's Jacob Helberg call on Senate to ban TikTok: It's ‘a weapon of war'

The fast-track process for the TikTok bill comes as leaders in both parties, as well as national security officials, warn that the popular video-sharing app is a national security threat. There are worries that the Chinese Communist Party is using TikTok to access data and spy on its American users, spread disinformation and use the app’s algorithms to manipulate elections, like the one in November.

TikTok has argued that the bill amounts to a ban that would violate the First Amendment rights of its millions of U.S. users and harm small businesses that reach customers through the app.

“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually,” TikTok said in a  statement .

Dubbed the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, the House TikTok bill creates a process for the president — through the FBI and intelligence agencies — to designate certain social media applications under the control of foreign adversaries, like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, as national security threats.

Once an app is deemed a risk, it would be banned from online app stores and web-hosting services unless it severed ties with entities under control of the foreign adversary. The legislation specifically cites TikTok as a target.

The revised TikTok language would lengthen that divestiture period to nine months, up from the original six months, and would also allow the president to grant an additional, one-time 90-day extension.

That change satisfied Cantwell, the Senate Commerce chair, who had slow-walked consideration of the House-passed bill. She said the change was her recommendation.

"It assures that divestiture will more likely happen, so we think that's an important part," Cantwell told reporters Thursday, adding that other tweaks would have to be put off until later.

"They didn’t put other language and so we could look at things down the road, but for now we support what they’re doing," she added.

While there is overwhelming bipartisan backing for the TikTok bill in both chambers, a handful of lawmakers have argued that the legislation would stifle free speech. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced an amendment that would strip the TikTok language out of the package.

"Banning TikTok is beating the same drum as other communist countries controlling what content we are able to see,” Mace said last month.   “Let’s not give the government any more power to control social media.”

Progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., who has more than 240,000 followers on TikTok, has led the opposition to the ban on Capitol Hill.

"A lot of people on the Hill seem to be ignoring that an outright ban of TikTok would hurt the livelihoods of a lot of working class people, many of whom are people of color," Bowman told NBC News.

"We need to protect people’s constitutional rights of free speech and privacy. We need to pass comprehensive social media safety legislation that protects people on all platforms from Big Tech overreach," he said. "Let’s get to work on that, right now."

Rebecca Kaplan, Frank Thorp V, Kate Santaliz and Sahil Kapur contributed.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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Super App Lock - Keep Private 4+

Protect privacy & screen time, safe app, inc., designed for ipad.

• 4.8 • 270 Ratings
• Offers In-App Purchases

Screenshots

Description.

Super App Lock is a powerful app management tool dedicated to protecting user privacy and managing app usage. You can easily Lock apps, create different plans to control app usage time, enhancing focus and eliminating concerns about privacy leaks when lending your phone to friends. Additionally, you can monitor the usage details of each app, including usage time, pick-up, and notification counts. Utilize the Super Toolbox to easily toggle various functions and system settings, strategically manage your child's device usage, and become the smartest and most efficient parent. 【Key Features】 - Lock App: Secure your privacy by requiring a password to launch apps. - Usage Control: Strictly manage app time for efficiency and focus. - Usage Stats: Track app duration, pickups, and notifications for self-awareness. - Super Toolbox: One-tap toggle for sensitive system functions. - Quick Widget: Desktop widgets for easy toggling of plans. - Uninstall Prevention: Protect crucial apps from accidental deletion, ensuring data safety. - Parental Control: Restrict app installation, control screen time, and monitor device use for a healthier, safer mobile environment for your child. - Purchase Protection: Block in-app purchases, add purchase passwords to prevent accidental buys and unwanted expenses. - App Groups: Add multiple app groups for various scenarios, crafting personalized management plans. - Advanced Features: FaceID, TouchID, URL Schemes, and more. Your encouragement fuels our progress! Stay tuned for more powerful features coming soon. If you encounter any issues or have suggestions while using the app, please feel free to provide feedback within the app. [email protected]

Version 1.0.2

- New Feature: Support for icon shortcut actions - New Feature: Timed auto-lock after app unlock - New Feature: Cutom main app password duration - Add: Forgot password guidance - Improve: Enhanced plans editing and app selection - Improve: Refined settings structure - Improve: Adjustments in text and multilingual adaptation - Fix: Issue with widgets unable to edit plan - Fix: Bug causing plans to unlock unexpectedly at midnight - Fix: Crashes on certain systems when opening the app - Fix: Issue that the plan fails to start in some cases

Ratings and Reviews

270 Ratings

Nice to find it!

Have been needing an app like this for ages because a simple phone lock just doesn't cut it. I'm thrilled I found it! Applocker is super easy to use and perfect if you want real privacy on your phone. Now, I can lock all my apps and don't stress about handing my phone to someone else. Highly recommend downloading it if you value your privacy! 🤩

no more password, just hide it

I don't like to put a password on my phone in case of emergencies, but I also have some personal stuff like sensitive info, notes, and photos that I want to keep private. That's why this app is a game changer for me. I've tried a bunch of other applock apps, but this one is definitely my favorite.

really like

A must-have tool for hiding apps on your iPhone, especially since everyone knows how to spot hidden ones. It makes it super easy to hide the apps you don't want others to see, and you can lock them with a password or your fingerprint to keep them safe.

App Privacy

The developer, Safe App, Inc. , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Used to Track You

The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:

• Identifiers

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

English, Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Thai, Traditional Chinese

• LifeTime $0.00
• Yearly $29.99
• Weekly $4.99
• Monthly $9.99
• Developer Website
• App Support
• Privacy Policy

Family Sharing

Some in‑app purchases, including subscriptions, may be shareable with your family group when family sharing is enabled., you might also like.

Hood - ScreenTime Manager

Timize:Control App Screen Time

Mantle - Screen Master Expert

Screen Master - Focus Time

SMS - Safety Management System

AppLocker • Password lock apps

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Despite security risks, plans to open Paris Olympics on River Seine remain unchanged and on track

The Associated Press

April 17, 2024, 4:20 PM

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PARIS (AP) — As the countdown clock to the Paris Olympics passed the 100-day mark, the question of holding the opening ceremony on the Seine River loomed large over the milestone celebrations on Wednesday.

Organizers have planned a parade of about 10,500 athletes through the heart of the French capital on boats on the Seine along a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) route in the opening ceremony at sunset on July 26.

But French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that the exceptional open-air event in central Paris could be shifted to a more conventional opening ceremony at the Stade de France if the security threat is deemed too high.

“If we think there are risks, depending on our analysis of the context, we have fallback scenarios. There are plan Bs and plan Cs,” Macron said.

France is on high security alert ahead of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics , which are expected to draw millions of visitors to the country. Organizers, French government officials and French athletes at the J-100 (“100 Days To Go” Olympic event) on Wednesday all acknowledged security concerns over the opening ceremony , which will bring huge crowds and over 100 world leaders to the embankments.

They insisted that preparations for the parade on the Seine are still in full swing and should go ahead as planned.

“We are heavily working on Plan A which remains the central scenario and the very, very dominant scenario,” France’s Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said.

She added, enthusiastically and with a large smile: “We keep working on that fantastic ceremony on the River Seine.”

The sports minister emphasized that visitors to Paris will be safe during the Olympics.

“We know that risks exist,” Oudéa-Castéra said. “We know the world is complex, sometimes unstable, sometimes unpredictable, sometimes dangerous,” she said, before insisting. “We really want to say to the whole world that, in any case, France will be a safe place.”

Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris Games’ organizing committee, said the plan to open the Games with the sunset parade on the Seine remains unchanged and “it’s our duty, our role to make sure it will happen.”

However, there are as yet unspecified contingency plans in place whereby organizers will adapt to any circumstances that might arise, Estanguet added.

David Lappartient, the president of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, accepted there are challenges in preparing an event like the Olympics in a city like Paris at the time of heightened tensions and raging wars.

“The situation worldwide is quite complicated,” said Lappartient, who is also an International Olympic Committee member. There are challenges with transport and security, and it’s reasonable and reassuring that the “government is trying to see all the options on the table.”

Former France handball star Michaël Guigou, who won multiple Olympic and world titles, said security risks have become part of daily life reality in France, such as when he goes to a concert. But he has full trust in security arrangements at the opening ceremony — wherever it may take place — and in fan zones, Olympic venues and the city of Paris itself.

“It’s part of life today, unfortunately,” Guigou said. “We have enough intelligent and competent people in place to look after that, so I’m not doubting things.”

Dany Dann, a French breaker who will take part in his first Olympics as breaking makes its debut, has no concerns.

He is only anxious to get started, on the Seine, at the Stade de France or anywhere else in Paris.

“I just want to live the Games,” Dann said. “We know that if it’s moved left or right, things will be organized so that everything’s fine. I am concentrating on my preparation for the Games.”

Associated Press writer Barbara Surk contributed from Nice, France.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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