It has been long time since we last used a travel agent. We always plan and book all our trips ourselves! We use some of the sites listed below to search and book a trip. We just completed our 5 countries trip which included Thailand, Pakistan, China and USA.
Now we are planning to travel Turkey and Greece in coming months.
Tips to look for Cheaper deals on travel:
Unfortunately for weary travellers, there’s no single best way to find cheap flights. As with any purchase, you need to shop around to get the best deal — by trying different booking sites, altering your dates and waiting until just the right time to purchase. But if you’re willing to put in a little time and effort, you could save big on your next flight.
I usually start my search by checking a few of the major online travel deals providers like Kayak, Skyscanner, Expedia…etc. After checking these sites will give you a preliminary idea of which airlines fly your particular itinerary, what the going rate is and which restrictions might apply. Having all these information, you can head directly to the airline website to see if the same flights are any cheaper (some airlines guarantee to offer the lowest possible fares on their own websites). While you’re there, check to see if the airline is running any sales or promotions to your destination.
I also noticed booking different airlines will allow you to mix and match tickets to get the best flight deal possible. This way you can work the best deals. You’ll be flying separate tickets but it does work.
Cheap Flights For Traveling:
Cheap Accomodation Sites:
Canada
United States
Asia
- Air Asia
- Tiger Air
- Jeju Air
- Jetstar
- Hong Kong Express
- Scoot
- Peach Air
- Spice Jet
- Spring Airlines
- Nok Air
- T’Way Airlines
- Vanilla Air
Europe
Australia
New Zealand
My Favourite Travel Apps
Tripadvisor
Trip Advisor arrived on the web as a travel opinion aggregator, where anyone who’d visited a hotel could post a review, pro or con. As such, it was a unique resource to independent travelers for planning a trip. Since it launched, Trip Advisor has grown astronomically, adding airline reviews, vacation rentals, restaurants, activities, and more (iOS and Android).
LoungeBuddy
Hours to kill during a layover and desperate for peace and quiet/privacy/a shower? Why not make use of an airport lounge? LoungeBuddy provides instant access to 170 lounges worldwide on a pay-by-use basis. Just find the lounge you’d like to use at your layover airport, and book (iOS and Android).
Google Translate
A golden oldie (in internet terms), Google Translate has an almost sci-fi feature: offline and real-time translation. Download the language you need, and aim the camera at the text you need translated. Boom – instant translation (iOS and Android).
TripIt
Got a trip coming up that includes more than one hotel or flight, or just not very good at keeping track of booking numbers? Then TripIt is your new best friend. Just forward your confirmation emails, or let TripIt access your mail box, and the app will create a simple itinerary for you that includes maps. Genius (iOS and Android).
XE
If you’re like most of us and can’t figure out what 1,343,958 Vietnamese dong is in Australian dollars at the drop of a hat, use the currency exchange app, XE, to figure it out. Remember to update the exchange rates just before you go to make sure you get the most accurate rates (iOS and Android).
AroundMe
AroundMe identifies where you are, and lists the nearest bank, bar, petrol station, hospital, hotel, cinema, restaurant, supermarket, theatre and taxi. Useful if you want to catch a movie – crucial if you’re taken ill abroad (iOS and Android).
Duolingo
Full of bite-sized lessons and games that teach you how to read, write, listen and speak a language, Duolingo covers 27 languages – including Klingon. Start with basic verbs, phrases and sentences and learn new words every day (iOS and Android).
Yuggler
A blessing to parents travelling with their children, Yuggler lets you discover all the kid-friendly things to do near you. Find tips, see photos and search via filters so that you’re sure to find things just right for your children’s ages and likes (iOS only)
Touchnote
Perfectly mixing the old and the new, Touchnote lets you create personalised postcards using your own images. All you have to do is open the app, choose an image, add some text and an address, and the postcard will ship to anywhere in the world (iOS and Android).
Flush – toilet finder
When you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go. Install Flush, turn on your GPS, and find the closest public toilets to wherever you are. Pretty handy for those Delhi/Bali belly moments … (iOS and Android).
Prey Anti Theft
One of the worries that comes with carrying your expensive smartphone with you on your travels is that someone might nab it – or that you’ll just lose it. Prey helps you find your phone, lock down your device, trigger an alarm and more. It’s a completely free and extremely useful app (iOS and Android).
MAPS.ME
We’ve all been at that point in our travels where we grudgingly open our settings, and turn on our data connection. Yes, it’s going to cost a lot, but let’s face it – we’re lost. Well, kiss your overpriced data goodbye, because MAPS.ME is maps, but offline – just make sure you download the maps you need, before you go adventuring (iOS and Android)!
First aid
Hopefully you’ll never open this app. You might have taken a first aid course or two, but we never know how we’ll react in an emergency. Install this, and you’ll always have a reference to go to just in case (iOS and Android).
Skype
Apart from being essential for touching base with friends and family back home – especially if you’re travelling solo – the magic of video calls lets you make everyone back home insanely jealous. Best of all: it’s free. Get it for iPhone or Android.
momondo places
With offline maps, over 200 handpicked local tips and colour-coded filtering, momondo places city guides make discovering a new city a breeze! Everything is colour-coded so you can easily narrow things down to suit your mood and travel style perfectly. Download now (iOS only).
Hopper
Hopper’s signature rabbit may seem a bit childish at first, but this bunny knows its stuff. The flexibility feature is especially useful: put in your home city and desired destination and Hopper will map out the entire year for you with color-coded prices. The dates are shown as month-long calendars, with colored boxes telling you when prices fall into certain categories, like less than $300 or +$500. The app-only service also predicts whether or not the price for your chosen dates may drop or not (they monitor up to 15 billion flight prices per day) and allows you to “Watch the Trip” — a feature where Hopper will send you alerts if the price changes. If you know you need a vacation, but are flexible on your destination or dates, you can also set alerts for the app to tell you when there are destinations deals. This app is free to download.
Download for iTunes and Google Play.
Skyscanner
Skyscanner isn’t unique to searching just for flights, as you can also shop around on the app for rental cars and hotels. The app is particularly useful for travel inspiration, as it has special sections for categories like solo travel, quick getaways and kid-free vacations. It also has recommendations and deals for last-minute trips, providing you with pricing for a variety of destinations. It also pulls in the best deals by month, and includes photos of each city, making sure you get a solid dose of wanderlust as you organize your trip. If you happen to know your destination and dates already, the app’s clear, concise interface makes it easy to see pricing and information. This app is free to download.
Download for iTunes and Google Play.
Kiwi
Kiwi’s interactive map feature is especially useful. Set your home city and look at the map to see how much different cities would cost to fly to. Once you select your destination, you can sort your results into either recommended, cheapest or shortest flight. Kiwi finds the cheapest pricing by pulling in different carriers, but you may have to book separate tickets — which shouldn’t be a problem for bargain hunters or those on a budget. For example, if you want to fly from New York (JFK) to Dublin (DUB), you could always fly nonstop on United, which you’ll find as a result in the ‘shortest’ category. But if you click on the “cheapest” category, you can book one leg from JFK to London (LGW) on Norwegian, and then a Ryanair ticket from London (LGW) to Dublin (DUB), saving you several hundred dollars. Booking directly on the app makes it easier than heading to each airline’s page and booking separate tickets. This app is free to download.
Download for iTunes and Google Play.
KAYAK
KAYAK is a popular flight search tool, and for good reason. The KAYAK app for Android or iOS helps you search for cheap flights (plus hotels and car rentals) by searching hundreds of travel sites simultaneously. The app offers price forecasts and price history charts to help you figure out when you should go ahead and book and when you might benefit by waiting a little longer. The app automatically hides excessively long or exorbitantly expensive flights, and you can use smart flight search features like a Time of Arrival or Departure filter with a price histogram, an Airline Alliance filter, a red eye filter, and a Wi-Fi filter.
Kindle
Maybe it’s a little obvious, but no matter how devoted you are to print, there’s no denying that carrying a Kindle is a lot easier than lugging 10 hardbacks around with you. With the Kindle app you don’t even need the Kindle – just your smartphone. While there’ll be no swapping at hotels and hostels, the ease makes up for everything (iOS and Android).
SAS Survival Guide
Know your Morse code? How about how to start a fire? With this app you will. If you’re venturing anywhere remotely off the beaten path, it’s a must have. Written by a former SAS soldier and instructor, the app contains hundreds of survival skills that will help you both at home and away. Sure, you might be staying at a 5-star hotel in NYC’s Greenwich Village, but hey – better safe than sorry, right (iOS and Android)?
FlightAware
Skip downloading individual airport or airline apps for individual flights – FlightAware lets you track any flight in real-time, receive alerts and see airport delays (iOS and Android).
Wifispc
While it’s not necessarily a must-have, free WiFi on holiday is definitely a nice-to-have. Wifispc keeps you online, world over, thanks to an ever-growing list of WiFi networks and passwords continuously updated by users (iOSand Android).
CityMapper
Covering 36 cities and counting, CityMapper combines all the transport modes available in each city, to bring you the best way to get from A to B. It’s simple, easy to use and oh-so-effective. Give it a go (iOS and Android).
WeatherPRO
Everyone has their favourite weather app, but we love WeatherPRO. It’s extremely detailed, including ski weather, beach weather (with UV Index and water temperatures), and – most importantly – it’s accurate (iOS and Android)