Written by Jessy Leone
Traveling is my ultimate passion in life. There’s nothing quite like the thrill and joy of exploring new places and indulging in a new culture. However, I have to admit that the process of planning a trip can be incredibly stressful. Instead of daydreaming about my future adventures, I often find myself buried in countless websites, trying to keep track of all my bookings and itineraries. That’s why I’ve become obsessed with trip planning apps for planning trips lately. They make organizing my travel more enjoyable and less overwhelming.
In this article, I’m sharing my go-to trip planning apps that I never leave behind when embarking on a journey. I’ll give a quick overview of each one and how they simplify my travel planning process. Whether you’ve got a big international adventure on the horizon or just a weekend road trip coming up, these best trip planner apps are guaranteed to transform your prep.
Nowy – AI Trip Planning App for Any Trip Budget
As an avid traveler, I’m always seeking ways to maximize adventures while minimizing travel planning headaches. That’s why I’m loving Nowy – an AI-powered social trip planner that makes organizing travel journeys an absolute joy.
With advanced AI, this travel planner app completely reinvents trip preparation for both leisure and business travel. Simply tell the app your destination and trip length. Within seconds, Nowy generates a customizable trip itinerary tailored exactly to your preferences. We’re talking detailed routes, transportation, Google maps, and even activity recommendations – everything you need for a perfect trip!
The AI delivers human-like suggestions through a conversational interface. I love chatting with Nowy and getting quick answers about hidden gem recommendations as I firm up my plans. It almost feels like having a pocket-sized travel buddy.
Beyond one-on-one AI assistance, Nowy has a travel community integrated into the app. I can discover top attractions and local secret spots by exploring fellow travelers’ experiences and bucket lists.
Nowy also invites you to share your own adventures by posting stories, photos, and videos. This will not only inspire others to plan trips to the same destinations but may also encourage someone to visit a place that wasn’t previously on their list. Some other standout Nowy features include:
- Uncovering cool hidden places nearby
- AI-enhanced storytelling to recap travels
- Detailed Google maps with custom routes and transportation
- Instant bookings to reserve activities and stays
Whether finalizing plans for an upcoming getaway or simply dreaming of future journeys, Nowy brings the process to life. And it ensures every trip is distinctly personalized through AI. Currently, this travel planner app is only available in Apple app store.
WilderTrips – The Road Trip Planner for Motorhome Holidays
Are you planning a motorhome holiday and want to make sure you have the most adventurous trip? Look no further than WilderTrips, the trip planner that has helped create over 1,000 trips for road travelers around the world. With this trip planning tool, you can easily plan the best route for your journey, whether you’re traveling through the mountains of Colorado or the beaches of Bali.
One of the best things about WilderTrips is its global direction that works in every country. This means that no matter where you are in the world, you can use this tool to plan your perfect motorhome adventure. The road planner also includes many other great features:
- Calculate time and driving distances in miles or kilometres
- Add up to 200 stops per trip
- Upload your own photos and add notes
- Re-order stops for better driving directions
- Trips are private by default
- Supports ferry travel
Whether you’re on the road or at home, you can easily update your plans with WilderTrips. This means that if you suddenly decide to take a detour or want to add a new destination to your itinerary, you can do so with just a few taps on your phone.
With WilderTrips, you’ll never have to worry about running out of time on your trip again. The planner helps you arrange your days and optimize your stops more efficiently, so you can do more and make the most of your motorhome adventures.
Rome2Rio – Trip Planner App for Air, Water and Road Trips
As someone who loves road trip adventures on a budget, I’m always on the hunt for a right trip planner app that would make my entire trip more affordable.
Rome2Rio shows you every possible transport combination to get anywhere in the world, it’s like having Google maps on steroids. It was created to take the stress out of travel research for air and road trips. Simply enter your destination, and Rome2Rio will instantly map out planes, trains, buses, ferries, car rentals or even rideshares to get you there. It outlines the prices, durations, schedules, and connections – everything you need to evaluate and compare your options side-by-side.
I used Rome2Rio to plan a multi-city Eurotrip and it was invaluable. I could customize the trip around my budget and interests. When I saw an affordable overnight bus between cities instead of a pricy flight, Rome2Rio made it simple to adjust my trip itinerary. The flexibility to tailor transportation around my needs was amazing.
After you enter any address, landmark, or city as your destination, this travel planner app will show you all the travel options including by air, by land, and by water. Essentially it will show you everything you need to compare the routes:
- Prices
- Duration
- Schedules and connections
- Company information
- Booking details
With coverage in over 160 countries, Rome2Rio has global knowledge at its fingertips. It compiles real-time data from thousands of local transit companies – an invaluable resource for travelers around the world.
This trip planner app is available in both Apple app store and Google Play store.
Klook App – Bookings for Travel Experiences with Exclusive Discounts
With access to over 200,000 incredible activities worldwide, Klook curates top-rated cultural experiences, tours, attractions, and more from hundreds of locations. I love browsing handpicked local insights to discover the hidden gems at each place.
The app makes booking adventures simple through instant e-confirmation and skip-the-line ticket options. I never have to waste precious travel time waiting in long queues!
I used Klook to book an incredible food tour in Rome. We visited 5 local eateries, learned about traditional dishes like Cacio e Pepe, and tasted the best gelato. It was a foodie’s dream! The tour guide offered insightful commentary about Roman culture and history between samplings.
Beyond tours and attractions, Klook also provides seamless transport booking for trains, buses, and ferries.
This app lets users organize upcoming adventures with useful features like:
- Instant e-voucher redemption
- Downloading tickets for offline access
- Wishlist for saving ideas
- Discounts on events and movies
With Klook as my trip-planning companion, I’ve enjoyed immersive local experiences that would have been difficult to find on my own. It provides easy access to top-rated activities worldwide, so you can focus on creating joyful memories.
This travel planning app is available in both Google Play and Apple app store.
Skratch App – Trip Planning with Travel Journaling and Placed to Visit
Like most travelers, I love collecting stamps in my passport and reminiscing about past adventures. That’s why I’m obsessed with the Skratch app – it brings all your journeys to life in one interactive digital map!
Skratch lets you visually map everywhere you’ve been in the world and create a future travel bucket list. As you log countries and cities visited, they automatically get marked on your personalized digital scratch map. It’s so cool watching the map fill up with all the places I’ve explored over the years.
What really makes Skratch stand out is how it integrates your travel memories. You can upload photos, videos, and stories from each destination. Then Skratch organizes them on your map so you can relive your experiences by tapping on a country.
Beyond tracking past trips, Skratch is great for planning future ones too. You can curate bucket list items and get travel inspiration from suggested destinations. I also love the real-time travel info – entry requirements, COVID policies, visa guides, and more.
App developers have recently added additional features to help users plan their travel around weather insights:
- Recommendations of the best time to visit a country
- Visual overviews of a country’s main seasons and climate
- Average weather by month for a country’s major cities
Overall, Skratch takes travel journaling to the next level. Instead of scrolling through endless camera rolls, all your special memories and future goals live on an interactive world map.
Tris trip planner app is available in both Google Play and Apple app store.
Sygic Travel – Road Trip Planner with Offline Maps and Guided Tours
At its core, Sygic Travel helps you build customized daily itineraries with useful trip-planning features. Easily map out hotels, restaurants, sights, or any other points of interest, then view estimated travel times between them. This lets you build realistic, and highly optimized travel plans.
I also love inviting friends to collaborate on the same trip in the app. It’s perfect for group travel planning – no more endless email threads and Google docs! You can easily map out a multi-stop Eurotrip together with all your travel companions.
But Sygic Travel goes way beyond a road trip planner for travel planning. It has incredibly detailed offline maps similar to Google maps, and a great selection of guides for over 50 million points of interest globally. I can download the travel guide with interactive maps ahead and then navigate seamlessly without data or roaming charges during my road trip.
Other handy features include:
- Powerful search with filters to easily find specific places
- Exclusive 360° videos of major attractions
- Tours, activities, and attraction tickets
- Hotel and apartment booking options
Sygic Travel is an excellent trip planner app for anyone road-tripping through the US or backpacking across Asia. It helps you discover fantastic experiences and create travel plans that make your journey effortless, regardless of your destination.
This travel planning app is available in both Apple app store and Google Play store.
LoungeBuddy App- Find Lounges and Explore Airports
As someone who travels often, I find airport layovers to be a source of dread, especially when terminals are overcrowded and seating is limited. However, discovering LoungeBuddy has been a total game changer in making my travel time more enjoyable. This useful travel planner app grants access to hundreds of airport lounges worldwide, providing a relaxing oasis during any journey.
LoungeBuddy neatly compiles every lounge in the most popular and busiest airports with valuable details like photos, amenities, prices, reviews, and more. You can browse options for your upcoming terminals to find the perfect fit based on your needs.
This travel planning app makes it easy to determine which lounges you already have free access to through your airline status, credit cards and memberships. No more wasting time researching individual airline policies. LoungeBuddy has all that info in one place:
- Access details on over 800 of the busiest and most popular airports globally, including access to over 2000 lounges.
- Information including lounge hours, location, ratings, reviews, photos, available amenities, required access, and guest privileges.
You can find this travel planner app in Apple app store, among other trip planning apps that help discover best deals.
PackPoint App – Stress-Free Packing as a Great Addition to Your Trip Planner Apps
I’ll admit it – I’m a chronic over-packer. No matter the trip, I somehow always end up cramming my suitcase to the brim while still forgetting essentials. So when I discovered PackPoint, it completely changed my packing approach! This genius app creates customized lists so I never forget the necessities again.
PackPoint asks for key details about your trip like destination, length of stay, and planned activities. Then it whips up a personalized checklist of exactly what to pack based on weather, occasion, and more at your location.
To customize PackPoint’s suggestions, you can input information about repeating outfits, laundry access, and other preferences. This feature is incredibly helpful in ensuring that you don’t pack unnecessary items, and instead pack smartly for your trip. PackPoint will build a packing list for you that takes into account:
- Business or Leisure travel
- Activities you plan on doing
- What you need for an international trip
- Warm weather clothes
- Cold weather clothes
- An umbrella if the forecast calls for rain
Another feature I appreciate is creating lists for multiple trips at once. I’m already using PackPoint to organize for upcoming winter and tropical vacations later this year.
No matter your destination, PackPoint eliminates the stress of packing by providing a tailored list. I can finally stop obsessively googling “what to pack for x” and enjoy the pre-travel excitement instead!
Like many other trip planning apps, this travel planning tool is available in both Google Play and Apple app store.
Combine the Power of Multiple Travel Planner Apps
I hope this overview of my favorite travel planner apps has shown you how useful technology can be when planning escapes. Whether you love diving into the logistical details or prefer just establishing the broad outline, these travel planning apps have got you covered, and you can combine their capabilities to make the best trip of your life.
The bottom line is that travel should be fun, exciting, and joyful. With these travel apps now available to handle the stressful logistics for you, you’re free to daydream about future adventures to your heart’s content!
Most importantly, get out there and chase your travel dreams! With your detailed itinerary organized and packing list ready thanks to these trip planning apps, nothing is stopping you from booking those trips on your wish list and making lifelong memories around the world. Wishing you happy travels on your next trip!