If you have read our "DIY Travel vs Travel Agent" post and are ready to start planning your own travel without a travel agent, you are in the right place to make all your DIYTravel™ Reservations. This post will provide links to the best and most essential travel apps. We will cover go-to apps for international travel to different countries and new destinations, including "Best Apps for Overseas Travel" and "Best Travel Apps Europe."
Contents
Best Travel Apps Reservations
Make your reservations right here by accessing the affiliate links below to our favorite travel apps organized by travel category. We hope this post is a great resource for you. We have access to the following travel resources:
- Airline Flights
- Accommodations:
- Rental Cars
- Train Reservations
- Cruises
- Activities & Tours
- National Parks
- Theaters and Shows
- Sports Events and Concerts
- Restaurant Reservations
- Google Travel Apps
Airline Flights
However, the most handy app out there for finding the best flights for your next trip is Google Flights. Click here to get to the Google Flights link below to learn more and to compare flight prices. you can get the price information displayed in different currencies.
Accommodations
Once, you have flight plans booked, the next challenge is to find a good place to sleep. There are many fundamentally different alternatives that are available. unfortunately, we are not experts in Camping, Glamping or Hostels. So, you will need to find other advice if those choices are your preferences. However, we do have experience with finding a hotel room, Vacation Rentals and Timeshares. So, here are our recommendations for these three categories of accommodations.
Hotel Bookings
Looking for a hotel tonight, or maybe a few months from now? We use a number of different websites to book hotel reservations. Like airlines, if we are booking with points, we will book directly on the hotel website.
Our favorite hotel chain and favorite app is Hilton Hotels as we have tons of loyalty points with them. Click on the Hilton Logo to learn more.
For more information about the hotels from IHG or Marriott, please visit our Lodging Post. When we are looking for a hotel outside of the United States, we tend to use booking.com. They are very helpful for B&B rentals. Fill out the form below to find a booking.com reservation.
Vacation Rentals
When renting someone else's home, apartment or condominium we recommend using VRBO. With over 2 million bookable vacation rentals we find their offerings to be a good alternative to hotels and other lodging options in major cities. VRBO is a great way to find places to stay for all family members.
Two timeshare companies that we have used are the Villa Group (quality resorts in Mexico), and the Anantara Group, (luxurious resorts in Asia, the Indian Ocean, Middle East, Africa, Europe and South America).
Train Tickets
When traveling in Europe, we have often found train travel to be a much better way of getting around. European trains are normally on time, clean and usually affordable. A great tool to book train travel in Europe is with Rail Europe.
The easiest way to book European Train Tickets and Passes. We use Rail Europe to book all our train travel in Europe. It provides a nice service and can offer rail passes at a discount.
Best Travel Apps - Rental Cars
Since the COVID Pandemic, renting an automobile has become expensive. We have found Rentalcars.com to be a great app to save a little money and avoid the extra cost of some booking tools. They do a great search and show you all the alternatives at your desired rental location.
We also like to use Discount Hawaiian Car Rental when we are in Hawaii.
Cruise Travel Resources
While we prefer making our own reservations for most of our travel plans, we do suggest using a travel advisor in most cases when booking a cruise. Our favorite is to book with Marriott Bonvoy Cruises, as we can get as much as 6 times Bonvoy points when we use their service.
Our preferred cruise line is Celebrity Cruises.
Robin and Cos love Celebrity Cruises. We took a 36-day back-to-back cruise from Mumbai, India, to Tokyo, Japan in 2025 and loved every moment. In 2026, we took a 30-day back-to-back from Singapore to Hawaii. We usually choose Aqua Class as it has its own restaurant.
We also have found that in some cases you can book directly with a cruise line. One cruise line that we have a direct relationship with is Princess Cruises. They have a very good program for travelling to Alaska, especially if you are interested in visiting Denali National Park.
Princess Cruises are a great way for couples to have a wonderful vacation. The Sun Princess is their largest ship.
Activities & Tour Travel Resources
We have found that the best source for information about a destination is Trip Advisor. They have very good customer feedback reports.
Trip Advisor is a great website to get information about a location anywhere in the world. It can provide information about tours and places to stay. It contains independent reviews of the different places.
If you are planning on going to multiple venues (museums, shows, etc.) when you visit a city, then you might be interested in a GoCity pass. These passes offer you up to a 50% discount when you visit a number of venues in the same city.
Travel Guides
We find that having a tour guide on a small-sized or private tour is the best way to really learn about a destination. Most of our tours are found through two tour companies: Get Your Guide and Viator which is owned by Trip Advisor.
Get Your Guide
Interested in traveling and taking a tour? Get Your Guide is the best place to find the best tours and the best guides in most places around the world. Find out for yourself, click below.
Viator
Hop-On Hop-Off Buses
A good way to gain an understanding and overview of a new city is to jump on a hop-on hop-off bus tour. We like to use the Big Bus service in any of the cities where they operate, including in the US New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, and Las Vegas. And they also operate in many international cities including London, Paris, Rome and Singapore. Although, Rome also offers golf cart tours that can get around the traffic much faster.
Big Bus Tours takes you to safe areas in Manhattan and takes you to the best tourist places in the city.
National Parks
Staring back in the Covid days, the United States National Parks started to require reservations. Some State Parks in the US also require reservations, not jus for overnight stays, but just for entrances. Here is a link to make your USA national parks reservations.
Theaters and Shows
When traveling, Robin and Cos really enjoy going to shows whether its's Las Vegas, New York or London. In London we will use TicketmasterUK to get tickets. In New York we use Broadway Direct and in Las Vegas it is Vegas.Com.
Best Travel Apps Europe: London - Ticketmaster UK
Tickets for London Plays, Sports Events and other UK activities.
New York - Broadway Direct
Find everything you need from Broadway show tickets to information on Broadway performances and Broadway theatres in New York City and beyond.
Las Vegas - Vegas.com
Best Travel Apps - Sports Events & Concerts
If you are looking for tickets for either a sport event or to attend a concert, we highly recommend that you take a look at Viagogo. We used them to purchase tickets for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, but they are also a great source of concert tickets and for all sports events.
Restaurant Reservations
Robin makes most of our restaurant reservations. She usually uses Open Table or Resy.
For some ideas how to get reservations at the hottest restaurants please check our post The Ultimate Guide to Getting Restaurant Reservations.
However, for more information about our favorite restaurants please visit the following links.
Google Travel Apps
We would be forgetful, if we don't highlight for you the best apps for travel from Google. Here are our favorites:
- Google Maps This is a great travel app for not only helping you plan you trips, but also for creating your own offline maps.
- Google Flights This is one of the best apps for finding the best flights for your next destination. It won't book the flights, but it will point you in the best unbiased direction.
- google translate app Conversing with someone who only speaks their local language can be greatly aided with this great must-have app.
Other Travel Planning Aids
Looking for help booking your next trip or purchasing necessary travel aids? Here are a few of our favorite travel planning posts. Just click on the links to take you to these helpful posts:
- Travel Agent vs DIY Travel Planning
- Planning a Trip
- Best AI Travel Apps Want to find information about a specific AI feature or the best use of AI for travel, then click this link.
- Travel Rewards Points This is the best link to find information about your favorite loyalty program.
- Travel Accessories:
Use These Packing Lists with our complements!
We've developed a packing list for most of your different travel needs. These lists are easily downloaded for your free use as you balance "just what I need" versus "oops, I packed too much"! Click here.
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