I thought it would be helpful if I put together a list of resources I’ve used to help make world travel a bit easier for myself. There are a lot of ways to go about your travel business like how to find good prices on flights, how to see if a hostel is sketchy or not before you’re at it, and how to travel with less money, and after a bit of trial and error I feel like I now know which resources are great and which to avoid.
Full Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links. What that means is if you click on it, I’ll get a small commission (think of it as a finders fee) though there is absolutely no difference in cost to you. I only list companies and products that I use myself – nothing here is paid-advertising. I only add it to the list if I’ve used it and it works. Who knows, maybe some day I’ll get enough support from my readers that I’ll eventually be able to travel full-time :)
Travel Websites I Find Useful
- REI: My favorite outdoors store. Great for all sorts of adventure and travel gear. Perfect for backpacks, hiking boots, travel clothes, sleeping sacks, etc. The REI brand-name gear is just as good as the premium brands, but often costs way less.
- Kayak: I’ve probably booked more flights through Kayak than anywhere else. The bread and butter of their site is the travel calendar: sometimes you can get your flight for much cheaper if you change your travel days by a day or two. The round-trip flight to Puerto Rico was going to costs $487pp, but using the calendar we changed our travel days to Mondays and it became $417pp for an easy $70pp savings.
- Vayama: Very clean and efficient site makes it easy to navigate and organize a multi-leg, multi-city flight – even if you use ground transportation between cities. Great place to begin looking for your flight, as you can often find better prices elsewhere. Only can book international travel.
- XE: Whenever you need to convert currencies, this is the place to go.
- REI Adventures: I’ve now done two trips through REI Adventures – my kayaking trip around Charleston and my snowshoeing trip in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Both were completely awesome. Great guides, lots of outdoor fun and adventure. Especially good for an adventurous weekend getaway.
- Priceline: Priceline is great way to find really good prices on hotels. I don’t end up using them too often for flights as it seems to work best for hotels at more popular destinations (such as Las Vegas), but it’s always good to check them.
- Hotwire: Another great resource to get the best deal you can on hotel price you can.