Rome 2 Rio
“A door-to-door travel search engine that shows times, prices and even carbon emissions, whether you plan to fly, drive, take the train, bus or ferry,” says Mark. “For example, it’s a two-hour flight from Gatwick to Venice, but from my front door to Piazza San Marco will take six hours 24 minutes, apparently, including a 41-minute ferry ride to Ospedale, followed by an 18-minute walk. Getting to the Falkland Islands would take me 31 hours 40 minutes. It’s a fun and addictive site, but it can be beaten: it couldn’t find a way from my house to the South Pole.”
Google Translate
“I remember when Google first offered its translation service, just over 10 years ago, the results were either dodgy or indecipherable (generally both),” says Srin. “These days it’s pretty slick. I use it for translating websites into English, but it comes into its own when you’re travelling, and are struggling for a word or need to ask a question.”
Vital Vegas
“There’s nothing like local blogs for finding out the newest openings and trends in a place, but make sure you’re getting a blog that’s free from PR influence,” says Julia. “Vital Vegas is loathed by many Sin City PRs because it consistently breaks the stories they don’t want you to hear about, whether that’s charging for ice in drinks or decreasing the shot size in gamblers’ free drinks. But it also has its finger on the pulse of what’s going on.”
TripAdvisor's app is helpful on the go
TripAdvisor
“Love it or hate it, TripAdvisor is the daddy of hotel review websites,” says Mark. “Yes, it can be manipulated by unscrupulous hoteliers, but it has such a large bank of hotel reviews that the occasional bad one rarely influences the overall score. And it’s not just hotels – reviews of restaurants and tourist attractions are generally reliable, too. Its smartphone app is particularly good too.”
Duolingo
“If you’re heading to a country that speaks one of the languages Duolingo covers (including, most recently, Japanese) you could do a lot worse to learn the language than this fun language learning app,” says John. “Some of the phrases are delightfully weird, and its AI gets hung up on grammar points occasionally when you might really be preferring to learn vocab, but it’s free, easy and includes oral and listening options.”
Bouteco
“This is the perfect site for the eco-luxury traveller, ” says Mathura Premaruban. “Founded by Juliet Kinsman, she has travelled the world to bring together the finest luxury and boutique hotels that positively contribute to and change their local communities and ultimately the wider world. It is ideal for those that don’t want to compromise on luxury but still want to be environmentally and socially aware.”
Get emails about your wishlist destinations when prices hit rock bottom with Hitlist
Hitlist
“The world is so huge, and there are just so many places to go that organising your ‘must visit’ list can be a daunting task,” says Cynthia Drescher. “Well, Hitlist is here to help. Not only does it organise your ever-expanding destinations and allows you to share your picks with friends, but it constantly scrapes for updated airfare data to let you know when ticket prices are a steal. Technically it’s an app, but Hitlist has also rolled out a Google Chrome extension named the ‘Wandertab’ that draws from the company’s wealth of destination and airfare deals to inspire you with destination images and information
