Gear
Traveling is made easier if you have the right gear! There are lot of choices and everyone has their own preferences, here are our favorite must-pack items we try not to leave home without! Most of these items help us stay organized, comfortable, and connected.
You’ll notice we don’t have a wheeled travel bag nor a bag that we check. We avoid checked bags at all costs, lost luggage and waiting are our least favorite things when traveling. If you’re boarding last or in a later group, the overhead bin space for rollerboards is usually used up by the time you get on the flight. If they’re out of overhead space for roller bags (the hard ones on wheels) they’ll still usually let people with soft sided duffle on without having to check them. We can do about 2 weeks with 2 backpacks and 2 duffels, no checked bags or laundry needed.
Packing List
If you need a travel packing checklist for you, your dog, or locking up your house check ours out — it’s a Google Doc / Excel downloadable version with all the trip type variations included!
Is there travel gear you love not on this list that we should try out? Reach out!
Travel Apps
For travel apps, these are the ones we love:
- MAPS
- Cached Google Maps
- You need to CACHE a map of where you’re going before you leave so if you have poor service you are set up for success to get around
- Google Maps LIST – you can put all the places you want to go into a list that will layer on top of Google Maps. We previously used Google MyMaps but for traveling on the go or having a group build a travel list, we like Google Map’s list better.
- AllTrails For hiking routes
- PolarSteps For travel tracking. Does it automatically if your GPS is on and you can add details as well as media (photos / videos) along the way.
- Strava If you like recording your runs, hikes, walks, bike rides, etc. in a community. The paid version has some really cool 3D options to replay your hikes later.
- Cached Google Maps
- GETTING AROUND
- Uber / Lyft If available where we’re at, this is our go-to ride hauling apps. Uber is available in more international destinations. In the US, we’ll open both to get rates and go with the lower cost option. If it’s not available, we’ll make sure to download a ride hauling app local to the region BEFORE we leave (as it often takes time to set them up and get your credit card connected). By using a service opposed to local taxis, we avoid being scammed and don’t have language barrier issues when describing where we want to go. Grab is popular in many Asian countries but when we set it up, it took a while, for example.
- National Car Rental This is our favorite car rental company in the US. Save time in any line, just walk up and get your car. For people that hate waiting, this is the option for you. It’s available at most airports in the US but not much outside that. If you use any other car rental, be sure to download the app and see if they have a way for you to bypass the line before you deplane to save yourself time (most do now).
- Kayak For rentals when National isn’t available or we’re outside the US, we use Kayak to find the best deals with good options. Things to watch out for include: unlimited miles, if you’re outside the US – do they have a specific insurance requirement that they’ll make you use that will drive up the rate, gas, pickup options, etc.
- Rome2Rio An app that helps put pieces together if you want to get from point A to point B and it’s not super straight forward. They pull in train, ferry, plane, bus data etc.
- Wanderu – it’s like Kayak but for buses and trains. This is really handy in Europe.
- FLIGHTS
- Kayak Great for getting an idea of prices and comparing multiple options.
- Southwest If we are traveling in the US we also check their site as they aren’t populated on Kayak and often some of the lowest options when booking in advance
- Skiplagged If we only have carry on luggage. This is to check for flights that may have lower rates that go through the city you want to end it. The route you are paying for will be all be for all of the destinations in that route and you’ll need to hop off (skip the next leg). The catch here is you cannot check luggage as it will go to the end destination and if you have to check your carry on bag (because overhead space is full, as an example), you’ll need to go to the end destination to grab it.
- Google Flights Great if you’re open to going anywhere and want to see where you can get the best bang for your buck with flights. It allows you to check for flights from any destination to a specific destination or from a specific destination to any destination. Or somewhere between! You can type in anywhere, or a specific continent. You can pick set dates or time ranges or select anytime. For the flexible traveler, this is a great one to look at. However, from my experience, they aren’t integrated with all the various flight options. I think Kayak is better at checking for existing flights on dates for specific routes. But, they are also guaranteeing their flights! If you not only find the flight but book the flight on GoogleFlights, you can get money back if the price drops in the future! More on their price guarantee here.
- LODGING
- HotelTonight Last minute hotel deals, mostly US
- Kayak Great for getting an idea of prices and comparing multiple options
- Airbnb Renting out someone’s home or a room. We always look at reviews and when booking in advance, look for a good cancelation policy.
- Marriott If you find any deals for Marriott properties that are better than the Marriott site offers you can submit it and Marriott will give you a rate 20-25% lower than the lower third party rate you found. You just need to complete the claim form here. Read the fine print, it needs to be the same room type, date, cancelation, and a few select third party sites do not count etc. We were able to use this a few times to get great deals AND Marriott points!
- MONEY
- Currency Converter app, we like this one on Android
- SettleUp it’s great for group trips or trips where you’re splitting costs. It allows you to change currencies, pick who split the costs, etc. We use it between the two of us on each trip just to track our actual spending. You can use it for that, too! SplitWise is a competitor but we like SettleUp better.
- ACTIVITIES
- GetYourGuide – activities
- Viator – activities and reviews
- Airbnb Experiences – activities
- TripAdvisor – activities and reviews
- Roadtrippers Is a great app if you’re doing a road trip in the US/CAN and want interesting or unique places to stop along the way
- RESTRAURANTS
- Yelp Check local reviews
- TripAdvisor Check local reviews
- OpenTable Making mostly US restaurant reservations, ratings for restaurants built in
- Resy Making mostly US restaurant reservations
- HIKING
- NPS National Park Service app
- PeakFinder You can put the phone to any peak and it tells you details about it like height
- 14ers If you’re looking to hike any of the 14ers, this is the app for you to consult
- Recreation.gov Great for campsite reservations as well as highly sought after permits like The Wave
- SongSleuth Identify birds from their calls
- Picture This Plant identification. Take a photo of plants and they tell you what they think it is (could be replaced by uploading your photo to ChatGPT though)
- SAILING
- Navitronics (paid) – marine charts
- Predict Wind
- Knots 3D
- OTHER
- ChatGPT Great for planning your trip, checking things along the way, translations, etc.
- PackPoint Great for helping you figure out how much and what you need to bring if that isn’t something you’re good at doing yourself (you either under pack, over pack, or just forget things).
- Google Translate, Be sure to download the language ahead of time. Great options to translate things in real time from live images to photos to conversations between two people
- GoogleFi If you’re doing longer stint trips (7+ days), GoogleFi is internet, data, and calling options for your phone in most countries. It’s super easy to use and affordable. But, when we’re going somewhere shorter than a week we just add on a service to our existing carrier (T-mobile) for extra internet speed, data, and and calling and it’s cheaper. Check your carrier to see options for traveling outside the country.
- Airalo eSim service for various countries so you’re not stuck without connectivity and/or high rates for data or making calls. GoogleFi rates are generally better for data, but check both!
- TripIt Great for automatically skimming and pulling travel confirmations from your email inbox into one place for easy reference. We don’t use it because most of our trips are done last minute so the next stops are top of mind, but if you’re a pre-planned well in advance this is handy. An alternative is Wanderlog (better for group travel because of interactivity) or TripCase (itinerary making where you manually forward your confirmations to an email address) but seem to have less bells and whistles.
- SkyMap If you like to look at the stars, this app on Android is great. Apple has similar ones like this one
- WhatsApp Many countries use WhatsApp for communication between patrons and venues, events, or activity operators. If you’re traveling internationally, download the app head of time!
- GooglePhotos – we use this to throw all our photos and videos into after a trip and share with the other people we went with. It works for iPhone or Android users!
Is there a travel app you love not on this list that we should try out? Reach out!
