I’ll be adding my favorite travel resources as I discover them. Hope these help you follow your dreams!
This is the best flight-searching website I have found. It gathers information on all airlines that fly in and out of the airports you enter, and ranks flights from cheapest to most expensive. It also gives you a month-long view of flight price variations, so you can see which days are cheaper to fly on. There’s also a handy function to change the currency to whatever you’re most familiar with, whether it’s US Dollars, British Pounds Sterling, or Icelandic Krona, so you don’t have to do any conversions yourself. Best of all, all the results are displayed on one page; no pesky going back and forth between multiple tabs.
If you’re not traveling alone, it’s almost always likely that you can find a place to stay on AirBnB for cheaper than a hostel. AirBnb works by verifying hosts who want to rent out a room, apartment, floor, house, etc. for a few days to a month. Places range from $7 a night and up. In addition, you might be able to score a place with a kitchen, bath/shower, and security, so you don’t have to worry about locking your stuff in a locker. The hosts are generally very kind and helpful, and are a font of information on how to get around, and non-touristy cool things to do and see. Even if you’re alone, this is a great option if you want to avoid hostels, and a great way to get a more local view during your trip.
If you decide against AirBnB, or you want to find the absolute cheapest housing option, Hostels Worldwide is a great place to start. You can type in your destination, dates, and how many people are traveling, and the system will give you a list of all of your options, with pricing. This is great to compare everything all at once, especially when price is a motivating factor.
This is one of my absolute favorite travel blogs. The writing is impeccable, Brooke is funny and relatable, and the information is useful. There are travel tips and tricks, location inspiration, itineraries, and suggested places to visit for nearly any country you can imagine.
All those cool photos you see in their magazine? You can go there, too! Nat Geo is a great source for finding new and unique places to travel. The photography is always inspiring too!
Lonely Planet’s Europe on a Shoestring
This book is my favorite for travel advice, attraction suggestions, accommodation options, money conversion, weather temperatures, and high/low season information all in one place. Plus, the book comes with suggestions for how to save money and which cities are going to cost the most. There’s also a nice kindle edition of the book, so you don’t have to carry around the heavy paperback. Although personally, I like highlighting and writing in the margins on paper!
TripAdvisor’s website is easy to navigate and something of a jack of all trades. My favorite part about the website is the reviews; almost every attraction or recommendation is backed up (or not) by reviews from other travelers, and dated so that you can know how recent the review is. My suggestion would be to just search the site for city or country you’re interested in, and go from there.