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Travel Resources

Trip planning is the first step to a successful vacation.

A carefully planned trip will save you money, time, and potential frustration. These are the best travel resources that I have used in my 7+ years of (almost) full-time traveling to streamline the trip planning process. One of my top travel tips is that with a little time and effort before you go, you can maximize you holiday.

This travel resource page is regularly updated to help you plan your next international travel trip and often includes discounts provided to me by the companies for my readers.

Disclaimer: Some of the links on this website are affiliate links. I receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, which contributes to maintaining this website as a travel resource. Please know that all companies are ones that I do use and have had great experiences with in my travels, or I would not include them on Blue Sky Traveler.

Let's get planning your next Vacation !!!

Air
Hotels
Transportation
Travel Gear
Tours
Essentials
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Air Travel

Tips for booking your flight

Momondo is a flight search aggregator finding the best airfare across the web from over 1000 airlines, online booking sites, travel agencies, search engines, other online travel discount sites and includes small, budget airlines and lesser-known airlines. It usually finds me the least expensive option for the same flight as the platform does not tag on fees.
Momondo
Skyscanner is another aggregator with a wide search and has great search functionality. My favorite feature is flights to “everywhere” to find different cities for vacationing to fit your time allotment and budget.




SkyScanner
Google Flights is one of the most powerful flight search engines on the internet. It’s easy & fast to use and provides searches in calendar view which is great if you have date flexibility and multiple airport search. It does not always show the lowest fair and shows unavailable deals. However, this is a great tool to start your air travel search.
Google Flights
Priority Pass is my life-saver for frequent travel. I like to arrive early for flights to avoid issues, and I pop into one of over 1200 lounges accessible through Priority Pass. Free wifi, quiet, refreshments. It’s the calm IN the storm on hectic travels days.



Priority Pass
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Hotels & Accommodation

Tips for booking your hotel or accommodation

I have stayed over 150 nights through Hotels.com. This has earned me Gold level in their VIP programs.

With this loyalty, I receive great discounts, room upgrades, early/late check in/out, free wifi, and reward nights for every 10 stays.

Loyalty pays in this program.

Hotels.com
Booking.com is my next
go-to for hotels searches. It has a wider range of hotels and sometimes the only aggregator with available hotels in less touristed countries ie Eastern and Southern Europe.

Loyalty pays here too with the Genius program offering 10% discounts. Prices are usually comparable to Hotels.com

Booking.com
Agoda is my preferred search aggregator for hotels and guest houses in Asia.

They simply have the most extensive coverage in this area of the world.

Loyalty pays again as they have a points based system where you can collect and then redeem for stays.

Agoda
I usually mix-up accomodation on a longer trip between hotels and AirBnB.

I like to hunt for unique properties for access to the local charm, a kitchen, a little more space, and laundry facilities.

If you are new to AirBnB, you can receive $20 off your first stay.
AirBnB
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Transportation

Tips for booking a rental car

The best way to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B.

Rome2Rio has routes to get anywhere by plane, train, bus, ferry & car.

This website has saved me hours of searching for routes and ways to route that I would have even thought of.
Rome2Rio
I have rented over 100 cars from RentalCars.com. They have a great selection and even better customer service.

They also have a great app to keep all your reservation details sorted for ease upon collecting your car when you want to just get in and go!

RentalCars.com
Seat61.com is a personal website, started as a hobby that has grown into a valued resource for train travel.

This site has first-hand detailed information about routes, best seats, and a myriad of details about each route that one would not know until you have traveled it.
Seat61
I have zipped through dozens of countries in Europe on RailEurope. They offer both individual train tickets and RailEurope Passes which offer great discounts on multi-stop routes.

Once you travel by train in Europe, you will wish they had this system in the USA.
Rail Europe

Cruises

Tips for booking a cruise

CruiseDirect.com has a great search engine for finding cruises around the world with pricing on several package options.

They also guarantee best rate.



Cruise Direct
Another resource that started as a hobby site, CruiseSheet scours the internet to find the best values on the best cruises.

Deals here have no booking fees, no change fees, and add no markup. They charge the bare minimum that cruise lines allow.
Cruise Sheet
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Travel Gear

TMobile was my choice for a US Sim card as it gave me unlimited texting and up to 2G data speeds in 210+ countries and destinations—at no extra cost.

TMobile
Amazon Prime and fast shipping is a life saver for me to pick up tech items, luggage and misc items with fast shipping to my temporary home base or hotel. I also enjoy Amazon Prime Video on the road.
Amazon
The mecca for camera lovers - B&H Photo has everything for camera aficionados. I have purchased much of my kit here and they offer fast reliable shipping.

B&H Photo
Camera gear: I have used this site to both sell my camera gear and also buy used & refurbished lens.



KEH Camera
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Tours

Tips for booking a tour

Did you know you can research tours & attractions, read the reviews, and book it all on the TripAdvisor site?

I have booked several adventures, especially hot air balloons, through TripAdvisor and love this feature.


TripAdvisor
Viator is now owned by TripAdvisor so much of the information overlaps, but a great resource for booking tours.

Viator has more than 70,000 trips from more than 2,400 destinations listed on their site.


Viator
This German based company and also has a wide range of tours and has partnered with several European based airlines for packaged trips.

Get Your Guide has over 30,000 tours and activities in over 2,500 destinations across more than 110 countries.

Get Your Guide
These multi-day small group tours are more focused on the cultural experience and maintain an ethos of sustainable travel.

Intrepid Travel offers 1000 trips across 100 countries, we’re sure you’ll find something you like and trip leaders are born and raised in-country.
Intrepid

Guide Books

Rick Steves has inspired my European travels since I watched his shows on PBS in the 1990's.

I have used his books for many of my travel especially in Western Europe. They are well organized, easy to read, history focused, and a valuable resource.


Rick Steves
Lonely Planet is my other choice for travel guide books especially in non-European areas.

They book also provide the needed info you need for sites, accommodations, transportation information, etc. The information is a bit backpacker focused, but still very useful.

Lonely Planet
With over 455 million unique visitors, 661 million reviews covering 7.5 million accommodations, restaurants, and attractions, TripAdvisor will likely have some information on your destination.

Due to the density of information, I throw out the high and low reviews and can get a pretty reliable review on places I might want to visit.
TripAdvisor
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Travel Essentials

Tips for travel insurance

Travel Insurance is an essential part of your trip, especially overseas. For a small amount of money per trip, you can assure yourself of medical coverage, evacuation and cover yourself in many other emergency situations.

I have used WorldNomads for years now.
World Nomads
A fan of this app since 2011, I have logged in over 140 trips taking me to 63 countries and 1 million miles..

This tool organizes all of my airline, hotel, car rental and other reservations so I have all the details and confirmation numbers handy in one spot and in the same format.
TripIt
Wifi on demand while traveling overseas.

A SkyRoam unit can be rented or purchased for a trip. Then you can purchase daily passes for wifi usage when needed.

Use code BLUESKYTRAVELER to get a 10% coupon code

SkyRoam
This list covers the websites & resources that I use to plan and book a trip.

Discover all my favorite travel phone apps that I use while I travel




Phone Apps
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