Every single one of our travels starts off with thorough “investigation”. Along the best things to do and see in a certain location, it’s very important to book your accommodation, tours, car rental etc. in advance. I’d even argue that this is the first thing you should do after booking your ticket, as availability is limited and you want to be able to grab the best deal as early as possible.
This is why my travel planning process looks like this:
1. Book tickets to the destination.
2. Research the best area to stay at and find accommodation.
3. Book car rental.
4. Book any day trips/excursions that we want to go to.
5. Research the best things to do in this location and create a detailed travel plan.
6. Create a packing list and buy anything that I might be missing (for example we had to buy a lot of polar fleece clothing for our winter Iceland trip).
6. Bon voyage!
Here are the platforms I use when planning a trip.
Accommodation
Booking.com – one of the best accommodation platforms where you can find anything from hotels, villas, rental apartments and more. Through booking you can sometimes get extra discount on some properties or book a place with a free cancellation policy.
AirBnb – a great alternative to the regular hotels. This is a platform where actual home owners provide their properties for short-term rental to travellers, usually at a better price than a hotel room.
VRBO – the new rival to AirBnb. They are just starting to become popular in some markets but they’re definitely worth checking out (and absolutely legit)
Car rental
Discover Cars – a platform where you can compare the prices of different car rental companies. We’ve used it a few times on our travels and haven’t had any issues with them.
Rental Cars – another great platform where you can compare prices of different companies.
Top Rent a Car – reliable car rental company in Bulgaria, if you’re looking for something local
Tours
Get Your Guide – one of the best online platforms that I regularly use to book any museum tickets, day trips or excursions whenever I’m travelling. For example, this is where we booked our Paxos and Antipaxos boat trip during our stay in Corfu, or the tickets to the Vasa museum, as well as the archipelago boat cruise in Stockholm.
Viator – another super popular platform for booking museum tickets, day trips etc. Sometimes you may find something on Viator that’s not on GYG, and vice versa.
GoCity – get a bundle of activities and pay less than if you were to book them on their own!
TripAdvisor – Another great option for booking tours around the world.
Tiquets – similarly to GYG and Viator, on Tiquets you can book tours or tickets to different attractions. It’s more used in Western Europe.
Klook – similar to the above platforms, you can find tickets to different attractions or tours.
Transportation
Trainline – compare train and bus ticket prices and buy them directly on the platform.
Big Bus Tours – most major cities around the world (mostly Europe) have these big red buses that go around all the major attractions, allowing you to use them as transportation directly to the most important places. Also known as Hop On Hop Off Buses.
Omio – a platform that allows you to compare and book train, bus and plane tickets to any destination.
eSIM Card
Airalo – be connected wherever you go – you pay directly in the app and have internet straight away. No need to look for a sim card provider. Get $3 OFF with discount code LYUBOM7851
Photography equipment
Coming soon!
| P.S. Most of these links are affiliate links. This means that if you book through them, I potentially get a small commission. I’d be forever grateful if you could support me like this – it wouldn’t cost you anything and it helps me out A LOT! Thank you! |
