Although there’s so much information on travel on the web today, it can sometimes be difficult and time-consuming to find what you’re looking for. To save you time, we’ve compiled a list of useful resources that will help you to plan your next trip:
- The Best Hotel Booking Websites
- Unique Hotels We Love
- Free travel accommodation world-wide
- The Best Flight Booking Sites
The life is too short, so don’t postpone your travel plans anymore and start planning your travel adventure now!
The Best Hotel Booking Websites
The following websites are the best sites to book hotels all around the world. You will find all kinds of accommodation here, from budget hotels to luxury ones. They are easy to navigate and are full of discounts. When you need to book your stay, check out all these websites and find the best deal!
TripAdvisor is a great site to start planning your trip. Not only you can book accommodation for a good price on this website, but there are also millions of reviews on hotels, restaurants, places and things to do. All these reviews are other travellers’ opinions.
We very often use TripAdvisor to check out reviews of hotels and places we want to travel to, and to write reviews too. If you want to contribute and write reviews on TripAdvisor, create an account and start reviewing!
(Notice: As anybody can write reviews on TripAdvisor, some hotels write themselves fake positive reviews to cover up negative review they had been given by travellers. It’s quite easy to spot such a review though – the person who wrote a fake positive review had not reviewed any other hotels or places, and in some countries, the fake reviews are written in very poor English.)
Booking.com is also a good resource of hotel reviews. It’s a booking site for hotels, guest houses and hostels. We like this website because the booking process is straightforward, most hotels are cheaper here than if booked directly at the hotel and there are always special deals.
Agoda is one of the best sites to book hostels and hotels all around the world. You will find all kinds of accommodation here, from low budget hotels to luxury ones.
This booking site is easy to navigate and is full of discounts.
Agoda has got a nice reward points system too. When you book through Agoda you earn points for every booking (4-7% of the booking) which are converted to cash value and can be used in your future bookings.
Hotels.com is another handy hotel booking website on which you can find special deals and discounts. Check out their reward programme – collect 10 nights and get 1 for free.
Expedia will offer you some great discounts if you book your hotel and flights, or your hotel, flights and car hire at the same time.
HostelWorld and Hostelbookers are the two best hostel booking websites with lots of hostel reviews and information for budget travellers. It’s easy to book.
If you want to meet other travellers and don’t mind staying in a dormitory, then these two websites are for you. In most hostels you may book a room just for yourself too, but a bed in a dormitory will be a cheaper option if you travel on your own.
Hotel chains you can book directly with:
Home rentals
Live like a local when you travel or/and rent your home to travellers
Airbnb connects travellers with people who rent out their homes or other properties. You can rent a room, a studio, a bigger flat or even a whole house for any length of time.
Staying in Airbnb place might be different from staying in a hotel because you have a chance to meet someone local, if you rent just a room. The flats or houses are often in a part of the place you are travelling to which is not so touristy, and you get all the comfort of a home.
Sign up here to get 25 USD discount on your first Airbnb stay anywhere in the world!
Other Home Rental Websites:
Unique Hotels We Love
We love unique hotels and time to time we write reviews of them, too!
Check out the following reviews of gorgeous unique hotels we have stayed at and can highly recommend them!
Unique heritage hotels in Malaysia
Welcoming boutique hotel Castle Inn in Ortahisar, Cappadocia
Free travel accommodation world-wide
House sitting
What is house sitting?
When home and pet owners from all over the world go away (on a holiday, a business trip, or to visit a family abroad), they need a house and pet sitter to take care of their house or a flat and their pets (dogs, cats, fish, rabbits, turtle, even horses) if they have any.
It’s for free for both sides, but sometimes the owners ask sitters to pay the bills if they house sit for a longer period of time.
We have done a research on all house sitting websites that are available and consider Trusted Housesitters to be the best one because it allows you to browse though house sitting opportunities from all around the world for free and has plenty of new listings every day.
You are asked to pay a fee to join the website if you want to contact the homeowners, after you have gone through all the listings and have decided to become a house sitter.
We registered at Trusted Housesitters about half a year ago and have house sit three times since then (in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand). The fees were different from the current ones.
Now you have three options and the cheapest one is to pay a membership for a year ahead which costs 7.99 USD per month. Considering that you can house sit for weeks or months at beautiful places, very often in luxurious houses and/or exotic destinations, the fee is insignificant.
Here you can sign up if you’d like to become a house and pet sitter, or just browse through house sitting opportunities on Trusted Housesitters.
House sitting is suitable for long-term travellers, as well as short-term travellers who would like to visit interesting places like London, Paris, Greece, the Caribbean, Mexico, the Seychelles, New Zealand, Hawaii … (the list and opportunities with Trusted Housesitters are endless) and save money on accommodation.
To know more about our experience house sitting and how you can become a house sitter too, have a look at our post: How to become a house sitter and see the world for free
House Carers is another good house sitting website. We have recently signed up on this one too, but have not house sat though House Carers yet. To join, we paid 50 USD for a year long membership. The annual membership fee is lower than on Trusted Housesitters, but there are also many less new listings appearing on House Carers than on Trusted Housesitters.
Home Exchange
Home Exchange is an alternative way of spending your holiday; you stay in someone’s home while they stay in yours. With 65,000 house listings in 150 countries of the world, Home Exchange is the best house swapping website available on the Internet, and also the most economical one (currently the annual membership costs 150 USD).
Once you agree with another member of Home Exchange, accommodation in their house is free while they stay in yours. Cars are often exchanged, too.
How does it work?
If you like the idea of spending a holiday in someone else’s house, whether it’s in the next city or on the other side of the world, you just sign up on Home Exchange, list your house there and start browsing other listings.
Once you find your ideal house for a home exchange, contact the owners. You will be contacted by members of Home Exchange who like your listing and are interested in swapping their house for yours. When you find each other, simply arrange your home exchange.
Home Exchange allows you to swap your house as many times as you want and live like a local in exciting locations!
Couchsurfing
Couchsurfing is a website which connects travellers who want to meet the locals and/or stay with them, and local people who are interested in meeting or/and hosting travellers who are just visiting their town/area.
The main idea behind Couchsurfing is a cultural exchange, meeting people from other parts of the world, helping each other and making new friends!
You can sign up and create your detailed profile for free and then send requests to hosts in the place you’re going to. Staying with hosts is for free too.
Sometimes you get a real couch in a living room but very often you get to sleep in a separate room.
We signed up a few years ago and since then have met lovely local people in different countries all around the world. We like Couchsurfing; we have made friends all over the world thanks to it and are still in touch with some of them.
To read more about Couchsurfing and our experience, read our post How to use couch surfing to travel the world.
Warm Showers
Warm Showers is a community for cyclists and hosts. The concept is similar to Couchsurfing, but the hosts offer their place for free to touring cyclists only. We don’t have any experience using Warm Showers but have heard good things from travellers on a bike.
Volunteering
The concept of these three websites is to volunteer 4-6 hours daily Monday to Friday in exchange for accommodation and food.
On WOOFing you can find volunteering opportunities on farms all over the world. There is always a fee to pay for a year long membership. This fee differs depending on a country.
Helpx offers volunteering opportunities in teaching English, helping in hostels and animal sanctuaries, gardening, farming etc. If you want to join the cost is 29 USD for 2 years for a single person, or 38 USD for two years for two people who are travelling together and want to volunteer.
WorkAway has similar projects. It’s free to create a helper ‘s profile so that hosts can contact you if they are looking for helpers. If you would like to contact hosts, there’s a fee 20 euro to be paid for the Premium membership which is valid two years.
Sleeping at the airports
If your flight out is in the morning or you are flying in late in the night and you need a place to stay, one option is to sleep at the airport. It might sound weird, but believe it or not, there’re a lot of travellers who stay at airports overnight before or after their flight, get (mostly) free wifi, have a shower and some sleep.
Sleepinginairport.net is a website with information and reviews about airports all over the globe.
The Best Flight Booking Websites
Skyscanner is our favourite flight booking website. The best thing about Scyscanner is that you can search for flights from your city to ‘Everywhere’ to see the cheapest flight tickets available from your closest airport.
Expedia is perfect for flight booking if you book your flights together with a hotel stay (and a car hire). The final price for the whole package will be much cheaper than if you booked all separately.
STA travel is a great site to book your flights as well as accommodation and travel insurance. And if you’re under 26, you will get a discount on flights!
To save money on your flights, check out the Low-cost Airlines Wikipedia List where you will find all world’s low-cost airlines names. Just find a low-cost airline in the country/region you’re travelling in and then book on the website of the airline. Most of these budget airlines don’t show up in flight engines such as Skyscanner and others.