Edward Swift - Sites and apps to help you on your travels

Travelling is an amazing thing – seeing the world, experiencing new cultures, trying new cuisine. Whatever your reason for heading abroad, generally you have a great time overseas. But getting everything organised before hand can sometimes be a hassle.

But it doesn’t have to be, thanks to these three easy to use websites and apps to help you stay on top of things.

Wikitravel (website) - wikitravel.org

So you’ve decided you want to skip New Zealand for a few weeks, but you’re not sure where you want to go. Wikitravel is a website which boasts over 300,000 writers and travellers. They give ideas on where to go and what to do while you’re there, as well as a bit of travel advice. You can even submit your own tips and tickets when you’re back from your travels to help others down the road.

TripAdvisor (website and app) - tripadvisor.com

We’ve all had an experience where we’ve booked a hotel which looked great in the photos, but was actually really terrible when you actually got there. TripAdvisor.com helps keep travel operators honest. Whether it’s booking a hotel room, or choosing which restaurant to go to, TripAdivsor’s users post reviews of where they’ve been so you can find the places that aren’t so great, or even a few secret gems. The only trouble I’ve found is sometimes sifting through the reviews can make you even more indecisive! It also points you in the right direction of where to book accommodation to help save you a bit of that valuable travel fund.

TripIt (website and app) - tripit.com

If you’ve decided to book everything on your own without using a travel agent, it can be a hassle to carry around a book of all your reservations for your trip. TripIt compiles all your travel plans together. They make it easy to add your plans as well – simply email your booking confirmation and the site will figure out all the details and plug it into your itinerary.

And finally a tip – if you’re planning to take your smartphone or 3G enabled device overseas with you, get a local SIM card so you don’t get stung with roaming charges on your return.

Happy travels!