Travel Resources

Plan your trip!

Living out of a backpack full-time has made us avid travelers. Over the past years, we have tested and used tons of websites to help us travel the world cheap, comfortably and fully.

Find here a list our favorite travel sites to help plan your trip: From getting cheap or free (yes, free!) accommodation, booking the best flight deals, searching for tours or getting the best travel gear.

Tip: Bookmark this page so you can easily come back when you are planning your next trip!

Accommodation

πŸ›Œ Hostelword – find the best & cheapest dorm or private rooms on Hostelworld. We love to book private rooms in hostels. That way you get to socialize with others but have your privacy and save a lot of money!

😴 Booking.com – this site is no secret but after testing many we still book most of our hotel stays on Booking.com. Sign up to their Genius Program and save extra bucks! A great alternative is Agoda.

🏠 Airbnb – is where we book most of our long-term stays. The search options are great for nomads and you often get up to 50% discount on monthly rents! An alternative is Vrbo which is popular in America.

🀝 Workaway – find FREE accommodation in exchange for volunteer work. We used Workaway to extend our travels for 1 year in Mexico and had the best experiences. Read about them here.

🐢 TrustedHouseSitters – is our favorite site to find FREE accommodation. If you love pets then this is for you. That way we have stayed in awesome city apartments or ocean-view villas rent-free! Sign up for free + use code HAPPYHEALTHYNOMADS for a 25% discount on your yearly membership. Read about our experiences and how to secure a gig here.

Transport

✈️ Kiwi.com – find the best flight deals on Kiwi.com. We love their Nomad function, monthly flight calendar and search option to “Anywhere”. A great alternative is Skyscanner. Read about the best flight hacks here.

🚐 Kiwitaxi – offers worldwide international airport transfers with English-speaking drivers to low rates. We are big fans of taking public transport to and from the airport to save money but sometimes an organized transfer can be safer, faster and cheaper if you travel in a group.

πŸš• Uber – when it comes to taxis we always use ride-hailing apps like Uber. It’s so convenient, especially if you can’t speak the local language. Plus, you don’t need cash. Many countries have their version of Uber, like Bold, DiDi, Indrive or Lyft which can be half the price of Uber, so google before you arrive!

πŸš— Blablacar – is the king when it comes to ride-sharing. Get onto the app and see who is going to the same destination as you. You can book a seat in that car and share the costs of the ride. Win-win!

πŸš™ Rentalcars.com – if you travel in a group or go off the beaten path then renting a car can be super useful. Rentalcars.com is a great search engine that will show you the best options and deals for your destination. A great alternative is Economybookings.com.

🚌 Busbud – is a useful search engine to find buses. You can choose between different bus companies and buy your ticket. We love that you can select your seat during booking! A great alternative is Redbus.

πŸšƒ Trainline – is awesome if you want to find the best train connections to your destination. We have used it a lot in Europe and found the lowest prices on their site. A great alternative is Raileurope.

πŸ“² Omio – combines the search functionality of Busbud and Trainline and shows the best bus, train and flight connections to your destination. We love the clean design and how easy it is to book a ticket.

🚲 Bikesbooking.com – is a useful search engine for scooters, bikes and motorbikes worldwide. It’s super easy: Find the right bike, book it online and collect it on arrival. Happy biking!

🚐 PaulCamper – is our go-to resource when it comes to booking camper vans in Europe. It’s the largest camper-sharing marketplace in Europe with over 10,000 camper van listings!

πŸ›³οΈ 12Go – is a must-have search engine for booking ground and water transport in South East Asia. It will show you the best connections in that region and it’s super easy to book your ticket.

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Guided Tours & Tickets

πŸ‘Ÿ FreeWalkingTours – are our preferred way to go on tours. Just google “Free Walking Tour + City” and choose the most highly-rated one. They are free but a tip is expected. Read more cheap travel hacks here.

πŸ™‹β€β™‚οΈ GetYourGuide – is our favorite go-to website for booking guided tours. From food, hike, and transport to city tours, you will find highly rated local guides for a good price on GetYourGuide.

πŸ™‹ Viator – is a Tripadvisor company offering similar tours as GetYourGuide but with a wider range of options outside cities and more luxurious packages. Always go for highly-rated tours and compare prices!

πŸ™‹β€β™€οΈ TripAdvisor – is the king when it comes to finding independent reviews on places and tours. Check out their “Things to do” and “Hotel” tab for highly-rated options and inspiration.

🚌 BigBusTours – offers open-top bus sightseeing tours, river cruises and walking tours around the globe. The best sightseeing bus experiences we had were in Prague and Cape Point, South Africa!

🎧 WeGoTrip – is perfect for the DIY traveler. On their website and app you can download audio guides created by city experts. Explore cities at your pace with WeGoTrip!

🎟️ Tiqets – offers entry tickets and skip-the-line options for almost every attraction in major cities. We also use it to get inspired by what’s there to see in a city. A great alternative is Klook.

πŸ“² GoCity – is great for when you want to maximize your time on short city trips. You can buy a city pass for a day and get into the best city attractions for a discounted price. Plus skip the line!

🎫 Ticketmaster – is our go-to resource when it comes to finding and booking tickets for concerts, festivals or events. The site is super easy to navigate and will guarantee you real tickets.

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Travel Must-Haves

🩺 SafetyWing – get flexible cheap travel insurance that can be booked before or even during your trip. You only pay per month and can cancel or renew at any time. We are already 2+ years insured with SafetyWing and wrote about our experiences here. Great alternatives are Heymondo and Genki.

πŸ“±Airlo – is an eSIM and a must-have for frequent travelers. It’s super easy: You download their app, choose your destination + plan, install + activate your eSim and voilΓ‘ you can call roaming free and use data like a local. No physical SIM card needed! A game-changer for us.

πŸ₯Ύ Alltrails – is the perfect resource for beginners or avid hikers like us. It will show you all the hiking trails nearby with detailed maps, descriptions and reviews!

πŸ—ΊοΈ Maps.me – is a travel essential for city trips and hikes. It’s a super handy free offline map and shows much more trails than Google Maps in nature. Wherever we go we always download Maps.me.

Nomad Insurance by SafetyWing is one of the best travel insurances for travelers

Useful Services

πŸ‘‘ Priority Pass – gives you discounted access to airport lounges worldwide. It’s super useful if you are a frequent traveler. We use it to spend our layovers comfortably between cheap flights.

✈️ Airhelp – is a must when it comes to claiming back money from airline companies. Airhelp helps passengers receive up to $600 in compensation for delayed or canceled flights. It works!

🧳 RadicalStorage – is where we find cheap and secure storage places for our luggage in hotels or facilities around the world. Super useful if you are in between places or want to weekend trip with a carry-on only.

🍽️ EatWith – is created by locals for foodie travelers. You can book a meal in a home hosted by a local to immerse in the local cuisine. We did that twice in Amsterdam and it was a memorable experience!

🎧 Audible – is our go-to platform to buy, download and listen to audiobooks. It’s perfect on long bus rides, layovers and to unwind in nature without carrying tons of books or electronics. Start your free trial here.

πŸ—£οΈ Babble – is awesome for learning a new language on the go. Thanks to this site we have brought our basic Spanish to advanced which was essential when traveling Latin America.

Travel Gear

πŸ“Έ Backmarket – is a game changer for getting trustworthy second-hand electronics up to 70% off. All our expensive travel gear (think laptops, phones, cameras) are from there. It’s a win-win for your wallet and the environment. Use our friend referral code 18742e8a342c5318 for $25 off your first order!

πŸŽ’ Amazon.com – From a sustainability standpoint this marketplace is not our first choice. We try to buy as locally as we can. But Amazon is still the best and easiest universal address to get great lightweight travel essentials no matter where in the world you are.

Here are the ones we travel with!

Tip: We love to travel light. How? Master minimalism, choose travel gear wisely and don’t overpack! This is all our luggage (plus a camera bag) πŸ‘‡ You can do it too!

Two big backpacks and a small one with a straw hat on top and a yoga mat attached

Start your own travel blog!

🌎 Bluehost – when it comes to hosting look no further than Bluehost. Their entry prices are great for getting started and you can easily upgrade later when your traffic picks up. When we were newbies we had many questions that all got answered via their superb 24/7 live chat.

πŸ’° Travelpaypouts – is the best affiliate program for travel bloggers. From Booking.com to Tripadvisor you can recommend your favorite products and tours to your readers and earn a small commission every time someone purchases your tips. We use it on our blog!

πŸ’» WordPress – is the most popular and common tool to build your blog. The best: it’s completely FREE! Our website is built with the highly customizable, lightspeed and FREE Astra theme.

πŸ—οΈ Keysearch – if you want your articles to be ranked on Google you need a keyword search tool. The best one for beginners at an amazing low price is Keysearch. For advanced users we recommend SemRush.

πŸ“ Grammarly – is a must-have free Chrome extension for bloggers when it comes to detecting and correcting spelling mistakes. We use their paid pro version for even better results and faster typing.

πŸŽ“ Udemy – when we were new to the blogging space we had no clue how to build a website or do SEO. But this know-how is vital to succeed. We bought 6 courses on Udemy (from SEO to photography) and mastered those skills in no time thanks to their programs on the fly! A great alternative is Coursera.

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Ready to travel?

Now that you have a list of the best booking sites and travel services, it’s time to hit the road! Here are some useful guides to help you kick-start your adventure.

This page helps you out? Say thanks with a coffee πŸ’›

Full disclosure: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. This means that if you choose to make a purchase we may get a small commission at no extra cost to you. These commissions help us to generate income and keep creating content for you. So we greatly appreciate your support. Rest assured, we only promote products and services that are of high quality and we use ourselves. Thanks!

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