Welcome, Humans of Planet Earth!
Welcome to The Art Of Travel! The internet is full of all sorts of travel resources lists. But none of them are complete. And therefore, this page was created so you can find all the useful links in one place.
Want something specific? Use “Ctrl+F” and search for your keyword. Fast. Easy.
Top Travel Resources Lists
We thought it would be helpful to create an ultimate list of travel resources that you can always come to for all of your travel-related needs.
Airline bookings, frequent flyer miles, transportation in a third world or developing country, budgeting tools, free travel guides, travel insurances, car and hotel renting, travel alerts and safety, hotline numbers, and much, much more.
We update this list often and remove the old and broken links and add new ones as they come to our notice.
Useful Travel Resources
- Apply Tourist Visa for Any Country
- Currency Exchange Converter – an online tool for currency conversion. (Also, if you simply google the currency, you can see current and historical trends)
- Country Calling Codes
- International Health & Vaccination (CDC website)
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- Pack Safe – Hazardous Materials (US FAA website)
- Layover Guide – has the airport and nearby city guides for a long layover
- Vital Records – a comprehensive resource for locating all types of vital records
- Routes International – discover your routes globally. Covering all modes of transportation
- World Map of Travel Warning – travel warning heat map, risk level, and country-specific information
- Know the Exact Time – type in the destination and find the local time, sunrise, sunset, time difference, etc.
- List of all Travel Blogs – a single page with a list of all travel blogs published by us
- Travel Bucket List – the ultimate travel bucket list
- World Climate Guide – various climate across the world and list of top countries by each climate type
- Weather Channel – weather information and alerts from around the world
- Best Travel Insurance – An In-Depth Guide by Consumers Advocate
Cheap Air Travel Sites
This is the tricky section. Why are there so many flight search engines? Because they are not the same.
Understand, the vast majority of people book their flight tickets from the same one or two sites that they have bookmarked in their browser. And that’s where you should break away from the crowd.
Each of the following sites has different strengths and often use different functions to produce different results.
But where to go for what? We suggest you read the description and then test for yourself. Always search at least three of the flight booking search engines and over the time you will get better at it.
- Google flights – search all airlines, all flights, discover cheap tickets dates, calendar and price by date view
- Airfare Watchdog – cheap airfare specials to/from a city
- STA Travel – a student themed airfare search engine. Specials can sometimes be a good deal
- Student Universe – a student themed airfare search engine, cheap deals for students
- FlightFox – pay a small fee and have people search for the cheapest airfare within your set criteria. Travel management tool.
- DoHop – airfare search aggregator with a focus on making searches as comprehensive as possible.
- Fly.com – powered by discount deal finder TravelZoo. A powerful airfare search portal.
- CheapOAir – a comprehensive airfare search engine. Note: Listed prices include fees but exclude taxes.
- Mobissimo – a comprehensive airfare search engine.
- Momondo – an airfare search engine.
- OneTravel – airfare search engine.
- Farecompare – a budget-oriented airfare search engine that compares airfare across the board
- SkyScanner – a very popular Euro-centered airfare search engine
- Wegolo – shows you the “all-in” fares for low-cost airlines which include the total cost for all passengers together as charged by the airlines. Their search tool allows you to combine your inbound & outbound flights with two different airlines and select the optimum departure/arriving schedules or airports
- Flightsfrom.com – explore all flight possibilities from a specific airport with non-stop flights
- Which Airline – flight meta-search engine for low-cost airlines
- CheapFlights – flight search engine
- Kiwi – convenient and comprehensive flight fares search engine
- Azair – engine searching flights among 104 European and Asian budget airlines
Master the Air Travel
- Which Budget – a comprehensive list of over 300 budget airlines by coverage area
- To and From the Airport – a comprehensive site with information on how to get to/from the airport
- Kayak Explore – powerful tool to check airfare to major airports filtered by month
- FlightStats – a useful tool for checking Airport and Airline on-time stats, with ratings for specific legs to/from specific airports
- TravelMath – an online tool to do all kinds of calculation such as flight time, distance, driving time and cost, airports, etc.
- Seat Guru – airline based database of plane’s seating arrangement. Helps make sure you chose the right seat. You can get diagrams with notes on where the good (and bad) seats are on the plane. (note: now owned by TripAdvisor)
- Seat Expert – a competitor that offers nearly the same service as SeatGuru. It knows what seats are available. Offers the ability to search by airline/flight number
- TheAirDB – a comprehensive list of airlines from an airport to wherever they fly to
- Yapta – stands for Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant. It’s a travel ticket price tracking site. If prices drop, they notify you. It has options to help you get frequent flyer credits
- Airfarewatchdog – sends you all the deals from your home airport
- ExpertFlyer – a source for tracking and being alerted to when you can use your frequent flyer miles for awards (free tickets) and upgraded tickets for 20 airlines
- Adioso – is like Google Flights for cheap flights
Air Miles & Frequent Flyers
- FlyerTalk – one of the most popular frequent flyer community
- WebFlyer – a go-to resource for deals, specials and recent news in the airline mileage/frequent flyer industry
- ExpertFlyer – a site focused on flight rewards and upgrade programs. It gives you the best information so you can buy your tickets anywhere, online or off. With their Seat Alerts® feature, you can be notified when the exact seat you want becomes available
Hostel Accommodation List
- Hostels – search for hostels anywhere in the world
- Hostelworld – one of the largest hostel booking site
- Hostelz – a hostel lookup site which incorporates reviews and listings from the other major hostel booking engines
- Hostelbookers – one of the biggest hostel booking site. You can book hostels all over the world. You can find prices, amenities, photos of the place, and customer reviews of each location so you know what you’re getting before you land. You can also book directly from the site
- Hosteling International – another hostel booking site
Budget Accommodation List
- Airbnb – an accommodation booking engine where you can rent a house, a room or even a couch
- Home Away – similar to Airbnb, pay-to-stay in homes for rents
- Couchsurfing – a worldwide community that allows strangers to connect. All Couchsurfing hosts host travelers for free
- Sleeping in Airports – a guide to sleeping in airports
- Home Stay – accommodations that help the local people earn a wage, and they promote tourism in their communities
- Tripping – is a global network of travelers who connect with locals for cultural exchange from shared cups of coffee to free homestays
- Global Freeloaders – same as Couchsurfing but new members must host someone within the first six months
- Hospitality Club – an active community of thousands of Hospitality Club members around the world who help each other when they are traveling. Joining and stay is free
- Home Exchange – a comprehensive listing of home listings. You list your house on the site, find another house where you’d like to stay and contact the member to see if they want to trade homes for a bit. This exchange system lets you live wherever you find a match. The website is slow, though.
- 9flats – a leader in home renting in Europe. It acquired iStopOver. The concept is similar to Airbnb – connects people who want to rent out extra rooms in their homes to travelers who want to save on costly hotel bills.
- Roomorama – a peer-to-peer short-term rental marketplace. As a host, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that your guest has paid in advance of the stay. As a guest, rest assured that Roomorama is keeping your money secure until you check-in and hand over the payment code
Hotel Accommodation List
- LoveHolidays – discover best hotels and resorts in Europe, North America, and the Caribbean
- Booking.com – has a strong European and North American presence
- HRS – one of the world’s largest hotel booking sites. Especially strong in Europe
- Venere – has a strong European presence
- Hotel Direct – an online hotel booking site
- Hotels.Com – a popular hotel booking site (*note: HotelClub is now part of Hotels.com)
- Agoda – great for hotel booking for throughout Asia
- Quierohotel – has a wide range of Hotels, Apartments, Aparthotels, Hostels, Rural Houses, Spas, Paradores in Spain. They have Family Hotels, Big Hotel Chains, Rural Hotels, Charming Hotels, Baths, Spa Hotels, Rural Cottages and residencies located not only in the major cities but also in villages, on the beach, in the mountains, and Ski Hotels
- Amoma – hotels at best price
- Lastminute – also offers online spa, villa, theater, activity booking
- Goibibo.com – also allows online flight and bus booking
- Quikbook – deals from the boutique hotel experts
- Easytobook – luxury and budget hotels
- Galahotels – discount hotels
- Quickrooms – late discount hotels, last-minute hotel
- Late Rooms – last minute hotel deals (*Note: AsiaRooms has merged with LateRooms)
- Hotelopia – wide offer of inexpensive hotels
- HotelTravel – a big network of hotels
- Tablet Hotels – luxury & boutique hotels
- Accor Hotels – a big chain of hotels in the Americas and Europe
- Trivago – a site that compares hotel prices on over 40 hotel booking sites
- HotelsCombined – a website which compares prices from different booking sites
- Hipmunk – if you are looking for shorter+cheaper combination, go here as they are dedicated to providing better user experience. Hipmunk is a flight and hotel search aggregator, but its strong suit is hotels. The hotel searches a huge database of hotels for availability and also includes Airbnb and HomeAway to give you the option of staying in alternative accommodations.
Travel Resource List (by Country)
USA
- State Dept. Travel Warnings – US Dept of state travel advisories
- Foreign Entry Requirements – travel visa information for Americans traveling abroad
- US Passport Services & Information
- The World Factbook (CIA) – offers information on the country’s geography, society, government, economy, energy, military, and other facts
- American Citizens Abroad – a non-profit organization, which informs and educates the US citizens, who live and work abroad
- National Weather Service – local weather forecast by City or ZIP code
- Duty-Free Limitations
- Driving and Road Safety Abroad
- Internation Driving Permits (DMV.Org) – get international driving permits
- International Driver’s License Scams (FTC) – be aware of various scams
- Trailblazer Hawaii – a good site for free things to do and see in Hawaii
- BootsnAll – excellent travel community
- TSA Information
- TSA Pre-Check Information
UK
- Simply Holiday Deals – a UK travel deals and discount site. It searches dozens of top travel sites and passes along the best travel deals including flight, holiday packages, cruises, hotel deals, and as well as last-minute deals
- Africa & Asia Venture – gap year and summer immersion programs in Africa and Asia from the UK
- Foreign travel advice – the UK government’s travel advice on 225 countries and territories
- National Travel Health Network – travel health information aimed at healthcare professionals advising travelers, and people traveling overseas from the UK. News and information by country on vaccinations, infectious and non-infectious diseases, malaria prevention, and disease outbreaks
India
- Ministry of Tourism – Government website
- Indian Visa Online – Indian eVisa for foreign tourists
- Online Rail Reservation – book train tickets (within India) online, accepts credit cards
China
- China Travel & Visa (Gov Site) – in English
- Ctrip (in English) – cheap flight search engine if you’re traveling within China
Thailand
- Official Tourism Website – in English
Free Travel AudioBooks
Try Audible 30 days FREE and Get Two Free Audiobooks
As mentioned above, these days more and more people are listening to Audiobooks. I listen to audiobooks all the time when flying. It is easy to read more and finish books faster when you listen to an audiobook while you are on the road or waiting at the airport. Or, while you drive, cook or exercise.
Audible offers the world’s largest selection of digital audiobooks and spoken word content. You can listen anytime and anywhere to professionally-narrated audiobooks across a wide range of genres.
Try Audible Free & Get Two Free Audiobooks (Click & Search your Free books)
Safety List
- Water Org – global water facts
Bed Bugs
- Bed Bug Info – general information on preventing, treating and identifying bed bugs
- Bed Bug FAQ – frequently asked questions on bed bugs, answered by Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Travel By Car
- RoadSharing – a meeting point for people that want to reduce travel costs and pollution. Portal with a search engine based on Google maps
- ViaMichelin – route planner for taking road trips (+ more comprehensive Europe focused resources)
- Flightless Travel – an active community dedicated to cargo, overland, and all slow modes of travel
- BlaBlaCar – connecting people who need to travel with drivers who have empty seats
Travel By Rail
- The Man in Seat Sixty One – comprehensive travel info for travel by train and ferry
- Urban Rail – information on subway systems organized by continent, and news, links, and literature
- Eurail – a website that helps you to explore Europe by train
Travel By Bus
- Megabus – US/Europe centered discount Bus line
- Eurolines – European centered discount Bus line
- Orange Ways – cheap bus lines from and to Budapest
- FlixBus – European centered discount Bus line
- LuxExpress – discount Bus line from Poland and Baltics
- Ecolines – European centered Bus line
- PolskiBus (in English) – cheap Bus line from and to Poland
Travel By Ship/Boat
- A la Carte Freighter Travel – includes general cargo ship travel, container ship, and mail and supply ship travel.
- Sailing Networks – social networking for sailing people. Find crew and boats. Share stories, photos and meet new people.
Money Saving Tips
- Travel and Airlines Credit Cards – as the name says, list of all travel and airlines credit cards
- Common Scams (Australian Gov Site)
- Money Saving Tips and Hacks (all blogs on money saving topic)
Travel Review Sites
- TripAdvisor – one of the largest community of travelers on the web. You can read and write reviews of places and activities. A good place to begin your vacation planning. You can also book tickets for attractions, etc
- Yelp – review of restaurants and bars
- Tripatini – an active travel social network
Top Travel Forums List
- Bootsn All Forums – very community oriented backpacker/hosteller themed forums with advice, general discussion and a wealth of information.
- Lonely Planet’s Thorntree Forums – backpacker/hosteller themed forums with advice, general discussion and a wealth of information.
- Traveller’s Point Forums – backpacker/hosteller themed forums with advice, general discussion, and quality information.
- Aardvark Travel Forums – travel themed forums with advice, general discussion, and good information.
- Travel Blog Exchange – a wonderful travel themed community which is specifically tailored to travel bloggers. Eurotrip is an established travel message board site with a concentration on Europe. The site offers both booking and planning tools. The mods are seasoned budget travelers.
- The Backpacker – the community reviews local bars, restaurants, accommodations, attractions, and tours. All reviews are user-submitted, and many places have multiple reviews. They also have a travel wiki (destination guides), and you can post your vacation stories.
- IgoUgo – IgoUgo travel reviews and photos will spark your wanderlust and help you plan your next adventure. With more than 500,000 travelers on IgoUgo sharing trip stories and pictures, they’ve built a library of honest opinions, tips, and experiences that you won’t find in any guidebook. To date, their travel community has contributed hundreds of thousands of reviews and photos of everything from cheap eats to luxury hotels in 8,000 destinations worldwide.
- Timeout City Guides – Time Out is an international multimedia publisher of cultural experiences for urban adventurers. They provide up-to-date and accurate information to help readers remain at the cutting edge of culture. Around the world, their local teams of critics are connected to the very best that their city has to offer. Listings are generated in-house, and reviews are completely independent.
- UpTake – Aggregates information and travelers’ opinions from 5,000 websites some 20 million opinions — and boils them down to a single rating along with the most telling traveler comments. It’s like visiting TripAdvisor and every other travel review site in one fell swoop.
- Viator – Once you land, you need to have things to do. Viator is the easiest way to plan your days in-country. You can book tours, plan day trips, buy tickets, and discover other things to do and attractions to see.
- Virtual Tourist – As the single largest source of user-generated travel content in the world, VirtualTourist is a great resource for travelers seeking an insider’s perspective. Get real travel tips, reviews, and photos from real people who have actually been there and done that.
Online Travel Guides List
- The Art of Travel FREE Online Travel Guides – the biggest list of travel places after Wikipedia and Wikivoyage. Click on any country to read a detailed, photo-centric travel guides
- Travelfish – independently written travel guides for Southeast Asia
- Wikivoyage – from Wikimedia foundation, Wikivoyage is the Wikipedia of travel (a non-profit site). Written and edited by users from around the world.
Round the World Travel List
- Perpetual Travel – around the world travel guides
- SkyTeam – round the World Planner
- StarAlliance – can book RTW ticket, SA has a big fleet serving over 150 destinations
- AirTreks – around the World Tickets and multi-destination flights
- RTW Ticket Airfare Reports – free comprehensive reports on prices, destinations and potential routes for people considering purchasing RTW airfare
Work-Study Abroad List
Working Abroad
- Federal Overseas Jobs – there are numerous federal overseas job opportunities on the website and information on how to apply for them
- International Jobs – you can search international jobs in the database by keyword and country
- EasyExpat.com – you can use this site to find job listings for expatriates all over the world. Job listings are updated daily
- Prospects – job opportunities in 25 different countries
- Au Pair World – this site is great for finding au pair jobs in 25 different host countries
- Escape the City – find a job overseas in the countryside
- Culturally Competent Resumes for the Global Job Market – a great article on creating the perfect resume for international job search
- Work Abroad Scams and How to Avoid Them – an article on most popular scams, when working abroad, and how you can avoid them
Teaching Abroad
- TEFL – stands for Teach English as a Foreign Language. This has job postings info as well
- TEFL (another one) – an independent site with resources and objective advice for TEFL teachers
- Teaching Jobs Abroad – apply for teaching jobs in South Korea, Thailand, China, and other countries
- Dave’s ESL Cafe – awesome opportunities for international teaching jobs
Working at Sea
- CrewSeekers International – connects volunteers and job seekers with employee seeking companies
- Global Crew Network – puts volunteers and job seekers in contact with captains and their ships
- Float Plan – another site dedicated to connecting crew, volunteers & ships
Studying Abroad
- ISIC – International Student Identity Card (recognized in many countries)
- Institute of International Education – a wonderful resource focusing on study abroad programs
- GoAbroad – study, volunteer, teach, internships abroad
- StudyAbroad – a resource to for identifying, researching, and choosing international study opportunities
- Transitions Abroad – a resource to for identifying, researching, and choosing international study opportunities
- SEA Semester – spend a semester sailing around the world on a large sailing vessel. Students man and crew the ship in addition to performing research and studying
- Semester at Sea – for those who can’t pick a single country to study abroad in. Spend a semester touring the world while learning and studying on a large cruise ship/floating university
- Educations – a great website that aims to place students interested in studying abroad in university and college courses
Living Abroad
- Expatriates – an online community of expatriates (internationally)
Volunteering Abroad
- HelpX – help exchange for organic farms, non-organic farms, farm stays, homestays, ranches, lodges, B&Bs, backpackers hostels, etc
- WWOOFING (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) – one of the largest resources of its kind
- Work Away – a site dedicated to facilitating travel, work, and volunteering exchanges
- Personal Overseas Development – a non-profit organization arranging ethical volunteering opportunities around the world
- VolunTourism – another volunteer travel group
- Idealist – a comprehensive directory which connects organizations with volunteers
- Volunteers for Peace – they offer 3000 volunteer opportunities in over 90 countries
- Go Overseas – reliable feedbacks and information from people working and volunteering overseas
- IVPA (International Volunteer Programs Association) – it offers access to good overseas volunteer programs
- WCE (World Computer Exchange) – the organization runs an eCorps program, which offers trips for volunteers
- Peace Corps – Peace Corps volunteers travel to different countries and try to make a difference in local communities, including such problems as lack of education, nutrition, and the diseases such as AIDS or malaria
- VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) – volunteers help to improve healthcare, education, and poverty conditions overseas
- Volunteering Overseas: the Pros and Cons – great article on volunteering abroad, its advantages and disadvantages
- HippoHelp – a platform helps travelers find food and accommodation, in exchange for some housework or participation in a volunteer project
Free Amazon Kindle
Join Amazon Kindle Unlimited 30-Day Free Trial. Read and carry eBooks when traveling. Pack light and travel more.
Travel Insurance List
- International Student Protection – several international travel and study abroad insurance plans
- iNext Insurance – travelers insurance (also for students studying abroad)
- Wallach & Company – comprehensive travel insurance
Top Travel Apps List
- TripIt – centralize all of your travel plans in one place. Finds alternative flights, sends real-time alerts. Collaborative features let you share your complete itinerary with other friends, family members, and colleagues
- Mint – manage your money in a better way
- Maps.Me – offline maps and navigation
- Wi-Fi Map – map of free wi-fi spots and passwords for wi-fi all around the world
- aMetro – maps of metro systems of different cities
- GateGuru – your navigation help in 180 different airports around the globe. Shows the location of check-in desks, gates, lounges, shops, restaurants, parking areas, etc.
- XE Currency – convenient offline currency exchange app
- Google Translate – easy translation among 90 different languages. There is a voice recognition, so you can use it in the process of conversation.
- PackPoint – make the list of things you need to take with you and check to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything
Handy Travel Tools List
- Stolen Camera Finder – did you lost your camera? Use the serial number stored in your photos to search the web for other photos taken with the same camera
- Bootsn All Toolkit – an online toolkit for all things long travel
- Pack A Book – find and read books set in the destination you’re visiting. Also, check out our massive travel library
- Backpacking – a resource for common questions and answers on independent travel and backpacking
- TourRadar – travel booking and travel guides for beginners
- Budget Your Trip – a great resource for estimating, planning, and tracking your travel budget
- Travel Budget Calculator – a budget planning tool that tells you how much money you need to travel to a lot of different countries
- Compete for your Seat – lets travel professionals bid for your business
- BestTravelDeals – all kinds of travel deals based social voting system that allows travel providers a free platform to showcase their offerings and travelers the opportunity to vote on, review and share deals
- TravelMuse – travel planning with tips and travel guides
Luggage List
- The Luggage List – a luggage resource site that offers reviews and suggestions on the best luggage for a wide variety of categories
Travel Blogging
Hosting
- SiteGround – this is #1 and best website hosting service that I have used so far and the one I am currently using. (You get one free domain if you are starting out.)
- Broken Link Checker – Use this tool to find old, discontinued, broken links. Check first 2000 links for FREE
Travel Writing Tools
- Grammarly – a spell-check tool I use. Through my browser, anything I write automatically goes through their database of spelling and grammatical checks to make sure I write properly
- Evernote – bring your life’s work together in one digital workspace. Evernote is the place to collect inspirational ideas, write meaningful words, and organize all your important documents in one place. Now you can do voice recording as well
- TextExpander – lets you create your own short keys for words, phrases or emails you type regularly
- Hemingway Editor – this app does more, than just turning your writing bold and clear
- Plagiarism Checker – an online tool can check for duplicate and plagiarized content across the Internet. There is also an app/plugin that you can download and use on your blog
Free Travel Photos
- iStockPhoto – this is one good place to occasionally purchase royalty-free images for your use on your websites or blogs
- Pixabay, GraphicStock, and Pexels – stock photos and also a marketplace
- Flickr Creative Commons – this is where you can get free images for your website, but there are some rules that go along with it Wikimedia Commons (Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, etc.)
Camera & Photo Editing Tools
- ScreenFlow (for Mac users) – the screen capture software
- Camtasia for PC (Camtasia Studio) – for screen captures for PC
- Omnidazzle – to draw on your screen (free) Bamboo Pen and Tablet – This is the pen and tablet I use to make drawing on the screen extremely easy.
- Canon Rebel T4i – I’d recommend starting shooting videos with your smartphone, but if you’re getting serious a DSLR camera like this one will do the trick. This is the camera I use for my videos, which I like because of the auto-focus feature (in video mode while recording, which is rare), and the flip out screen so you can see yourself and make sure you’re where you want to be on screen.
Travel Swag
Travel, adventure, and wanderlust theme graphic T-shirts, hoodies, accessories, mugs, caps, and more: The Art of Travel Store – check out all our swags and goodies.
Final Words
Something missing? Post it in a comment, and we’ll be sure to review it and consider it for adding to our list. Think something should be categorized differently or doesn’t belong? Post a comment and let us know!
Hey, best of all, if you have a good link, send it to me, and I’ll add/update it here. You will earn a lot of good karma and who knows maybe the Universe will reward you in some unexpected way.
So, friends, what do we have it here? The Ultimate Travel Resource Lists! So, don’t just sit there and print this page (but also help us in expanding it.)
I recommend bookmarking this page for your quick reference and convenience. Enjoy and please feel free to share (I only ask that you link back to The Art of Travel. Thank you!)