21 Best Travel Apps & Websites to Help Families Save & Organize

If you’re anything like us, you might be traveling last minute or you aren’t just sure how far you will drive in any one day on those long road trips. Hotel Tonight is a great app to help you find a decent place to stay when you’re in the middle of a trip.

I love booking apps like hotwire for booking hotels. I think it’s fun to enter a location and desired amenities to find a good place to stay. If you’re not familiar with Hotwire, it can help you save money on hotels, especially if you can be daring and take their pick! It can be daunting to buy a hotel without knowing for sure which one you’ll end up in, but we have stayed in a lot of fun places thanks to Hotwire.

Parking in downtown urban areas can be really pricey - upwards of $60 a night in downtown Chicago. We recently saved a lot of money by using Spot Hero in Chicago. Instead of paying the $60 overnight rate at the hotel, I just plugged in our hotel’s address and found a different option. I ended up paying $20 per night instead! Use my referral ink to save $7 on your first reservation!

Hopper is a great app because it gives the best time to book flights. Simply put in your desired airports and a handy color coded calendar will pop up with the best and worst times to buy your flights. I credit (blame?) Hopper for our spring break trip to Europe several years ago. I just happened to be browsing it and realized that we could get tickets to Germany for under $500 each! So like any responsible adult, I booked the tickets!

Always a favorite money saving app, Groupon can help you get reduced cost tickets, hotels, and even entire vacations. We saved money on an Architectural River Cruise in Chicago recently by purchasing with Groupon!

The Turo app is a great way to save money on car rentals. Instead of booking a car at the airport from a rental company, use Turo to find peer-to-peer rentals! You can even sign up to rent your car out from time to time if you want to earn a little extra cash.

Using public transportation is another great way to save, but it can be daunting if you are in a foreign country or just haven't used public transportation much. Plug in your location and desired destination and transit app will help you get there without having to drive!

If you’re looking for a handy way to track your vacation budget, Tail Wallet is a good app to try. You can set up a daily budget or just track expenses. If you set up budgets, this handy app will tell you when you’ve spent too much!

Want to eat out anywhere but a chain restaurant? Local Eats is the app for you! With zero chains the this app is based on recommendations by Local Eats staff only. Restaurants are not allowed to pay for inclusion.

If you’re traveling to larger cities and plan to visit museums and popular attractions, you might want to check out CityPass. We’ve used CityPass in Paris and Chicago and they are really great if you already plan to visit the destinations they cover.

Want to store credit cards and boarding passes? Don’t forget about the wallet in your iphone! It’s so easy to store your boarding passes there so that they can be retrieved even without the internet. Also, let me tell you about the time I thought I lost my wallet on a trip when I was alone with all five of my kids. Luckily, I did not lose it. But, as soon as I found it, I made sure to store a credit card in my iphone wallet so I would at least have something if I ever did lose my wallet.

PackPoint will help you make sure you pack what you need. Plug in your destination and travel dates and it will even check the weather as it makes recommendations for you!

Going on a road trip with your family? Roadtrippers app will help you plan your route, store your travel itineraries, and book hotels from the road. It will also help you find off the beaten path things to see as well. 

Another handy way to store your travel route, you can easily add stops and calculate time to next attractions with Google Maps!

If you’re traveling overseas, you might like to know about the exchange rate. Try XE currency to keep you in the loop real time so you don’t have to guess where to exchange money to get the best deal. You can also transfer money internationally for free. This comes in handy when you get speeding tickets in foreign countries. Ask me how I know this. LOL!

Another must have app if you’re traveling to a foreign country is Google Translate. My eldest daughter really loved this app when we went to Germany and France a couple years ago. It helped her read menus, signs, and learn flirty language as well. 

If you're road tripping in a self-contained RV and want to stay at wineries, breweries, farms and more, Harvest Hosts might be for you! For a small yearly fee, you're able to stay for free with hosts along your road trip route. You are encourage to buy their wares to provide the hosts with a bit of income, but otherwise the camping sites are free! Book through my link to get 15% off your membership!