While going on vacation is pleasant, planning trips, finding the best prices for plane tickets and hotel rooms, and organizing any journey to avoid inconvenience may be stressful. It may be even worse if you need to overload your phone with dozens of apps, each one for doing a specific task. Having one app for hotels, one for trains, another for planes, and another for other accommodations in case hotels are too expensive is all but comfortable. Having a few apps that can achieve multiple tasks means having everything under your control, being less stressed, and seeing all the details of your trips in a single interface. This article will review three apps that, used together, allow most people to organize their trips quickly and go on vacation with more peace of mind.
Advantages of Booking Your Vacation Online
Many people may be undecided about booking their vacations through a travel agency or online. Generally speaking, going through a travel agency has the following advantages:
Peace of mind: The agency handles all the booking processes and tries to find the best prices for you; It is easy: Everyone can book travels through an agency, even people who do not own a smartphone, a credit card for online purchases, and those who are uncomfortable making online purchases.
Booking your vacation with a travel agency means having someone handle everything for you, but this may be more expensive than doing it yourself on the internet. In the end, agencies need to earn something, so it is not sure that the same vacation booked with them will be as convenient as if it was booked online. Still, booking online may be uncomfortable for some people, especially if it means overloading a smartphone with several apps. A good alternative may be relying on all-in-one services that allow booking several means of transportation and accommodations, all without going out of the app.
How to Book Planes, Trains and Hotels With a Single App
One of the best apps for booking hotels, train, and plane tickets is Trip.com, the international version of Ctrip, a Chinese web booking service. This service comes with several handy features that make it easy for people to arrange their bookings:
Single-tap booking of hotels, trains, planes, and even some attraction tickets, directly from a single app and by using the same payment method; Car rental booking; Support and compensation in case the hotel has not reserved the booked room; Real-time notifications about flight delays, cancellations, gates, and other relevant information you need before boarding a plane; Guides on popular attractions to see in your travel destinations, with even the ability to book tickets for some of them; Ability to review accommodations and attractions and read experiences of other travelers; Universal login with your favorite social network service, so you do not need to remember additional login credentials.
To Sum Up
This is a good app for centralizing all your bookings for transportation accommodations and attractions from a single place, backed by one of the most known and reliable travel booking services in China.
How to Book Train and Bus Tickets From a Single App
While I like to use Trip.com for all my travels, and I think it is one of the best apps for organizing a vacation, there are two limitations to transportation booking:
No bus ticketing is available, so you can only book trains and planes; Train booking may be available only for certain solutions and in specific countries. Suppose you need to save money with regional trains. In that case, you should also check on other apps, as some small local railway companies providing regional services may not offer booking within the app.
To overcome these limitations, you may choose to install an additional app you can use for all the transportation solutions you cannot book with Trip.com. One of the best all-in-one ticketing apps is Omio, which allows you to book trains, buses, car sharing solutions, and even some low-cost flights. Below are the main features of the app:
Centralized ticketing system for booking different transportation options and keeping tickets in a single place; Notifications about your imminent journey so that you can stay updated about eventual delays, cancellations, or other relevant information; Information you need for your travel, like safety measures, limitations, restrictions due to pandemics, and other alerts that may impact your journey.
To Sum Up
Omio is an excellent app to have the best flexibility when booking transportation with different companies, keeping all your tickets in a single place.
How to Book Attractions From a Single App
Like with transportation, you may find that you cannot book all attractions reviewed on Trip.com. While the Chinese app already has the option to buy tickets for several places, in some cases, you may need to use an external app that focuses only on booking museums, churches, art exhibitions, and events you may want to attend as a tourist. Tiqets is one of the best all-in-one apps for booking attractions in every city. Below are the main features of the service:
Simple booking options: you can buy tickets without creating an account or Tiqets; login even works by sending a verification email, without the need of typing a password; Extensive database of attractions with various options to book tickets without the need of queueing; Digital tickets for any attraction; Advice on how to best enjoy your journey to your destination.
To Sum Up
Tiqets is the final app that lets you get the most out of your journey, with convenient booking options for attractions without queueing.
Conclusions
Planning a perfect vacation may be stressful, and some people prefer to have a travel agency do everything for them so that the only thing to do is to enjoy the journey. Still, with the right all-in-one services, self-booking can be a pleasant experience you can try without the need to overload your phone with tons of apps, each one for a different travel company or accommodation option. This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters. © 2022 Alessio Ganci
