Detailed travel planning service around the world. Traveling wisely: useful services for those on the go. Rent out your own home while you travel or go on an “exchange vacation”

26.01.2021

Hi all! I bring to your attention my author’s selection of useful services for travelers. Most of the sites and applications on this list have been tested by us personally, something else is waiting its turn, but that doesn’t make it any less cool. Of course, the list can go on forever, but in my opinion, below is a solid base for bright, strong, inexpensive and enjoyable travel.

Preparing for your trip

Buses in Europe

15. . International bus lines that provide connections between 21 countries and 205 cities in Europe. It is the largest and oldest carrier in Eastern Europe. Ecolines is ideal for independent European trips, because... the flights are very inexpensive and the buses are comfortable. In addition, Ecolines has a cumulative bonus system, and with active travel you can receive free trips. This is more than real! Personally, over three trips I have accumulated bonuses for one practically free move.

16. . Another European carrier that amazes with its constant promotions and discounts on tickets. For example, you can often travel from St. Petersburg to Helsinki and Tallinn for 400-500 rubles. The number of routes of Lukeexpress is significantly less than that of Ecolines - only 10 countries, but the prices are sometimes simply symbolic, and the buses are more like business class on airplanes.

Train tickets

17. Once upon a time, buying train tickets online became a discovery for me, and then a constant practice. As it turns out, this can be easily done on the website. Yes, the interface is not the most convenient in the world, but it is a million times more pleasant than standing in endless lines at the cash register. E-ticket printed and presented upon boarding the carriage. It's simple, fast, and also allows you to choose your own flights and seats on board. By the way, today Russian Railways operates 100 international routes in 30 countries in Europe and Asia.

18. . Search engine for air and train tickets in Russia. Convenient, first of all, with a complete and up-to-date schedule of commuter trains.

19. . A service that combines maps, schedules and tariffs of more than 50 different railway companies throughout Europe. The site makes it easy to book train tickets, as well as hotels and travel programs. On a fun note, the site has an encyclopedia of European trains, explaining how they differ from each other and how to have fun while traveling. For those traveling in a large group, discounts are provided - both on trains and in cities.

Cruises and sea travel

20. . A site where you can choose and book a sea or river cruise around the world. The service unites all the world's largest and Russian cruise companies and informs about special offers and discounts.

Car rent

21. . The leading site on the RuNet for car rental abroad. Reservations are possible with more than 800 car rental companies in 150 countries. 20 thousand car rental points, Russian-speaking support service, low prices and high quality services done this service absolute market leader.

Transfer

22. . If you don’t want to rent a car, but public transport doesn’t suit you, you can pre-order a suitable transfer from point A to point B. How does it work? You find the desired route in cities and resorts around the world, book a transfer online, the driver meets you with the name on the sign and takes you to your place. The service operates in 65 countries around the world.

23. . A service that is gaining international popularity for ordering a driver and finding passengers. Convenient mobile app allows you to search, call and pay for taxis or private drivers. The application is available for dozens of cities around the world, including Russia. Using the Uber application, the customer reserves a car with a driver and tracks its movement to a specified point; payment is made using bank card information.

Finding travel companions

24. . Another world leader. A service that unites drivers and travel companions around the world. Just enter the city of departure, arrival and date to see a list of drivers who offer trips along your route and choose yours. Before contacting, you can view the driver's profile with photo, brief information about yourself and reviews. The service itself is free, but drivers usually charge money for gasoline. Is not !

25. . The site was created to make it possible to find a travel companion on vacation or on any other trip, from a trip to a neighboring city to a hitchhiking trip around the world.

Housing

26. . A well-known site that presents advertisements from private individuals - owners of apartments and houses. Today it is so popular that I won’t even recommend any analogue, because... I think that all landlords already have pages on airbnb, even if they previously preferred some other resource. I wrote two whole articles about this site. This is a really cool resource that allows you to find wonderful apartments abroad.

27. . The world's largest site for searching and booking hotels and hostels. A huge database of options, honest reviews, good prices, excellent support service - this is why so many people choose . This site is good if you are planning a trip to Europe, North and Latin America, Australia.

28. If you want to find a good option placements on the territory of the former USSR, the search engine here is unrivaled.

29. For Asia, it is best to look for hotels on.

30. An excellent database of hostels is contained on the website.

31. . House exchange. The website's database contains more than 65 thousand real houses in 150 countries. If you own your own home, you can exchange your homes with property owners from another country for the duration of your vacation. The service has existed since 1992, when it all began with a book directory of those wishing to exchange houses.

32. Well, and, of course, adored by all travelers (and us too). A site where you can find free housing and great company in an unfamiliar city.

Online travel agencies

33. One of the most reliable services for searching for travel deals, buying air tickets, booking hotels and renting cars. The site works with hundreds of travel agency and airline sites around the world and selects the most profitable deals for clients. In this case, Kayak redirects directly to the booking pages of service providers

34. . About the same as Kayak. True, there are only air tickets and hotels here. Has a cool bonus program. For me, the site is not much different from other ticket search engines, but the number of acquaintances who are ardent adherents of this site is so large that it was guaranteed a place on this list.

35. . An international travel website that allows you to quickly and easily organize your trip yourself. On it you can find a whole set of free tools for intelligently searching for cheap air tickets, hotels and housing for rent, as well as rental cars.

36. . Russian analogue of the above sites. Winner of many travel awards in the field of online services. Worthy of attention.

Organized tours

37. . If you need an organized tour, well independent travel got tired of it at the end The best way Find a great tour - Level Travel's tour search engine. The service searches all leading tour operators and allows you to book tours directly with them, without the participation of travel agencies. Those. You won’t see any extra charges, and the tour will cost the same as the operator. Too cool to be true, but it's not a dream))

38. . Online hypermarket of tours. The best prices from 120 reliable tour operators.

City maps

39. . Free application for phones on all platforms. These are the only cards we use and they are absolutely wonderful! After installing the application, you need to download a map of the country you need, and then the map with all the signs, attractions, hotels, hostels, restaurants will work offline! If your phone supports GPS, then when combined with maps.me, you can forget about the awkward communication in crooked French/Chinese/Portuguese trying to figure out exactly where to get off the bus and how to find the museum.

Translator

40. Google Translate as an app for or will help you find mutual language with foreigners without any problems. More than 90 languages are supported offline, although you need to download the necessary language packs in advance. This translator saved us more than once, but, of course, the translation of phrases is not always ideal.

Leisure and entertainment

41. . Geocaching is a worldwide travel game, the essence of which is to hide and find treasures. Geocaching has been around for 15 years and brings together more than 6 million people from around the globe. Today there are 2.5 million caches hidden in 200 countries around the world, and their number is growing every day. This is a great way to have fun, find unusual places new city, and meet curious people.

42. . A service that contains a large, high-quality, and most importantly free collection of audio guides to cities and museums. Before your trip, you can install the izi.travel application on your smartphone and enjoy excursions from professional guides, as well as amateurs. Some content on the site is paid.

43. . A site designed for booking Russian-language excursions around the world. Today it offers 4088 excursions in 566 cities around the world.

44. . "Our people all over the world." The service carries out two large projects: unique excursions from local residents and an international community of travelers, which is presented in the form of a giant forum with questions and answers about any city on the planet. If you have absolutely no idea what to do in the city, ask a question on this forum and get recommendations from the locals.

45. . A site that creates for you an individual guide to the most interesting places selected city. You choose interesting attractions, and the service is detailed guide with maps and descriptions, which you can print or download to your mobile device and use offline. And all this is free!

Free travel programs

46. . The leading site in searching for volunteer work abroad. Volunteering means an extremely wide range of tasks: from teaching English (for example) to building a farm, from working in a hostel to caring for the elderly. As a “salary” for their work, volunteers receive housing, food, interesting communication, immersion in the culture of the country, and often other bonuses (discounts on excursions, participation in master classes, etc.) Transport must be paid for independently.

47. European Voluntary Service. Within the framework of EVS, dozens of programs lasting from 2 to 12 months operate. All of them are funded by the European Commission, and the programs can be both inside and outside the European Union. These projects, as a rule, have a social orientation and are designed for young people aged 18 to 30 years. The candidate is required to possess certain skills, level of a foreign language, and sometimes have a special education. The European Commission, in turn, covers the costs of accommodation, food, transport, insurance, daily expenses, a cycle of training, including language courses and 90% of the cost of the flight.

48. . STP are study visits to Poland for students, young professionals and professionals from Eastern European countries (North-West region of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova). The program is divided into two large blocks - for students (from 18 to 21 years old) and for workers (no age limit). The trip is completely free: participants pay for travel, accommodation, meals, all activities during the visit, as well as visa processing.

Other

49. . If you're planning a hitchhiking trip for the first time, this tutorial has absolutely everything.

50. . A project whose goal is to create a free, free, up-to-date and reliable world travel guide. There are currently 1,657 guidebooks in Russian and other articles written and edited by Wikitravelers from all over the world.

And a bonus, final link - . A site that contains sooooo many (more than three hundred!) different travel resources: top LJ, websites, VKontakte communities, independent blogs, magazines, TV channels, TV programs, hotel search engines, maps, forums, train tickets, language tourism, exotic tourism, extreme tourism, visas, rental housing, guidebooks, tour operators, cruises, diving, car rental, air tickets, insurance, YouTube travel channels, travel blogs on Instagram.

Friends, I understand perfectly well that all the cool services did not fit into this post! Therefore, this topic will be continued. Please share really useful, high-quality and interesting sites/apps/online companies/programs for travelers in the comments. I will definitely include your cool links in the next article!

I hope you found something useful here!

P.S. By the way, all blog subscribers receive from our partners.

In recent years, startups have been rapidly conquering the travel market: Uber has long been conquering a niche from traditional taxis, and vacation rentals are taking the place of traditional hotels. But that’s not all - with the help of online platforms, travelers can easily find a guide among local residents who will willingly introduce the country from the inside. We have selected seven of the most interesting online services and applications.

Tours by Locals

Online platform Tours by Locals over the nine years of its existence, it has managed to unite more than 2,000 guides and cover 159 countries. Only very small areas of shallow lagoons remain undeveloped, for example, Crooked Island, an island that is part of the Bahamas.

Here travelers can either offer their own route to the guide or choose an existing one. For example, for those who prefer quiet and secluded places, the service offers an eight-hour excursion to the picturesque regions of the South Island of New Zealand. The journey begins at Akaroa Cruise Port with a meeting with a local guide. The program includes viewing almost all the picturesque landscapes of the Canterbury region - in eight hours tourists will see the Rakaia Gorge, Lake Coleridge, the Porter Pass mountain pass and Christchurch, the third largest city in New Zealand. In addition to exploring the Southern region, the program also includes a traditional dinner. The country's national cuisine is represented by exotic Maori dishes - fried scorpions and larvae, snails and sheep's eyes.

Also on the online platform there are less intricate routes - for example, excursions to the main attractions of Western Europe. On the website you can book both a group tour and an individual one. Accordingly, the price will depend on the choice - usually it does not exceed $100 per person.

Show Around

The Show Around online platform is considered one of the leading travel startups: the service has gathered more than 80 thousand local residents under its wing and is already available in 204 countries.

Unlike a number of other similar services, Show Around performs only one function - finding a guide. The excursion route is planned after choosing a temporary companion; there are no ready-made options here.

Perhaps the main advantage of the platform is the business cards of local guides. Here you can find literally everything - detailed information about the interests and knowledge of the culture of the region of each registered guide.

A tourist can rate his guide and also write a comment. “This helps guides not to become complacent and creates an environment of healthy competition that motivates people to work at their best,” says Show Around founder Linas Sablowski.

The average price of a tour is about $15 per hour.

Show Around has had an iOS app for a long time, and recently mobile service became available for Android users.

Shiroube

The approach of the Japanese online service Shiroube is somewhat different from the others - first of all, the tourist selects the section of interest, for example, “Art and History”, “Nature and Adventure”, “Food and Wine”, and only then begins to look for a guide. Using the site is very simple: there is an advanced search that allows you to select the language, age and even gender of the guide. Each guide has his own profile, where tourists can see photos, main interests and offers.

There is no ready-made excursion base here - the local guide comes up with a personal route for each client. However, the service developers still collect some statistics; for example, the website regularly updates lists with the most common locations and recommendations. So, during a trip to Shanghai, local residents suggest walking along Nanjing Street and trying dumplings - a dish similar to dumplings, but prepared according to an old Chinese recipe.

The service is focused on having fun with visits to nightclubs, various workshops and non-tourist pubs, and the price of an excursion usually does not exceed $400 for a group of four people.

The creators of Embark.org chose a narrower niche for themselves - the service is suitable for lovers of active recreation and extreme sports. As the developers note, the platform is more focused on creating a community with one common interest - a passion for active travel. As a result, the creators managed to combine business with pleasure - to unite fans of extreme tourism and give non-professional guides the opportunity to earn money.

This platform is good because it makes it possible to find a person who will organize active recreation for you, even in the center of a big city. For example, together with a guide you can try your hand at rock climbing in the forest of Fontainebleau, the journey to which from Paris will take no more than 40 minutes. Half of all offers are excursions for several days. The service offers such extreme activities as a three-day rafting trip in India, kayak racing in Croatia and an eight-day hike to a peak on the border of Valle d'Aosta and Piedmont in Italy, all in the company of a local guide who knows his stuff.

The site also has a blog where travelers talk about their experiences, which will help you choose from a variety of options what is right for you.

Prices for guide services start at $80 per person for one day.

The Vayable online platform, created just last year, has already earned the attention of The New York Times, CNN and The Wall Street Journal.

The service is focused on the central cities of Western Europe and the UK. The developers approached the project thoroughly: local guides will not only tell you, but also teach you. For example, one of the proposals is a course on photography of Paris at night. The guide will take tourists around the Latin Quarter and the Seine embankment, and also tell them how to take good night portraits.

Rent a Guide

The German startup Rent a Guide offers guide services for all possible types of vacation leisure activities - from dinner in the best national traditions on the 123rd floor of the Burj Khalifa tower to a flight on hot-air balloon or jeep safaris in the Arabian deserts. For those who love walking, Rent a Guide will prepare tourist excursions to the capital cities of Western and Eastern Europe.

A hot air balloon ride will cost $300 and a jeep safari will cost $45.

The online housing rental platform Airbnb launched the Trips project relatively recently - last fall. On this moment the service operates in 12 cities and offers more than 500 excursions. The startup is more focused on entertainment that local residents can talk about. For example, you can visit a violin workshop in Paris, drive vintage cars, and even take part in a marathon in Kenya.

“We want to bring back the element of magic to travel, with people at the center,” said company CEO Brian Chesky.

In addition, here you can try your hand at charity and take part in socially significant events, such as helping stray dogs and a master class on creating art from garbage.

Unlike other online platforms, Trips has very functional application, so with the help of Airbnb and its new service, you can literally plan your trip from start to finish.

In this article, we have tried to collect useful links that will help you when planning routes, especially if you are heading abroad. The sites are divided into blocks according to their functionality, including preparing and planning a trip, websites of low-cost companies and bus companies, search engines for hotels and apartments, other accommodation and leisure options, as well as convenient applications for your smartphones. Avid travelers may be familiar with most of the resources presented, but novice tourists will certainly find something useful for themselves.

Route planning

forum.awd.ru - the largest Russian forum independent travelers who share their experiences here. Here you can not only read reports from “experienced” people, but also ask your questions. The geography of the site covers Asia, Europe, the countries of the USSR, America, Africa, the Near and Middle East, as well as Australia and Oceania.
tripomatic.com - will be of interest to amateurs urban tourism, here you can find detailed maps of the area with photographs of attractions. The peculiarity of the service is that your route plan can be saved as electronic document, which will store not only the tourist sites, hotels and cafes you want to visit, but also their addresses, driving directions and other useful information that you want to save.
autotravel.ru - a site for lovers of road trips, here are examples of routes, reports, news about the condition of the roads. Users of the site communicate quite actively on the resource forum, so here you can ask questions about road travel.
roadtrippers.com - a convenient site for planning a road trip on US roads. main feature This service is that it doesn’t just build the shortest route from point A to B, but offers many interesting places to visit. There are parks, museums, and historical attractions here. Now there are more than 75 thousand points marked on the map with which you can diversify your route. Roadtrippers will not only guide you to the desired hotel or cafe, show the distance, but also calculate the cost of the required fuel.
mountainproject.com - a huge database of tourist routes, different categories and difficulty levels USA and some other countries. On the site's forum, sports tourists can find information on techniques and equipment. Unfortunately, we have not yet encountered a Russian analogue with a list of routes. We look for the necessary information about a new backpacking trip through a search and read on blogs like ours.
kovinov.com - we cannot help but note the blog of the wonderful tourist and traveler Dmitry Kovinov, primarily interesting for its detailed routes in the Caucasus in the vicinity of Sochi, but there are other interesting regions. Unique content, the author's view and wonderful photographs distinguish this blog from hundreds of others on similar topics. We ourselves used his advice and route during our trip to the Caucasus

Preparation

- probably the most popular service tourist online insurance. The site allows you to conveniently and quickly compare prices for services from major insurance companies and select the required set of options. To apply for a policy, you don’t need to go anywhere; the form will be sent to you by email.
- online service, allowing you to simplify obtaining a visa for citizens Russian Federation. The company already cooperates with international visa service centers in 19 countries and regularly expands the geography of visa processing.
Team2.travel. Sometimes it’s difficult to decide on a new journey alone, and simply sharing emotions with other people is always pleasant and, oddly enough, can also help here The World Wide Web! Team2.travel - free service to find travel companions for holidays and travel. The service itself finds travel companions based on dates, countries and topic of travel. It is enough to declare your plans by publishing an advertisement.

Road

Airplane

aviasales.ru is a popular aggregator for search for air tickets. Easy-to-use technological service. Particularly nice is the option to notify by email about a price reduction for the desired departure dates. It is very convenient to use the service through applications for iPhone or Android
skyscanner.ru - also a selection of tickets, unlike Aviasales it shows European low-cost airlines.
tickets.ru is another well-proven airline ticket search engine.
wizzair.com, ryanair.com, easyjet.com, airasia.com - websites of low-cost airlines, that is, budget airlines that provide passengers with the opportunity to fly cheaper, sacrificing comfort.

Automobile

blablacar.com - service for searching for travel companions, where you can either find passengers and earn extra money, or sit in someone’s car for a negotiated fee. Payment is made to the driver on the spot, or the passenger can pay for gasoline directly at the gas station. It is possible to pre-assess the driver or passenger based on his profile on the website and available reviews.
avtostopom.org – to help amateurs hitchhiking. Here drivers can find travel companions, and fellow travelers can find a ride-along driver vehicle, for a joint trip in the right direction. On the website you can find offers from different countries; travel conditions can be either free or paid.
autoeurope.com - car rental in different countries Europe. The company does not have its own fleet, but negotiates discount rates with rental companies around the world. Autoeurope's partners include both global Hertz and small local firms. All orders require full prepayment. However, if you have already paid for the reservation, and then found a car of the same class on another website, under the same conditions, at the same rental point, but at a lower price, Autoeurope usually reduces the price to the same price, after that how the client fills out a special form on the website.
, Economybookings, Rentalcars - car rental around the world. Each company has its own terms of payment and cancellation, requirements for drivers and additional options.

Bus

- convenient service to search and purchase bus tickets. Routes in Russia, CIS and Europe.
eurolines.com – the largest bus company by country Europe(except for CIS countries).
ecolines.net is a bus company that covers countries CIS.

Trains

- Railway tickets in Russia and CIS countries. Unlike the Russian Railways website, it works much faster and is generally much more convenient. Main advantages: o online purchase in 4 minutes, ohregistration without registration on the site, inselection of favorite places on car diagrams,SMS support before boarding the train, to24/7 support serviceelectronic registration and online ticket return.

Water transport

- booking site sea and river cruises all over the world in Russian. It offers a wide range of cruises from the world's most popular sea cruise companies, as well as river cruises throughout Russia, Europe and the world.

Housing

hotellook.ru - the largest search engine aggregator booking hotels and hostels, compares prices in several major search engines at once, such as: booking.com, Agoda, hotels.com, Ostrovok.ru and others
hotelscombined.com – another very powerful aggregator of hotels and hostels
bedandBreakfast – search for bed and breakfast accommodation options
airbnb.ru – rent apartments or rooms
hostelz.com – hostel search
kidandcoe.com – search family apartments for families with children
holidaypad.net – search original hotels and apartments: castles, houseboats, huts, etc.
cancelon.com, Roomertravel.com - sites where you can sell a non-refundable hotel or, accordingly, buy a hotel room at a discount
couchsurfing.org is a global community of travelers where you can find a “fit” and move in with local residents completely for free or host a guest

Accommodation for work

helpx.net, workaway.info – sites for searching volunteer offers, where you can find housing and food in exchange for work. Job options: working in a hostel, restaurant, participating in home renovations, teaching languages, working on a farm, etc. Usually the working day lasts 5 hours, the rest of the time can be spent at your own discretion. To register on the sites, you must pay a fee.
wwoof.org - a site for searching woofing - offers, that is, work on a farm in exchange for housing and food. WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) is a set of international agritourism programs that combine tourism with work in organic agriculture.
housecarers.com, trustedhousesitters.com - housesitting sites, when owners are looking for temporary caretakers for their home, and those who wish thus receive free accommodation. Often, owners also ask to look after their pets, which puts additional responsibility on caretakers.

Entertainment

- a platform for searching and excursion bookings and master classes around the world. The site was created for travelers and city connoisseurs, for those who want to explore the city from the inside, or if you are simply looking for something special.
- a service for selecting unusual excursions from local residents. To book an excursion, you need to complete only 3 steps: select an excursion, place an order or send a message to the guide, and, having received confirmation, pay for the reservation directly on the website.
- excursions and entertainment in any city in the world. The main task of the service is to provide the client with the opportunity to quickly book an excursion in any city in the world. A traveler can book an excursion anywhere in two clicks, even if this excursion is due to take place today or tomorrow. The tourist receives a fascinating story about the city in accordance with his wishes.
neweuropetours.eu – free volunteer tours in European cities. To get on the excursion, you need to fill out an application on the website indicating the number of people and the desired date. Then to yours the mail will come confirmation indicating the meeting place.

The most useful sites and applications that we and our readers use. To plan a route, search for accommodation, tickets, the best places to hitchhike or look for food in trash cans. In short, for all occasions.

👾Planning

wikitravel.org— encyclopedia of independent travel. All information about interesting places, movement on public transport and between cities. How to use? Search for the city or country you are interested in.

Most information will be in English. But, for Spanish-speaking countries there is often more information in Spanish, for French-speaking countries - in French. So switch the language of the article and use a translator, si tu ne comprends pas;

hitchwiki.org— encyclopedia of hitchhiking. Sea useful information not only for hitchhiking: for example, land border crossing points, where it is better to obtain a visa in neighboring countries. There are articles in Russian, but more information is usually in English;
www.workaway.info is the most popular site for finding volunteer hosts in 170 countries. Registration as a volunteer is paid ($36 for one year and $46 for two);
internationalsos.com— a website with up-to-date information about dangerous regions (epidemic, civil war, etc.)
forum.awd.ru— the most popular Russian-language forum dedicated to independent travel. Advice: use search;
turbina.ru— tips and notes from Russian-speaking travelers. Advice: use the country navigator;
- the most profitable travel options for Russians. Cheap tickets are often the reason to travel, for example Advice: Subscribe and tell your neighbors and friends.

📚Guides

Guides Lonely Planet— the most popular guidebooks in the world;
Guides Dorling Kindersley- can be found on the root tracker as much as 22GB,
Hunter Travel Guides— another line of guidebooks, link to root tracker;
Even more useful texts can be found on the root tracker in the section "Travel and tourism;
And here's another whole one a bunch of guidebooks;

🛂 Visa rules

traveldoc.aero— a service with a database used by airlines to check current visa rules when boarding a flight. For the most part, the information is relevant for entry through international airports;
Timatic— a good old timatik through which you can find out visa rules for visiting countries through international airports.
Visa requirements for Russian citizens on Wikipedia. The article is updated quite quickly.

The same articles on Wikipedia can be found for citizens of other countries (for example, Belarus or Ukraine). You need to google “Visa requirements for ... [for example Belarus]”

Other information and live experience should be sought on thematic forums. For example those listed above.

☔ Insurance

To obtain a Schengen visa, you will have to apply for one in any case. And it's usually cheaper to apply online. Check where it's cheaper from these sites:

Advice: have you ever visited Belarus?! Or if you are passing through, get insurance there. It can be 2 times cheaper than the same in Russia.

🎫 Search and purchase tickets

✈ Flights

There is probably no perfect airline ticket search engine. The best thing is a combination of several. Use what is more convenient.

Here's what our editors use:

aviasales.ru— search engine for air tickets by default.
azair.eu- search composite routes of low-cost airlines Worldwide. If it doesn’t matter where, indicate in the “To” field - xxx Anywhere. And remember, tickets are for low-cost airlines always cheaper on the airline's website;
momondo.ru— airline ticket search engine. We know, we love, we use;
skyscanner.net— search for air tickets. By specifying the city or country of departure, you can find out where it is cheapest to fly without filling out the “to” window. All gurus do this;
Google Flights— flight ticket search engine from Google;
Yandex Air— domestic search engine for air tickets from Yandex;
Ctrip— a Chinese ticket aggregator when you want a little 你好吗. Sometimes you can find prices cheaper than on popular aggregators;
matrix.itasoftware.com— a search engine for geeks, but you won’t be able to buy through it;

⛺ Overnight

- the most popular site for booking accommodation. Operates all over the world;
hotelscombines.com— the service compares prices by different systems accommodation reservations. You can often find housing cheaper than
airbnb.com— apartment rentals all over the world. An excellent option for traveling with a group of 3-5 people. By the way, when registering you can get 2000 rub. for the first booking;
hostelworld.com— search for hostels around the world. Hostels help not only save money, but also find company or hear interesting stories from travelers;
couchsurfing.com is an important site for the industry of independent travelers, the name of which has already become a household name. Community users exchange communication and a roof over their heads. Recently I need to go through paid account verification (20$) . IN free version You can send only 10 applications per month.

Advice: carefully read host accounts and reviews about them.

trustroots.org— searching for wonderful people willing to provide accommodation or show their city. Remember that platforms like this and couchsurfing They exist not for free living, but for interesting communication and sharing good mood.
planet.squat.net- one of the official (if such exist) sites for squatters in Europe.

📌 Maps and search for interesting places

🗺 Cards

maps.google.com — online maps all over the world. It also lays out routes taking into account public transport in many cities. And in the application ( iOS, Android) you can download map fragments for offline use.
maps.me — best app with offline maps.
Galileo— offline maps, some find more convenient than maps.me.
GoogleTranslate- a translator who can also work offline; for this you need to download the languages in advance.

Not everyone knows, but very useful travel sites. Most of the travel sites and apps on this list have been tested by us personally; there are still some waiting their turn, but that doesn’t make them any less cool.

List: Travel Sites: Preparing for Travel

Travel websites: buying tickets for Buses in Europe

Ecolines. International bus lines that provide connections between 21 countries and 205 cities in Europe. It is the largest and oldest carrier in Eastern Europe. Ecolines is ideal for independent European trips, because... the flights are very inexpensive and the buses are comfortable. In addition, Ecolines has a cumulative bonus system, and with active travel you can receive free trips. This is more than real! Personally, over three trips I have accumulated bonuses for one practically free move.

Luxexpress. Another European carrier that amazes with its constant promotions and discounts on tickets. For example, you can often travel from St. Petersburg to Helsinki and Tallinn for 400-500 rubles. The number of routes of Lukeexpress is significantly less than that of Ecolines - only 10 countries, but the prices are sometimes simply symbolic, and the buses are more like business class airplanes.

Websites to buy train tickets online

Once upon a time, it became a discovery for me, and then a constant practice, buying train tickets online. As it turns out, this can be easily done on the Russian Railways website. Yes, the interface is not the most convenient in the world, but it is a million times more pleasant than standing in endless lines at the cash register. The electronic ticket is printed and presented upon boarding the carriage. It's simple, fast, and also allows you to choose your own flights and seats on board. By the way, today Russian Railways operates 100 international routes in 30 countries in Europe and Asia.

Tutu.ru. Search engine for air and train tickets in Russia. Convenient, first of all, with a complete and up-to-date schedule of commuter trains.

Raileurope. A service that combines maps, schedules and tariffs of more than 50 different railway companies throughout Europe. The site makes it easy to book train tickets, as well as hotels and travel programs. On a fun note, the site has an encyclopedia of European trains, explaining how they differ from each other and how to have fun while traveling. For those traveling in a large group, discounts are provided - both on trains and in cities.

Websites for booking cruises and sea travel

Mcruises. A site where you can choose and book a sea or river cruise around the world. The service unites all the world's largest and Russian cruise companies and informs about special offers and discounts.

Renting a car for travel

The leading site on the RuNet for car rental abroad. Reservations are possible with more than 800 car rental companies in 150 countries. 20 thousand car rental points, Russian-language support service, low prices and high quality services have made this service the absolute market leader.

Transfer and so on for travel

Kiwitaxi. If you don’t want to rent a car, but public transport doesn’t suit you, you can pre-order a suitable transfer from point A to point B. How does it work? You find the desired route in cities and resorts around the world, book a transfer online, the driver meets you with the name on the sign and takes you to your place. The service operates in 65 countries around the world.

Uber. A service that is gaining international popularity for ordering a driver and finding passengers. A convenient mobile application allows you to search, call and pay for taxis or private drivers. The application is available for dozens of cities around the world, including Russia. Using the Uber application, the customer reserves a car with a driver and tracks its movement to a specified point; payment is made using bank card information.

Sites for finding travel companions

Blablacar. Another world leader. A service that unites drivers and travel companions around the world. Just enter the city of departure, arrival and date to see a list of drivers who offer trips along your route and choose yours. Before contacting, you can view the driver's profile with a photo, brief information about himself and reviews. The service itself is free, but drivers usually charge money for gasoline. This is not hitchhiking!

Poiskpoputchikov.ru. The site was created to make it possible to find a travel companion on vacation or on any other trip, from a trip to a neighboring city to a hitchhiking trip around the world.

Travel sites where you can book Accommodation, Hotels, Hostels

A well-known site that presents advertisements from private individuals - owners of apartments and houses. Today it is so popular that I won’t even recommend any analogue, because... I think that all landlords already have pages on , even if they previously preferred some other resource. I wrote two whole articles about this site. This is a really cool resource that allows you to find wonderful apartments abroad.

Booking.com. The world's largest site for searching and booking hotels and hostels. A huge database of options, honest reviews, good prices, excellent support service - this is why so many people choose booking. This site is good if you are planning a trip to Europe, North and Latin America, Australia.

If you want to find a good accommodation option in the territory of the former USSR, the search engine Ostrovok.ru is unrivaled here.

For Asia, your best bet is to search for hotels on Agoda.com.

There is an excellent database of hostels on the website Hostelworld.com.

Home Exchange. House exchange. The website's database contains more than 65 thousand real houses in 150 countries. If you own your own home, you can exchange your homes with property owners from another country for the duration of your vacation. The service has existed since 1992, when it all began with a book directory of those wishing to exchange houses.

Well, and, of course, adored by all travelers (and us too) Couchsurfing.com. A site where you can find free housing and great company in an unfamiliar city.

Websites for purchasing airline tickets online

ayak One of the most reliable services for searching for travel deals, buying air tickets, booking hotels and renting cars. The site works with hundreds of travel agency and airline sites around the world and selects the most profitable deals for clients. In this case, Kayak redirects directly to the booking pages of service providers

Onetwotrip. About the same as Kayak. True, there are only air tickets and hotels here. Has a great bonus program. For me, the site is not much different from other ticket search engines, but the number of acquaintances who are ardent adherents of this site is so large that it was guaranteed a place on this list.

Momondo. An international travel website that allows you to quickly and easily organize your trip yourself. On it you can find a whole set of free tools for intelligently searching for cheap air tickets, hotels and housing for rent, as well as rental cars.

Anywayanyday. Russian analogue of the above sites. Winner of many travel awards in the field of online services. Worthy of attention.

Websites for purchasing tours online

Level Travel. If you need an organized tour, but are tired of traveling independently, then the best way to find a great tour is the Level Travel tour search engine. The service searches all leading tour operators and allows you to book tours directly with them, without the participation of travel agencies. Those. You won’t see any extra charges, and the tour will cost the same as the operator. Too cool to be true, but it's not a dream))

Online hypermarket of tours. Best prices from 120 reliable tour operators.

List of websites for travelers: City maps

Maps.me. Free application for phones on all platforms. These are the only cards we use and they are absolutely wonderful! After installing the application, you need to download a map of the country you need, and then the map with all the signs, attractions, hotels, hostels, restaurants will work offline! If your phone supports GPS, then when combined with maps.me, you can forget about the awkward communication in crooked French/Chinese/Portuguese trying to figure out exactly where to get off the bus and how to find the museum.

Translators for travel

Google Translator as an application for Android or iPhone will help you find a common language with foreigners without any problems. More than 90 languages are supported offline, although you need to download the necessary language packs in advance. This translator saved us more than once, but, of course, the translation of phrases is not always ideal.

Travel Sites: Leisure and Entertainment

Geocaching. is a worldwide travel game, the essence of which is to hide and search for treasures. Geocaching has been around for 15 years and brings together more than 6 million people from around the globe. Today there are 2.5 million caches hidden in 200 countries around the world, and their number is growing every day. This is a great way to have fun, find unusual places in a new city, and meet curious people.

Izi travel. A service that contains a large, high-quality, and most importantly free collection of audio guides to cities and museums. Before your trip, you can install the izi.travel application on your smartphone and enjoy excursions from professional guides, as well as amateurs. Some content on the site is paid.

A site designed for booking Russian-language excursions around the world. Today it offers 4088 excursions in 566 cities around the world.

Tripster. "Our people all over the world." The service carries out two large projects: unique excursions from local residents and an international community of travelers, which is presented in the form of a giant forum with questions and answers about any city on the planet. If you have absolutely no idea what to do in the city, ask a question on this forum and get recommendations from the locals.

Stay.com. A site that creates for you an individual guide to the most interesting places of the selected city. You select interesting attractions, and the service creates a detailed guide with maps and descriptions, which you can print or download to your mobile device and use offline. And all this is free!

Free Travel Sites

Workaway. The leading site in searching for volunteer work abroad. Volunteering means an extremely wide range of tasks: from teaching English (for example) to building a farm, from working in a hostel to caring for the elderly. As a “salary” for their work, volunteers receive housing, food, interesting communication, immersion in the culture of the country, and often other bonuses (discounts on excursions, participation in master classes, etc.) Transport must be paid for independently.

European Voluntary Service. European Voluntary Service. Within the framework of EVS, dozens of programs lasting from 2 to 12 months operate. All of them are funded by the European Commission, and the programs can be both inside and outside the European Union. These projects, as a rule, have a social orientation and are designed for young people aged 18 to 30 years. The candidate is required to possess certain skills, level of a foreign language, and sometimes have a special education. The European Commission, in turn, covers the costs of accommodation, food, transport, insurance, daily expenses, a cycle of training, including language courses and 90% of the cost of the flight.

Study tours to Poland. STP are study visits to Poland for students, young professionals and professionals from Eastern European countries (North-West region of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova). The program is divided into two large blocks - for students (from 18 to 21 years old) and for workers (no age limit). The trip is completely free: participants pay for travel, accommodation, meals, all activities during the visit, as well as visa processing.

Travel Sites: Other

Wikibook on hitchhiking. If you're planning a hitchhiking trip for the first time, this tutorial has absolutely everything.

Wikitravel. A project whose goal is to create a free, free, up-to-date and reliable world travel guide. There are currently 1,657 guidebooks in Russian and other articles written and edited by Wikitravelers from all over the world.

And a bonus, final link - Travelzakladka. A site that contains sooooo many (more than three hundred!) different travel resources: top LJ, websites, VKontakte communities, independent blogs, magazines, TV channels, TV programs, hotel search engines, maps, forums, train tickets, language tourism, exotic tourism, extreme tourism, visas, guidebooks, tour operators, cruises, diving, car rental, air tickets, insurance, YouTube travel channels, travel blogs on Instagram.