I’m excited to help you plan the best trips possible and share my favorite travel resources! These are the platforms and tools I actually use to plan, book, and live through every trip.
Some links on this page are affiliate links, which means that at no extra cost to you, I earn a small commission if you book through these links, which helps me keep this blog running. Enjoy!
flights
Google Flights
Where I start every flight search. The calendar view shows pricing across an entire month at a glance, so I can see which days deliver the best value — often shifting a departure by one or two days unlocks better fares, better routing, or business class for the price of premium economy. I use it to scope the landscape before I book anywhere else, and to time longer trips around the dates that make sense financially as well as logistically.
where to stay
Booking.com
My default for almost every European hotel I book. The free cancellation policy is the real reason I rely on it: it lets me hold rooms while I shape an itinerary, then adjust without losing money. Their loyalty program also quietly upgrades you after a handful of stays, which has earned me a few unexpectedly beautiful rooms over the years. Best for boutique stays, four and five-star city hotels, and the kind of properties that don’t always show up on the bigger US-facing platforms.
Expedia
Worth checking in parallel, especially if you’re traveling from the US. Bundle pricing on flights and hotels can come in lower than booking separately, and their Hotels.com loyalty points stretch further than people realize. I tend to use Expedia for longer stays and trips where I’m flying in from outside Europe.
tours and experiences
GetYourGuide
My first stop for skip-the-line tickets, small-group tours, and the kind of curated experiences that turn a good trip into a memorable one. The platform leans toward better-rated, better-vetted operators, and the cancellation flexibility is generous. I’ve booked everything from private Acropolis tours to flamenco evenings in Sevilla through them.
Viator
A close second, with a slightly different inventory. I check both before booking anything significant. Viator tends to have more options for half-day and full-day tours in larger cities, and their app makes it easy to keep your bookings organized when you’re moving between destinations.
getting around
Trainline
The cleanest interface for booking trains across Europe, especially when your route crosses borders. I use it for everything from Madrid to Sevilla on the AVE to regional trains in Italy. Worth knowing: their app handles tickets digitally, so you’re not printing anything or queuing at stations.
Discover Cars
For the trips where a car makes the difference. I lean on this for places where public transport falls short — small towns in Andalusia, the Tuscan countryside, the Greek islands. They aggregate across rental companies, so you see the actual range of options instead of one provider’s prices.
the small things that matter
Airalo
The eSIM I use everywhere in Europe. You install a regional plan before you fly, and your phone connects the moment you land. No SIM swapping, no airport kiosks, no roaming charges. For multi-country trips, the Eurolink plan is the easiest thing in your itinerary.
AirHelp
For the flights that don’t go to plan. Delays, cancellations, and missed connections under EU regulations entitle you to compensation, and AirHelp handles the claim process so you don’t have to wade through airline bureaucracy. I keep them bookmarked for the moments travel stops cooperating.
apps I use when traveling
Google Maps
The backbone of how I travel. Every guide on this site is built around pinned maps, and my own trips run the same way: I drop pins for hotels, restaurants, photo spots, and neighborhoods weeks before I go, then navigate from one to the next once I land. The offline map feature is essential for the moments when service drops — old town centers, train stations, anywhere with thick walls or thin signal.
Timeshifter
The app I open before every long-haul flight. It builds a personalized plan to shift your circadian rhythm based on your route, sleep patterns, and how aggressively you want to adjust — when to seek light, when to avoid it, when to eat, when to sleep. It’s the difference between losing two days to jet lag and arriving ready to actually use your trip.
Rome2Rio
The app I use when I’m trying to figure out how to actually get from A to B in Europe, especially when the answer isn’t obvious. Type in two cities and it pulls every option — train, bus, flight, ferry, drive — with rough times and prices, so you can see the trade-offs at a glance before committing to one. I lean on it most when I’m sketching out itineraries that string together smaller towns or cross borders.
Wise
The card I use abroad and the app I check before every trip. It holds multiple currencies, exchanges them at the real mid-market rate, and lets me pay or withdraw in euros without the quiet fees most banks tack on. For anyone traveling through several European countries on one trip, the savings add up faster than you’d expect.
ExpressVPN
Quiet protection across every trip. Hotel WiFi, café networks, airport lounges — the kind of connections you use without thinking are the ones most worth securing, and a VPN keeps your data private on all of them. It also lets me access my usual streaming libraries from abroad and reach sites that occasionally block traffic from certain countries. One subscription covers every device I travel with.
luggage, photography & travel essentials
For the things I carry rather than book — my camera setup, the suitcases that have survived hundreds of flights, the small items I refuse to travel without — head to my Shop page. Everything there is what I actually use.
