Essential resources for travelers and travel bloggers

In order to share useful tools for anyone aspiring to engage in traveling or blogging adventures, I created this resources page. I am using all of these products and services myself, as I do find them making my life as a traveler/travel blogger considerably easier and more economical.

As I continue to explore the world, I will be updating this page with more useful tools I find through my journey, so make sure to bookmark it for your future needs.

If you are considering long-term traveling or blogging as a career, I hope you will find these resources helpful!

Now, some of these resources are completely free, some have limited access without payment, and then there are those one needs to invest in, in order to experience the full benefits.

I will be recommending only the products I sincerely believe in. You are welcome to visit the links and decide for yourself whether the tool would be useful for you or not.

In case you do end up purchasing a product  I am an affiliate for, I want to fully disclose that I might earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Also, I can’t stress enough that I am recommending products and services only after personally testing them, and would never do it for the sake of the commission.

So, let’s dive in!

TRAVEL RESOURCES

Accommodation

Booking – After testing and comparing many accommodation websites, I can confirm that most of the time I end up reserving my hotels through the omnipresent Booking.com. I know that business owners who rent their properties through this platform are not always happy with the high fees they have to pay, but from the user’s point of view, hardly any other site can beat it.

So I propose you register, and see how much money you’ll be saving. Don’t be fooled by some other sites (Agoda, I am looking at you) that can initially offer cheaper prices, but then when you go through the whole process of purchasing, the price suddenly ends up higher, without anyone pointing it out.

Another piece of good news is that the more you book through the Booking platform, the more benefits you will see. Different tiers of the loyalty program now provide lifetime access to discounts between 10 and 20 percent on basic prices. I am currently on the ‘Genius Level 3’, which secures the biggest discounts, free breakfast, free room upgrades, and priority support. Sweet!

Couchsurfing – If you can deal with a diverse range of Couchsurfing stories, this platform offers great opportunities to find free accommodation, local hangouts, and even new friends at the destination of choice.

Flights

Kiwi – My favorite search engine for flights! I’ve tried many websites for booking flights, and I found that even the most popular ones (such as Skyscanner, or Momondo) do not always deliver on the promise of the cheapest flight. So next time you want to fly somewhere, try Kiwi! Ultimately, I try many before finding my option of choice.

Just as a precaution, as I think no search engine is completely innocent, do explore your flying dates in incognito mode before booking. For many flight booking websites, there was a lot of talk about cookies monitoring your activity, and then websites using this data to artificially raise the price of flights you are interested in.

What I usually do is research flights on my mobile phone, and when I finally decide to book, I do it through the browser on my desktop or vice versa. Beware, some accommodation and hotel flights might have special prices for mobile phone users, so always double-check!

Tours & experiences

GetYourGuide – If you are looking for tours at your destination, GetYourGuide is the place to go! You can find a wide range of activities around the globe, and read unfiltered reviews before booking!

Viator – Another online collection of high-quality experiences is Viator by Tripadvisor. It actually claims to be the largest tour marketplace that can offer you exceptional flexibility with free cancellation, and guaranteed lowest price!

Backstreet Academy – Check the other side of the tourism industry, and pick experiences that are meaningful and make a social impact. Backstreet Academy offers thousands of experiences that make a change on your Asian trip. When you decide to visit Nepal, India, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, or the Philippines, check how you can make your trip more meaningful!

Travel planning

Google Maps – I don’t use Google Maps just for orientation in a new city, but also for my travel planning. Every time I find an interesting tip on special sights and destinations in traditional or social media, I bookmark them on the map. I count on the fact that I will forget about that specific place, but once I do travel to that geographic area, I will already have a list of interesting points to check.

Make your own system as you go. In my Google Maps app, the entire planet is sprinkled with different stars, hearts, and flags, worthy of a lifetime of exploring. Paradoxically, I don’t feel lost among those thousands of pins.

Rome2Rio – Another great app for travel planning! Whenever you can’t figure out how to get from point A to point B, no matter how far apart they are, Rome2Rio will give you the best solution, price included!

Language learning

Duolingo – Learning a language, even if just the basics, will make a huge difference in your travel experience. Duolingo app offers you free language courses from bigger languages such as Spanish and French, to obscure ones such as Navajo and Klingon! It’s a fun way to learn something new! We can connect and make each other accountable for keeping the progress up!

BLOGGING RESOURCES

Content management system

WordPress – To build a website, you will need content management system software. WordPress is easy to learn, you don’t need to be tech-savvy, and it’s totally free. It even includes many free themes and plugins for the basic functioning of your website.

Website theme & plugins

EnvatoMarket – Yes, you can obviously have a free WordPress theme, but if you want to take a professional approach, choose a premium website theme, which comes with support that will help you develop your website! EnvatoMarket is the world’s largest creative marketplace, where you can find thousands of WordPress themes, plugins, Photoshop actions, and video templates!

Hosting

Dreamhost – If you want to build a blog, you’ll need a server that will host it. Pipeaway’s hosting company is Dreamhost, and I only had positive experiences so far. They host 1,5 million websites!

You can get the shared website hosting already from 1,99 USD per month. The starting options are totally risk-free as you can get a full refund after three months if not satisfied.

Pipeaway is currently on a virtual private server, an option that starts from 10 USD per month. When your website will grow and require more resources for incoming traffic, you will want to upgrade. The good thing is that I can park as many domains as I want on the same server!

Then there is of course the fully managed dedicated server hosting. It starts at 149 USD per month, but at the moment you will want to upgrade to this one, that sum will already be a peanut part of your overall income.

Proofreading

Grammarly – Today, there is literally no excuse for not proofreading your articles. Do an easy spelling, grammar, and even plagiarism check of writings with Grammarly! This online writing assistant comes in a free and premium version, and you can add it as a Chrome extension.

E-mail marketing

MailChimp – You will want to build direct contact with your audiences. MailChimp offers an easy way to build your e-mail marketing: newsletters, landing pages, postcards, and so on!

For up to 2000 subscribers, the service is totally free. If you want to receive 30 USD in bill credits, register to become a customer through this link!

Postaga – When you start building your blog, you will also want to build backlinks, which will grow your domain authority and trust of the Google gods. Postaga is an awesome outreach platform that helps you target opportunities, reach the right people, and build those precious backlinks.

The service has free and paid plans, and you can find the options here. If you use the coupon code friends50 at check out, you will get a 50 % discount off of your first month with Postaga! You are welcome!

Stock photos

Depositphotos – It’s very important that you build your website with original content. That includes photographs as well. You can publish your own photos, but you can also work with other authors’ original images.

Deposithphotos is a great platform for high-quality licensed stock photos, graphics, vectors, and videos, with more than 80 million files to choose from! Even if you can find completely free content, I suggest you join their paying program. It’s one of the most affordable around, and you will get access to a visual library your site will benefit from!

Graphics

Canva – If you are not a professional graphic designer, but still want to have premium graphics content on your site, you can find it on Canva! There are free and paid options that enable you to easily create professional-looking infographics, Pinterest pins, Facebook and Instagram posts and stories, and even videos!

Technical equipment

Dell Inspiron laptop – I love this notebook. It’s small and easy to carry around, but big enough to work on the photo, video, or website editing. It also has a touchscreen, with full convertibility, which means you can even use it in tablet mode. Perfect for binge-watching Netflix in bed!

Canon DSLR camera – For my photographs, I mostly use a Canon EOS 50d DSLR camera, with Canon EF 16-35 mm f/2.8L wide-angle lens. There are many newer models on the market nowadays, so feel free to explore! Canon brand has survived the test of time, and I can warmly recommend it.

GoPro Hero5 Black – I know what you will say, there are many newer versions of GoPro cameras now, but for the basic use I need, this one works just fine. If you are looking for a waterproof digital action camera, GoPro Hero5 Black will serve you well! Of course, if anyone wants to surprise me with GoPro Hero 10, I won’t say ‘no’!

The author of the cover image of this page is Paulpaladin, a creator at Depositphotos.com.