Find the Next Best Restaurant or Hotel with TripAdvisor!

We all remember a time when we’ve been away from home and we couldn’t seem to figure out a place to eat.  This has happened to me too many times to count!  Most of the time my solution is asking someone at the hotel I’m staying at or performing a simple Google search for restaurants in the area.   When I was in this situation, I thought to myself: there has to be an app for this! After reading some articles online, I discovered an app that helps me find the perfect place to eat or stay when I am away from home.  This amazing app is called TripAdvisor and can be utilized to help you while you are on a trip or if you are in the process of planning one.

TripAdvisor allows you to browse for attractions which are in a certain area.  Select the “Near Me Now” option and you are presented with list of hotels, restaurants, and attractions in your area.  Clicking on the hotel option allows you to search for hotels by availability and read reviews by other users.  The hotel section of the app allows users to see exactly where the hotel is located and even get directions.  Not only will TripAdvisor let you know if a hotel is available but it will also let you know the rate.

If I’m traveling to a new city how can I use this app?                                               

I’m glad you asked! TripAdvisor can be used to find restaurants, attractions, and shopping in the area you are visiting.  If you are looking for a bite to eat, simply enter your location, price range, and the cuisine type you want to eat into TripAdvisor.  The app then gives you a list of restaurants that match your search criteria.  Just like with the hotels section, there are reviews you can read about the restaurant. The option of narrowing your search by ranking is also available. This allows you to find the top attractions in a certain city! TripAdvisor also ranks the attraction out of other attractions in that city.  Another super great thing about TripAdvisor is that it allows you to save restaurants and hotels you may be interested in!  This feature can be helpful to anyone who is planning a trip.

I went to this awesome restaurant when I visited another city, am I allowed to write reviews?

Absolutely! Anyone with the app can write a review of a restaurant, hotel, or attraction.  The app also allows you to rate the attraction on a scale of one to five circles (instead of stars).  Sometimes management of the property will respond to reviews written on the app.  

After  spending some time using the TripAdvisor app, I discovered that TripAdvisor produced three other apps which can be helpful in the travel planning process! These apps are housed in the Travel Tools section of the app.  The City Guides app allows you to download city guides which include maps of cities.  SeatGuru helps users learn more about the status of their flight and pick the best seat on the plane.  The final app, GateGuru, helps users who are looking for more information about their flight or need a map of an airport. 

The TripAdvisor app is available for both iPhone and Android! Prefer to use TripAdvisor on your tablet? No worries! TripAdvisor has an app for tablets as well! With TripAdvisor, you’ll never get stuck in a new city wondering where to eat or stay!  

Looking to use the Kayak app to plan your next trip? Check out these tips and tricks!

When I got my first smartphone in 2012, I was super interested in travel and figured that installing some travel apps would help me learn more about the industry.  After talking to some friends and reading about travel apps online, I came across this app called Kayak.   I had no idea what it did but figured I would give it a try since I had some free time.  After installing the app, I was hooked! The features on the app were amazing and I couldn’t get over how much easier it was to find hotel rooms and flights by simply picking up my phone!  So you might be wondering: what’s so cool about this app and how can it benefit me? Here are 5 reasons why the Kayak app is helpful for those who are looking to plan their next excursion:

1.       Worried about spending too much on your next flight or hotel? Kayak allows you to compare the prices on multiple travel sites so you can get the lowest rate. Compare Priceline, Expedia, Orbitz, and CheapTickets.com on the app! Another great feature of the app is that you are able to compare several travel sites without multiple windows popping up!  Being able to compare prices is one of my favorite features since one of my favorite hobbies is bargain shopping!

2.   Want to keep tabs on the price of a flight but worried about forgetting? No worries! Kayak lets you set a price alert for flights and hotels to ensure you get the best price.  The app even lets you pick how often you want to be notified of a change in price.  Choose between weekly or daily.  I set up a price alert when I was looking for a hotel room for a trip I was going on in the summer.  Kayak notified me when the price changed so I was able to snag the cheapest rate!

3.       I feel like I keep talking about how Kayak helps you save money! The Buzz section of the app allows you to see which days your flight is the cheapest during a month.  This is perfect for anyone with flexible travel dates! All I had to do in order to view this was to put in airport information and the month I was looking to travel during.  Buzz allows you to see exactly which airline and travel days are the cheapest.

4.       Looking for help while you are away? Kayak allows its users to look up airline information or call an airline.  If you need to get a hold of your airline while you are traveling, the airline info section of the app is perfect for you!

5.       Stranded in an airport with nothing to do? The Kayak app houses an airport information section which allows you to pinpoint the exact location of restaurants and gift shops!  If you are out of the country, the app also allows you to see exchange rates.

The Kayak app houses tons of features which can assist those who are looking to plan a vacation and those who are already on a trip! Be sure to check out all that the Kayak app has to offer! The app is available for both iPhone and Android! 

How My Travel Obsession Began

If you have stumbled upon this blog, you are probably wondering how my obsession with travel planning began.  Growing up, my parents always encouraged me to travel and my family spent nearly every summer on a week-long vacation.  We drove to most of our destinations which gave me the opportunity to see tons of amazing parts of the United States! Fast forward to my first year of college and I was spending a good amount of my free time online researching potential vacation destinations.  I couldn't get enough of looking up hotels, resorts, and cruises.  Other people thought I was crazy, but I couldn't stop planning out trips I wanted to take in the future!

It was not until the summer of 2012 when I purchased my first smartphone that I started to use travel apps.  After downloading my first app, I was immediately hooked! I began researching the top travel apps using my favorite tool, Google.  Suddenly, I had over 10 apps on my new phone which were all related to traveling and the planning process! The speed of these apps as well as the fact that I can take them wherever I have my phone was one immediate perk I noticed.  Whether I was waiting in line or bored in the car, I could spend my free time researching potential vacation destinations.  After spending several weeks using my newly installed apps, I began reading travel blogs and subscribing to a travel magazine.   These publications opened my eyes to the ever changing travel field!

In January of 2014, I had the opportunity to go on my first international trip to Cancun, Mexico.  This trip gave me to opportunity to learn about what life in another country is life.  Before leaving for Cancun, I spent some time researching places to see as well as downloading apps which would help me while I was there.  The apps I installed on my phone came in handy whenever I needed to figure out an exchange rate or know when the café closed at my resort.  It wasn’t until I took this trip that I knew that travel apps were a must-have!

Savvy Traveler is a blog written by a travel enthusiast for those who are interested in using mobile apps to plan their next excursion.  The blog will include reviews of travel apps as well as tips on using apps to make travel planning a breeze.