TOP 8 trip planning apps 2020: Best trip organizers for your smartphone

Let’s take a look at the list of TOP 8 trip planning mobile applications for 2020 that’s worth using while traveling for business or vacation.

First of all let’s notice what’s going on with travel industry due to the situation related to global coronavirus disease

Impact of COVID-19 on the travel industry

Let’s face it – the world has changed, and we are all in the same boat. Since the first outbreak in China, COVID-19 has become a global problem for almost every industry, however, some sectors are being hit harshly.

According to the WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council), the coronavirus pandemic would cut over 50 million jobs in the travel industry. To bring back the industry to its’ normal level would take about a year, according to the same WTTC.

While the traveling world is living under the hashtag of #TravelTomorrow, putting people first and calling for responsibility among travelers and industry, there is a life after coronavirus, for sure.

Best trip planners to avoid delays, find a proper place to stay or beat the traffic

Let the travel apps help you whether you are going to spend a whole year in a foreign country or packing light for a few days for sightseeing.

A proper trip planner can save from a rushed and stressful journey:

• Want the cheapest ticket at the last moment? Easy! The best-suited hotel or an apartment, maybe a castle? Again, no problem.
• With trip organizer apps it’s an easy task to find the best locations, book the perfect room, pack smart, find the tastiest restaurant around, optimize your journey, based on the trip duration, and more.
• We’ve picked an excellent package of various trip planner apps to help you whether you’re planning a trip or you’re already on your road!

Trip Advisor

Rating in App Store: 4.7 
Google Play: 4.4 stars

Pros:

• Enables to see both reviews and photographs posted by tourists.
• Enables to book hotels, flights, restaurants, and rentals directly from the site.
• Enables managers to respond to any kind of review.

Cons:

• Fake reviews, which Trip Advisor team tries to remove. However, it’s impossible to eliminate such reviews.

Our Rating: 9/10

Visit a City

For example, the app offers a recommended sightseeing plan, based on your journey duration. The app helps to estimate the time on each activity you’ve chosen as your itinerary options and give the best options to achieve your goals. Besides, a tourist can edit the itinerary by changing the trip starting date, revising trip duration, or deleting the attraction altogether. Available for both iPhone and Android.

Rating in App Store: 4.8
Google Play: 4.6 stars

Pros:

• It’s available to pre-plot the location on map and print
• With each location comes a review rating, allowing us to decide whether it’s worth visiting
• Availability to add notes for each attraction (cost, preferable meal/restaurant, etc.)

Cons:

• It’s usable only for cities and not suitable for small towns or road trips

Our rating: 8/10

Wanderlog Travel Planner

Wanderlog is a free trip planning app and website where travelers can build, organize, and map their trip plans. It’s not your ordinary trip planner – its UI makes it easy (and fun!) to use, it’s incredibly flexible, and it provides all the information you need in one place.

For each place added to your trip, Wanderlog automatically pulls up a picture and a brief description, as well as a pin on your trip map, making it easier than ever to visualize your plans. When you click on a place, view key information from Google like how long people typically spend there, contact info, and user ratings, as well as links to trusted review sites (e.g., Tripadvisor). You can make general lists of ‘places to visit’ or a detailed itinerary where you can see how long it takes to get between places. For additional flexibility, add your own freeform notes wherever you want, add unlimited stops, collaborate with friends in real-time, and export your places to Google Maps when you want to navigate.

Rating in App Store: 4.7

Google Play: 4.6 stars

Pros:

• Users are able to see both the map and your lists altogether in a single view instead of flipping between views.
• The trip planning features available on the web into the app, so you can seamlessly plan on-the-go

Our rating: 10 /10

Hopper

A simply designed money-saving app works on both iOS and Android.
Hopper uses a proprietary algorithm for finding the lowest price on flights, hotels, etc.

Rating in App Store:4.8 stars
Google Play: 4.5 stars

Pros:

• Hopper’s algorithm helps to find the lowest prices up to a year in advance. They have helped 30 million tourists to save more than $1.8 billion.

Cons:

• Bad customer service, based on a huge amount of reviews.

Our rating: 9 /10

Culture Trip

Rating in App Store: 4.8 stars
Google Play: 4.7 stars

Pros:

• Uses content to find and fix places you want to visit. There criteria, such as Food and drinks, Music or Guides, to save in your created lists.

Cons:

• Not all languages are available.

Our rating 8/10

Maps.me

Project lets users get free offline world maps which can help to find the way anywhere in the world.

Rating in App Store: 4.8 stars
Google Play: 4.5 stars

Pros:

• The open-source app allows people to freely edit the map, similar to Wikipedia
• Includes hiking trails, bicycle roads, etc.

Cons:

• No way to distinguish between fastest, efficient or shortest route
• Not as useful for navigating while hiking/climbing/etc
• Traffic information is not available in all countries and cities

Our rating: 7/10

Packing Pro

Rating in App Store: 4.9 stars

Pros:

• Customization availability like fonts, color, styles, layout options, and more
• Shareable lists via iTunes File Sharing, AirDrop, Dropbox, Box, iCloud

Cons:

• Available only for iOS
• Not free – Price: $2.99

Our rating: 8/10

Drive Weather

Best price tickets are reserved, baggage is packed, best-suited hotel reserved, however, there’s a thing not less important for having a great vacation. The weather, of course. The last thing you want for your journey is sitting in the hotel room because of the nasty weather.

DriveWeather was designed to help travelers to get rid of the worst weather conditions by letting them track the best departure time, providing radar views and routes with weather condition icons.

Rating in App Store: 4.7 stars
Google Play: 3,1 stars

Pros:

• There is 2 days free forecast and 900-mile trip and city-to-city routing

Cons:

• For ad-free app you have to pay about $10 per year.

Our rating: 7/10

Airbnb

Rating in App Store: 4.7 stars
Google Play: 3,1 stars

Pros:

• Free Listings
• Hosts Can Set Their Price
• Customizable Searches
• Protections for Guests and Hosts

Cons:

• What You See May Not Be What You Get
• Potential Damage
• It Isn’t Legal Everywhere

Our rating: 9/10

So, guys, this is our version of the best 8 mobile apps for travel planning and trip organizing. We hope you’ll have the best experience using them while booking the best tickets, finding the best budget accommodation, or choosing the perfect local restaurant.

Enjoy your journey!

Author: Peproneh Badalyan
LinkedIn