Flights, Hotel, Itinerary: Plan the Perfect Trip with These Apps and Services

The holiday season is upon us. It’s time to pack your bags and your jackets and head over to places where winter is about more than just staying in bed and eating peanuts — which means Murree for most of us Pakistanis, especially the ones living in Punjab.

Fortunately, with the abundance of smartphones everywhere, the process of actually organizing a trip is easier than it has ever been in the past. From the online booking of hotels and flights to looking for popular tourist spots, cafes, eateries, etc. planning a trip can be done right from the comforts of your couch — all you need is a smartphone and an internet connection.

Here is a list of the top tools and apps to help you plan the perfect trip, be it to the Northern areas of Pakistan or be it abroad.

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Booking

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Today, there are tons of online tools that can not only book your flights and hotels rooms for you but also compare to find the cheapest options. Here are some of the best tools you can use to book and find the best flight options.

Flights

• SastaTicket.pk
  Hotels & Flights

A Pakistani startup, SastaTicket.pk provides Pakistani travelers with instant bookings and comprehensive choices. If you want to travel locally, SastaTicket is the best choice as it provides some of the best rates, has great customer support and also has physical presence in three cities of Pakistan.

• ITA Matrix
  Flights

Developed by MIT computer scientists, ITA Matrix is one of the most efficient flight-finding tools, that is also used by other sites like KAYAK and Google. However, unlike other sites, it also lists the budget airlines which most travel sites don’t list. While you can’t directly book a ticket through ITA Matrix, you can still find the best rates and book a ticket yourself by going to that airline’s website.

• Skyscanner
  Flights

A leading travel site, Skyscanner allows you to directly search for a book flights using its incredible flight search engine. It is used by over 60 million people every month.

Download Skyscanner here: Android | iPhone

Hotels

• Booking
  Hotels, Flights & Cars

A travel fare aggregate and a travel metasearch engine, Booking.com has one of the most exhaustive lists of properties from all over the world. It also provides a great search engine for sifting through flights to almost any corner of the world.

Download Booking for Android | iPhone

• Expedia
  Hotels, Flights & Cars

One of the world’s leading travel companies, Expedia searches through an extensive list of hotels, flights, and car options to give you the best rates.

Download Expedia here: Android | iPhone

• Kayak
  Hotels, Flights & Cars

An online price comparison tool, Kayak is best suited for international travel. It is like a travel-search engine which searches other sites to show travelers the information they need to find the right flights, hotels, rental cars and vacation packages.

Download Kayak here: Android | iPhone

• TripAdvisor
  Hotels & Flights

Another price-comparison tool, TripAdvisor searches through 200+ booking sites to help you find the lowest price on the right hotel for you.

Download TripAdvisor here: Android | iPhone

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Travel Guides

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• Google Trips

Google has its own app for planning your trips, powered by Google’s massive treasure-trove of data. Moreover, Google Trips can also pull in trip details automatically from your Gmail account — flights, hotels information, etc. You can make daily plans, see places to visit, search for places to eat, etc.

Download Google Trips here: Android | iPhone

• Guides by Lonely Planet

Expertly curated and packed with offline maps, audio phrasebooks, a currency converter, and even advice from on-ground experts, Guides by Lonely Planet is the perfect app to take with you when traveling to an unknown place.

Download Guides by Lonely Planet here: Android | iPhone

• Trip by Skyscanner

Another powerful app by Skyscanner, Trip uses your interests, the time of day, the local weather, and your location to help you discover the best attractions, events, restaurants, and hotels.

Download Trip by Skyscanner here: Android | iPhone

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Other Essentials

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• Google Maps

What better app to take with you on a trip than a map? And what better map than Google Maps? You can also download and save offline maps of locations in advance in case you are worried about connectivity.

Download Google Maps here: Android | iPhone

• Google Translate

Worried about the language barrier? Google has you covered there too. Supporting over 100 languages (and 32 languages via photo), Google Translate is a must-have for any trip.

Download Google Translate here: Android | iPhone

• Sygic

One of the world’s most download offline 3D maps, Sygic offers accurate real-time traffic information with data collected from 500 million users worldwide.

Download Sygic here: Android | iPhone