Best Free Apps for Travel Inspiration

Not sure where to go?  Not sure what to do when you get there?  We’ve all been at that point.

Planning a trip can be pretty overwhelming, but fortunately there are some brilliant people out there that create apps to help us with such dilemmas.

If you were to look at my iPhone, you’d see folders of travel apps titled “Airlines”, “Accommodation”, and “Transportation” just to name a few.  I had several outliers that didn’t fit nicely in to a single folder, but after a stroke of genius, I realized that they did have a common theme: travel inspiration.  And so a new iPhone folder was created.

Below are some of my favorite apps that I have used for travel inspiration and travel planning.

Facet – I posted recently on my Facebook page how excited I was about this app.  Facet is a clever mashup of Pinterest and Vine.  Like Pinterest, Facet features boards where you can pin pictures, but when you click on the picture, it’s actually a short video like a Vine.  It instantly transports you to that location.  Facet is still a fairly new app, so its destinations list isn’t expansive yet.  However, you can send feedback to the Facet team and let them know what places you’d like to see added.

Hitlist –  Hitlist is a travel inspiration app that revolves around flights.  Hitlist provides suggested trips such as Caribbean Getaways or Southeast Asia Adventure.  The app also suggests seasonal trips, so right now in early January there is a suggestion for Chinese New Year.  You can also explore themed travel, such as destinations that are best for photography, bicycle friendly cities, and holiday bucketlist.  Once you enter your home city, you can see flight prices (labeled as good, great, or spectacular) for almost any destination you search for.  Flight prices are from Skyscanner and hotels can be booked on Booking.com from within the app, which are 2 of my favorite flight and hotel apps, respectively.

AFAR – Some of you may be familiar with AFAR Travel Magazine.  That same team brings you this app chock full of travel inspiration and planning.  The list of destinations is fairly extensive and the layout of the app just makes you want to travel.  For each destination there are “must do” or “must see” activities, best hotels, a perfect day in that destination, and much more.  It also provides food and drink recommendations.  The part that appeals to me the most, though, is the Essentials tab at the bottom of the app.  It aligns perfectly with the message I try to convey on my website: Know Before You Go.

Gogobot – This app’s main function is travel planning.  It provides helpful information about the local area, including many user reviews. You can create your own itinerary, save items to that itinerary and sort by day, activity, or city.  Those itineraries can be collaborative, so if you’re travelling with friends that have Gogobot, you can all adjust the itinerary and it will sync across all your devices.

Minube – Minube is a great app for travel inspiration.  If you’re looking for ideas for romantic places, culinary destinations, adventure, or family travel, Minube will spit out a host of options that fit your particular request.  Minube also has an Inspiration tab that allows you find places within a certain radius of your location, as well as places that are good to travel in for any time frame from 1 day to over 2 weeks.  One interesting feature is the ability to search for locations by color.  For example, if the color blue does it for you, you can slide the cursor to the color blue and it will spit out destinations that all feature the color blue.  The only drawback to this app is once you are given the inspiration, you can’t actually click on that destination within the app…you’ll have to go back to the home page to start research on that destination.

TouristEye –  TouristEye allows you to create itineraries and wish lists using data from sources like Yelp and Foursquare.  You can view things to do, restaurants, and experiences and add them to your itinerary.  Your itinerary can be saved offline so that you can view it even if you don’t have signal.  Every time you save a country or city to your profile, it’s added to your passport, which you can view on a map and track statistics for countries and cities visited.  TouristEye was acquired by Lonely Planet (my favorite travel guide book provider) back in 2013, so it has pretty significant resources behind it now.

Trover – Of all the apps listed on this page, I’ve had Trover the longest.  Trover is great for travel inspiration as well as sometimes finding off the radar places that are near you.  In the app, you can search trending destination searches, specific places to visit, or specific activities.  In addition, you can explore places nearby by viewing pictures uploaded by other Trover users.  You can follow other users, comment on pictures, save items to wish lists, and send ideas to other people (via text, email, etc.) from within the app.

Viator –  Viator is one of my go-to apps.  Whenever I plan a trip, I look at Viator to see what things there are to do at my destination.  Viator’s primary purpose is so you can book tours or day trips with a local guide, but I constantly use Viator as a source of travel inspiration.  Its list of destinations is extensive and constantly growing.  If you don’t have Viator, download it now.

Peek –  Peek can be described as a direct competitor to Viator.  The app itself is visually appealing and its city guides are in depth and very helpful.  Some activities are even catered to your specific interests based on a travel personality quiz you take when you first open the app.  But where it falls short is its reach is limited.  Peek currently only lists about 20 destinations, most of them in the US.  However, if you are heading to one of those destinations, Peek is worth a look (I’m trying so hard to not say worth a peek…I mean, the comedy writes itself, folks).

So how did I do?  Do any of you have experience with any of these apps that can provide more insight to the community?  Any other travel inspiration apps to check out?  Let everyone know in the comments section!

Photo by Alex Mueller’s Daily Photo