Vacation Planing Tip 1:  Atmosfy

It’s a newer app but, oh my, does it come with a punch! It was created during covid to help get the word out about small businesses and help them survive. However, now it’s the perfect travel app. Imagine if TripAdvisor and Yelp had a baby but in video form similar to TikTok. That is Atmosfy.

All the videos on the app are about hotels, restaurants, nightlife, museums, etc. Put in a location and start scrolling. You will get ideas for places to eat, attractions to visit, and more. The best part is all the videos are authentic. You do have to create an account to use the app, but it’s completely free. You can like, comment, save, and share the videos like you would on any social media. But, remember, this isn’t another social media.

I also like using this app at home. You can set it to your current location and it will start giving you recommendations to stuff near you. I’ve found out about quite a few places I didn’t even know about right here at home!

Vacation Planning Tip 2:  Viator

I’ve been using it for a very, very long time. It’s part of TripAdvisor so it’s been around for awhile. They offer tours in cities around the world. Historical tours, food tours, ghost tours, you name it. Some of them are half day tours, some include hiking, there are literally thousands to choose from.

Each time I go on a trip I book a tour with them. Especially if I’m visiting a city, day 1 will always include some kind of tour. It’s a great way to get an overview of the city and learn a lot about the place you’re visiting. Usually, the guides know all the history of the area and they’re super friendly so that makes them a good choice to answer your questions.

This is number one on my list of vacation planning tips. I always recommend to my clients that they start their trips with a tour too. You would not believe the amount of thanks I get for that. I’ve had countless people tell me it’s the best vacation planning tip I gave them.

Once you know your destination put it into Viator and see what all comes  up. You may be surprised at the amount of tours offered. From there think about the type of tour you want to do. Most of them allow free cancellations until a of couple days before the tour.

Below are a few examples of some of the tours offered in the US. The price range on them is usually between $15 and $100. If you’re wanting a half day or full day tour, those are typically more.

Vacation Planning Tip 3:  Roadtrippers

Vacation planning tips? This one is more than that, it’s a road trip tip. Put in your starting point and your end point, then an interactive map will come up. It will show you the fastest route to go and things that are along your route. It will show attractions, hotels, museums, and more.

If you see something you like you can add it to your trip. As you add things to your trip the route will change to accommodate them. You’re only allowed to add a certain number of places if you’re using the free version. To add more places you have to upgrade to the paid version.

Personally, I don’t use the paid version. I prefer to use Google maps so I only use roadtrippers as a tool to give me ideas of places to stop along my road trip. I do enjoy using it though and I think it’s a great way to find hidden gems and small things that are otherwise difficult to know about.

Vacation Planning Tip 4:  Google Maps

Google maps is widely known and used. You may think it’s a bit silly to include it on this list of vacation planning tips. But, did you know you can create your own custom map with it? I create one for every trip I go on.

I title it with the name of the place I’m going and then I add all my points to it. After I add them, I make sure to color code each category of pins on the map. Restaurants, museums, outdoor activities, the place(s) I’m staying, anything I feel like is it’s own category gets color coded differently.

The custom map is useful because you can open it on your phone during your trip. It’s easy to tap a pin on the map and GPS yourself to it quickly. Color coding it is helpful because then you will know what is close to you by just glancing at the map.

It also saves time because you did all the research beforehand. You’re not sitting around Googling places to eat and things to do, and then having to sort through them while you’re on the trip. You can have fun and relax on your trip using the map you made.

If you don’t know how, I have a post titled “How to Create a Travel Map” where I go step-by-step in detail (with pictures) and tell you how to create your own travel map in Google Maps.