Top 10 Travel Planner Apps to Easily Plan Trips in 2023!

Let's face it... Life can get pretty crazy sometimes.

That's why we're all about taking that sweet escape and hitting the travel road—it's our much-needed break from the everyday chaos. But, you know how it goes, just when you're ready to unwind and start planning your trip, you're hit with a mountain of stuff to do.

Sorting out bookings, arranging schedules, and then trying to align all these plans and paperwork with your travel buddies. It's enough to give anyone a headache!

For many of us, though, planning a holiday or organizing travel itineraries is the starting point of the fun. It's like the first wave of excitement that keeps us pumped and ready for the adventure ahead.

My go-to when it comes to making planning easier? A trusted trip planning app! Thank goodness they exist and are becoming more and more available...

A well-designed trip planner is a true lifesaver in the travel planning journey.

What Exactly Are Travel Planners?

You could call the trip planner apps, travel planning apps, or even travel itinerary tools. No matter what you call them, these platforms have become a hit because they make life so much simpler when you're trying to put together your travel plans.

You'll find tons of these apps out there, each with its own special twist that makes trip planning a breeze.

A top-notch travel planning app should be all about making the itinerary planning process a walk in the park. It should help you piece together the details without breaking a sweat, so instead of being buried in organizing, you're actually getting stoked for your journey!

Some of the things I need to have if I'm using a trip planner are the ability to create daily itineraries, keep flight and other travel booking details saved, and share my plans with my travel buddies.

What is the Best Trip Planner for All Travelers?

Every traveler is different, and so are the travel apps.

This is why I've rounded up the best travel planning apps, each catering to a different type of traveler. You no longer have to be stuck with the same old Google Sheet or notes app that isn't making your life easier, especially when planning for a group.

Wondering what are the best travel apps or packing apps that’ll also help you with your travel experience? We’ve got you covered as well.

When I'm planning, I currently use a mix of different travel planning apps. Some are my go-tos for finding deals while others are better at helping me find and save inspiring ideas for trips.

Because I know every traveler, and planner, is different, I've put together a diverse list. I've tried all of these apps, and have made notes on who I think will find them useful.

And before I dive in, I'm letting you know that my main focus will be on trip planning apps that can be used to build, edit, and share travel itineraries using the features they offer.

Here are the 10 best travel planning apps you'll want to download and try out, each with its own specialties!

1. 🎯 Best Social Trip Planner: Pilot
2. 🌎 Best Autosync Planner: TripIt
3. 📈 Best Travel Deals & Inspiration App:Hopper
4. 💡 Best Travel Inspiration app: Hipherd
5. 🕺 Best App for Local Experiences: ViaHero
6. 🚗 Best Roadtrip Planner App: RoadTripper
7. 🔨 Best Itinerary Builder: GEOVEA
8. 📝 Best "Plan my trip" App: Inspirock
9. 💺 Best Planner for Travel Agents: Travefy
10. 💬 Best Forum-Based Travel Planner: TripAdvisor

10 Best Travel Planning Apps to Start Using in 2023!

1. 🎯 The Best Social Trip Planner - Pilot

I admit that I'm a bit biased. But hey! The team wouldn't be building Pilot if we didn't think it was the best or if we were fully satisfied with the other options on the list.

Best For:

Making travel plans, collaborating, and seeing what experiences friends and family have taken or want to take.

Why You’ll Like It:

Pilot is a brand-new social trip planner that helps you discover and build travel itineraries connecting you to resources everywhere.

As a social trip planner, Pilot makes travel planning an immersive experience more than a mere task because you can do it with your favorite travel mate(s) or yourself!

Pilot makes it fun and easy to share and relive your favorite travel memories with many useful features.

Whether it’s brainstorming ideas, seeking inspiration, voting for places, or setting up a budget, Pilot has got you covered.

My personal favorite? The fact that you can set different icons for different type of itinerary items and you can use color-coding!

Its user-friendly interface is a delight for perfectionists who love categorizing events, activities, and attractions in different forms. It'll integrate all the travel ideas you have gathered from the web in one place.

Travelers can also use the app to import essential travel details like flight booking numbers. If you're looking for something more fun than a plain-old Google doc or spreadsheet to plan your trip, but that's just as flexible, you've come to the right place!

Why You Might Not Like Tt:

If planning trips yourself isn’t your thing, Pilot may not be ideal, but our team does offer assistance for free to work with you on making a personalized trip based on your interest.

Pilot's also in the early stages with tons of cool new features being added every week. While we're still building a lot, including a mobile app coming real soon, you'll already find it super useful!

Top Features:

• Plan trips together in real-time with your travel crew, friends or family!
• Chat with your travel crew & vote on travel itineraries!
• Import and store your travel information for offline access.
• Create notes, reminders, packing lists, and wishlists!
• FlightDeck, Pilot's blog, contains an extensive database of destination guides, things to do, and where to stay for free!

Pricing:

• Totally free!

Versions:

• Just on the web for now, but iOS and Android coming soon!

Alternatives:

• MyLike and Pebblar

2. 🌎 Best AutoSync Travel Planner - TripIt

Best For:

A minimal & old school business travel planner to organize all the essential details for work trips.

Why You’ll Like It:

TripIt is straightforward in what it does. It gathers and syncs all travel-related booking and confirmation emails related to flights, transportation, and accommodation to form an itinerary. This way, you don’t have to spend time searching for them individually.

What's great about TripIt is the ability to automatically import and sync your booking and ticket reservations via email forwarding. This will input your booking or any ticket information onto your planner without you needing to do it manually.

For example, if you have your flight information, Airbnb reservations, and event tickets in your email, all you'll have to do is forward them to TripIt. They'll automatically sync them into a master itinerary for you to use.

If you find yourself setting multiple alarms for the airport, Tripit will automatically remind you when its time to leave based on your ticketing information.

TripIt Pro, the premium version, sends important alerts regarding flight status, delays, and gate numbers, improving your experience even more. The app also has a neighborhood safety score which can be really helpful for solo travelers, female backpackers, and anyone.

We think the app is best suited for busy professionals on business tours and last-minute travelers who don’t have the time to sort through their trip details.

Why You Might Not Like It:

If you believe that travel planning should be fun and as exciting as taking the trip, TripIt might not be for you. TripIt doesn’t scream “fun."

It's owned by the enterprise technology company SAP, which means the interface is very formal and stiff, so probably not what you're looking for if your trip is for leisure. But it might be great if you're looking for something more strict and business-like.

If you’re looking for features other than organizing booking details, such as interesting travel content, guides for inspiration, and the ability to add specific attractions, you’re outta luck.

It’s also not a collaborative trip planner. Itineraries can be shared, but it's hard to do much collaboration on them if you're taking a group trip. Best to use this one if you need to travel for work.

Top Features:

• Automatically imports travel details from your inboxes.

Pricing:

• The basic version is free, but...
• You'd probably need TripIt Pro, which costs $49 per year, to get the full value.

Versions:

• iOS, Android, and web

Alternatives:

• Trip Case and Trek Friend

Still unsure if you should use TripIt? Make sure to check out our in-depth review of TripIt if you'd like to learn more about its features + pros & cons!

3. 📈 Best Travel Deals & Inspiration App: Hopper

Best For:

Any and all travelers who loves travel deals and don't mind some spontaneity in their travel plans! Honestly, it doesn't hurt to check Hopper every once in a while. Who knows, you might find some amazing deals on there that just might make you go on your next adventure!

Why You’ll Like It:

If you love the idea of seeing the world on a budget, or even just discovering cool new places to go on your next trip, Hopper is definitely the app to help you achieve that.

Once you signed up, all you'll have to do is to browse the app or search specific deals—that's it! Hopper sometimes even gives you perks for being a member, such as free coupons, free credits, or member-exclusive discounts.

The Hopper team does the research and hard work to create an algorithm that finds cool new deals for all travelers!

You're able to book not only flights, but even access hotel deals and rental car options on the app. You're also able to book experiences and put specific destinations, routes, or accommodations on watch so you won't miss any particular deals that pop up.

Why You Might Not Like It:

As good as it is to browser cool new places to go or find great deals or discounts on places that's already on your bucket list, most of the time, I find it very hard if I already have a specific place I wanted to visit.

I remember that in my experience it was hard for me to find the deal and book it in time for my trip. That might just be me being inflexible, but that is a big reason why I don't use it more often.

The travel planning features are also very rigid and limited, so I wouldn't recommend the app if you're looking to organize or work around your itinerary.

We have a very comprehensive review of Hopper, so if you're still interested make sure to check that out!

Top Features:

• The app provides watch feature that sends push notifications about good deals.
• Great place for spontaneous travelers with great deals.
• Frequent discounts and benefits.

Pricing:

• Free!

Version:

• App

Alternatives:

• Going
• SnapTravel / Super

4. 💡Best Travel Inspiration Tracker - HipHerd

Best For:

Travelers who want to save their travel inspiration in one place and don't need or want planning functionality.

Why You’ll Like It:

HipHerd makes sure you don’t lose track of exciting destinations, inspiring travel stories, adventure trips, and other information you come across when surfing the web at random.

Essentially, you can gather and save travel ideas at your own pace using this platform. This way, you'll have a ton of interesting attractions lined up when you start planning an itinerary.

You can also create boards for each destination you plan to visit, categorize relevant details, and share them with others for real-time collaboration. Once you have sorted your itinerary, it will be displayed on a map to picture your trip at a glance.

Why You Might Not Like It:

If you’re looking for a travel planner, HipHerd will not deliver. The travel itinerary extension can help you store inspiration and destinations, but you’ll need another travel planning app to help you with the actual planning.

HipHerd isn't for you if you’re looking for essential features like the ability to store important travel details like flight information and track your budget to give you an idea of expenses.

Top features:

• Curate mood boards for destinations.
• Downloadable Chrome Extension.

Pricing:

• Free

Versions:

• Web

Alternatives:

• PlanApple
• Trello

5. 🕺 Best Travel Planner for Local Experiences - ViaHero

Best for:

Travelers hunting for authentic local experiences that don’t care for flexibility.

Why You’ll Like It:

Some travelers prefer their travel experiences to be a slice of local life without being herded into tourist traps.

ViaHero connects travelers with locals in the destinations they wish to visit. This way, you can access insider information, get tips to navigate around, and find ways to avoid overpaying just because you are a tourist.

The local guide will curate a travel itinerary with your suggestions, taking care of transport, accommodation, and food arrangements. It saves you time planning trips, sorting through attractions, and organizing an itinerary. You get it all done for you, by a local expert!

Why You Might Not Like It:

You can’t use ViaHero to travel anywhere in the world. It have a limited list of destinations to choose from with connections to local guides.

ViaHero also lacks the flexibility a travel planner should have for travelers who want full control over their travel plans.

It’s also expensive and may not be ideal if you love planning trips yourself and only want suggestions and advice from locals on where to go and what to see!

Top Features:

• Connect with local travelers and have authentic experiences from local insiderinformation.
• Guides to local and authentic travel.

Pricing:

• $40 per day for a custom-made itinerary, and more for groups.
• No free version or free trial.

Versions:

• iOS, Android, and web

Alternatives:

• TravelSherpa

Check out our in-depth ViaHero review if you'd like to learn more about what its features are + pros & cons!

6. 🚗 Best Road Trip Planner - RoadTrippers

Best For:

Anyone who only wants to plan a road trip.

Why You’ll Like It:

As the name suggests, the RoadTripper app is specially built for road trip enthusiasts who want to have a heads-up about interesting attractions along the chosen route.

It also shows dining and lodging options that come in handy for people on long journeys. Every interesting stop is pinned on a map so that you can add what’s interesting to your itinerary.

There’s also the ability to search for specific attractions using filters. Once done, the itinerary can be edited, saved, and shared with others who partake in the trip. Talk about useful!

But should you try Roadtrippers Plus? The premium version of Roadtrippers allows you to extend your trip, adding up to 150 waypoints onto your journey. It's also ad-free!

Why You Might Not Like It:

For one, if you don’t plan on taking road trips often, the subscription will cost you a bit, $35.99 annually. While Roadtrippers have the basic version for free, it’s very limited in features.

The app is also not very user-friendly in terms of navigation, so you’ll most likely need to bring your laptop along with you on your trip and use data to access your travel itineraries.

Top Feature:

• Gives you info on lesser-known attractions

Pricing:

• Their paid version costs $35.99 per year

Versions:

• iOS, Android, and web

Alternatives:

• Google My Maps

Before you get yourCheck out our Roadtrippers app review if you'd like to learn more about the features that come with the app + pros & cons!

7. 🔨 Best Itinerary Builder/Planner - GEOVEA

Best For:

Travelers who are super planners, serious about the time schedules, budgeting, and logistics of the trip down to the fine details.

Why You’ll Like It:

GEOVEA aims to make itinerary building easy for travelers with its detailed user interface. Once a destination is selected, activities for each day of the trip can be selected and dragged into time slots.

It also allows you to keep track of transportation, accommodation, and other bookings made, including what’s yet to be done. Then, you can estimate costs for each activity and edit them later on. You can share your itineraries with friends and family as well.

Why You Might Not Like It:

If you’re looking for an app, this might not be the travel planner solution for you. GEOVEA’s main drawback is that it’s only a web-based platform, although travel content can be viewed using mobile.

Secondly, it’s not a platform for collaboration to plan trips in groups, although itineraries are sharable.

Third, it's not super flexible. So if you like to plan your trip your way, you might just be better off with some of the other options on this list.

Top Features:

• Intuitive itinerary builder with integrated services like Yelp.
• Easily track expenses, transportation, lodging, etc.
• Sharable to your travel friends and family!

Pricing:

• Standard package is free with a limited number of itineraries.
• Other subscriptions are available for $29.99 and upwards for a year.

Versions:

• Web

Alternatives:

• TripSee

8. 📝 Best “Plan My Trip” Travel Planner - Inspirock

Best For:

Travelers who want AI to create a highly detailed and structured plan for them.

Why You’ll Like It:

Inspirock asks you some basic questions and then uses them to create a highly detailed itinerary for you.

Once you pick a place for your itinerary, you can view its travel guide containing details on major tourist attractions, reviews, accommodations options, best modes of transport, and others. It can help you determine if you are traveling efficiently to the best destinations.

When creating an itinerary, you can add multiple stops or cities along the way, search for transportation and accommodation options and book them. Then, Inspirock will visualize it on a map.

Why You Might Not Like It:

You might not like Inspirock if you’re looking for an app that supports all destinations.

Users have also complained about incorrect suggestions, improper ordering of places, and other complexities.

If you select a place/attraction that’s not in Inspirock’s suggestions, you're on your own to get there. Unfortunately, the suggestions and experiences it adds to your trip plan aren't often personalized well enough to be useful. That means you'll have to go and delete things from your trip manually.

Depending on how rigid your travel plans are and if you want to do more unique activities than just the highlights, you might want to wait until its predictions get more accurate.

Top Features:

• Tailored itinerary based on answered questions.
• Travel guides with built-in travel efficiency optimization.

Pricing:

• Free

Versions:

• Web

Alternatives:

• TripHappy

Before you find it on the App Store or Google Play, check out our Inspirock review to learn more about what it offers!

9. 💺 Best Planner for Travel Agents - Travefy

Best For:

Travel agents! Travefy is an itinerary-building travel planner app built specifically for travel agents.

Why You’ll Like It:

There aren’t a lot of travel planner apps like Travefy geared towards professionals and travel companies.

Using this platform, travel agents, consultants, and guides can simplify their tasks, such as building itineraries, managing or editing them, providing recommendations and helping clients with their travel plans.

Features related to flight bookings, accommodation, and top attractions are also available.

If you're using Travefy, you can deliver custom-built travel plans via a mobile app, email, or PDF format. With the mobile app, agents can also keep in touch with their customers through instant messages.

Overall, this trip planning app streamlines a lot of tasks for professionals handling multiple clients.

Why You Might Not Like It:

It’s a costly service for travel agents just starting out. Also, the setup and functionalities of some features are quite complex to understand in the beginning.

It'd also be overkill for anyone who isn't a travel agent. Most of the functionality you won't use for your leisure travel, and it'd be expensive to pay for it.

Top Features:

• Free mobile app for clients so travel agents can communicate and edit details easily.
• Customizable trip itinerary deliverables via different platforms.

Pricing:

• $39/month or
• $372 for the annual subscription

Versions:

• iOS, Android, and web

Alternatives:

• Rezdy

Check out our Travefy review if you'd like to learn more about what features they offer + the pros & cons!

10. 💬 Best Forum-Based Travel Planner - TripAdvisor

Best For:

Travelers that want tips and recommendations from other travelers and book accommodations, flights, and things to do straight from the same platform.

Why You’ll Like It:

TripAdvisor is one of the largest leaders when it comes to review-based travel bookings.

With their comprehensive public forums, you can find just about any information you’d need for any destination, transportation, attraction, or accommodation. You’ll also be able to book and create your trips straight from their app!

TripAdvisor makes it easy to navigate different activities, explore different options, and compare prices and ratings of different accommodations.

Why You Might Not Like It:

If you want any control over planning your trip, TripAdvisor is certainly not the app for you. The trip planner from TripAdvisor is not very user-friendly and fun to use.

For example, it’s almost impossible to import other bookings or information into your travel planner.

That being said, it's a great way to browse through all the different options out there. You'll likely find a lot of ideas that you hadn't thought of before!

Top feature:

• A platform to share and read public reviews and recommendations and book all without leaving the app.
• Late database of reviews and ratings.
• Trusted platform amongst millions of travelers

Pricing:

• Free
• TripAdvisor Plus ($99/year) - discounted rates on over 100,000 flight prices, hotel bookings, experiences, and car rentals.

Versions:

• WebOS, iOS, and Android

Alternatives:

• Spot

Honorable Mentions

These 3 travel planning tools may not have made it into my top 10, but they're still good to consult when organizing your next vacation.

1. Google Flights

Best For:

Budget travelers who have flexible schedules and travel destinations looking for a great deal.

Why You’ll Like It:

Google's functionalities are easy to access and easy to use—Google Flights is no different. If you've used Google Maps, you'll understand how to get around its Flight function.

You'll love that it's easy to find flights to and from all the airports in the world. You can decide on specific dates or more loose timeframes to find out when or where the best place to go is if you're trying to travel on a budget.

My favorite way to use this is to start figuring out what region I want to travel to. For instance, I'll search my home city to Asia or Europe instead of a singular country. And I make it a 1-week or 2-week trip without specific dates. Then Google Flights shows me some of the best destinations for cheap flight prices.

Why You Might Not Like It:

It's a bit harder to confirm if you're getting the best prices, and it's often better to purchase from another booking platform than directly from the links provided by Google Flights. Flight deal sites like Skyscanner will often give you better prices.

2. LoungeBuddy

Why You'll Like It:

LoungeBuddy is website, or mobile app only available on iOS, that helps you find, compare, and book airport lounges. With LoungeBuddy you'll be able to learn about the lounge's amenities, purchase single-visit passes to specific lounges, and easily find which lounges are available to you based on any memberships.

If you're like me and enjoy small luxuries while traveling, getting into an airport lounge is a must. And LoungeBuddy is a great app to download to help make lounge visits a reality!

Why You Might Not Like It:

You only get to purchase one-time visit passes to singular lounges. Which means that visiting lounges with LoungeBuddy could become quite pricey if you're traveling a lot.

On top of this, since LoungeBuddy is owned by AMEX, AMEX credit cards are the only accepted form of payments when booking lounge entry.

You'll likely save long-term with a Priority Pass membership if you're flying and visiting lounges enough. So if you're a frequent flyer, I'd choose Priority Pass!

3. Sygic Travel

Why You'll Like It:

Formerly Tripomatic, Sygic Travel is a trip planning and itinerary maker that's available on the web and as an app. The best thing this trip planner has going for it is the great GPS capabilities.

It'll allow you to create itineraries for cities, input flight and hotel bookings, add in already programmed attractions as well as custom locations.

Enjoy some of the functionality and overall direction, but here's why it didn't make my top 10...

Why You Might Not Like It:

The Sygic trip planner has a bit of a clunky interface. It doesn't make it feel as fun as when I use other planners to organize my itineraries.

Other issues you may have with Sygic include that you're unable to make a multi-city trip, you need to pay for useful features like offline capabilities, and there are lots of places missing like restaurants.

Time to Get Planning!

So, this is my list of the top travel planner apps.

If you're looking for general travel apps that'll help you travel better, check out our list of the top travel apps you should be using on your trips, or the best packing apps you should use to track what you’re missing!

While they're not all travel planners, each of the apps I cover on this list solves a particular hassle most travelers come across during their trip.

And, if you're up to trying out an up and coming trip planner, join us on Pilot...