Trying to decide which companies to use for your trip?
Since we started travelling full-time as a family, we’ve tested a lot of different tools, booking sites, and services along the way. Some have worked well. Others… not so much.
The ones below are the ones we keep coming back to the ones that have actually made travel easier, saved us money, or just worked when we needed them to.
This is where we start when planning each part of our trips across Latin America. If you’re planning something similar, these are the ones worth using.
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you book through them, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend tools and services we’ve actually used while travelling as a family and that have genuinely made things easier for us.
Booking.com is usually our go-to when looking for hotels or apartments while travelling. It has the biggest range of options, and it’s often the easiest place to compare prices, locations, and reviews quickly — especially when you’re trying to find something that actually works for a family.
Agoda is another platform we check, particularly in certain regions where it can have better availability or pricing than other sites. It’s worth comparing alongside Booking.com, as sometimes the same property can be cheaper depending on where you book.
Airbnb is what we tend to use for longer stays, especially when we want more space, a kitchen, or something that feels a bit more like a home base. It’s been useful for slowing things down and settling in, rather than moving around constantly.
Aviasales is one of the tools we use to find cheap flights, especially for longer or more flexible routes. It’s good for comparing different options quickly and can sometimes surface cheaper combinations that don’t always show up on the more well-known platforms.
Traveloka is another platform worth checking, particularly in certain regions where it can have better availability or pricing. It’s useful to compare alongside other sites, as flight prices can vary more than you’d expect depending on where you search.
Skyscanner is usually where we start when searching for flights. It’s easy to use, gives a good overview of prices across different dates, and helps quickly figure out the best routes before booking through a provider.
SafetyWing is what we use for travel insurance while moving between countries. It’s flexible, easy to set up, and works well for long-term travel, which makes it a good fit when you’re not on a fixed itinerary and need something that just works in the background.
Airalo is the eSIM we’ve used most while travelling, it’s quick to set up and means you can get data as soon as you land without needing a physical SIM. It’s been reliable for us across different countries and saves the hassle of sorting it out locally.
Yesim is another eSIM option we’ve tested, and it’s worth comparing depending on where you’re travelling. Like Airalo, it lets you get connected quickly without needing to find a local provider, which makes things easier when you first arrive somewhere new.
Saily is a newer eSIM option that’s worth checking alongside the others. It works in a similar way, giving you data without needing a physical SIM, and can sometimes have competitive pricing depending on the destination.
Viator is one of the platforms we use to find tours and activities when we arrive somewhere new. It’s useful for browsing what’s available in an area, comparing options, and booking things in advance, especially for popular spots where things can fill up quickly.
GetYourGuide is usually our go-to for booking activities and experiences. It’s easy to use, has a wide range of options in most destinations, and makes it simple to find things that actually fit into your trip without overplanning.
Klook is another platform worth checking, particularly in certain regions where it can have better availability or pricing. Like the others, it’s useful for comparing options and finding activities that you might not come across otherwise.
BaseLang is what we’ve been using to learn Spanish while travelling through Latin America. It gives you unlimited one-on-one classes with native teachers, which makes it much easier to stay consistent and actually improve, especially when you’re surrounded by the language every day.
Busbud is what we’ve used for booking buses across Latin America, especially for longer journeys between cities. It makes it easy to compare routes, times, and operators in one place, which saves a lot of time versus trying to figure things out locally, especially when you don’t speak the language.
Discover Cars is the platform we use to compare rental car options across different providers. It’s one of the easiest ways to find good prices without falling into the usual traps, and it’s been reliable for us when booking cars in different countries.
Local Rent is what we’ve used when renting cars in places where the big international companies either overcharge or don’t have great availability. It connects you with smaller, local providers, which often means better prices and more flexible options, especially in less touristy areas.
Travelpayouts is the platform we use to bring flights, hotels, and travel bookings into one place, it gives access to multiple providers, which means better options and flexibility depending on where you’re searching from.
Stay22 is what we use to make our accommodation links more useful, instead of manually linking everything, it helps surface relevant places to stay based on the destination, making it easier for readers to actually find and book something that fits.
We use Kit to manage all of our emails while travelling, it’s simple, reliable, and lets us build things like automations and email sequences without overcomplicating it, which matters when you’re balancing travel, kids, and everything else on the road.
Overpacking, airport meltdowns, wasted money, we’ve done it.
Here’s the exact toolkit we use to travel smarter.
Here’s the exact toolkit we use to travel smarter.
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