9 Helpful Resources For Frequent Travelers

9 Necessary Tools For People Who Love To Travel

Grrrl Traveler Visits the Deer Park in Nara, Japan

Things to Bring on Your Next Vacation

• Travel size toiletries that won't take up too much space
• Keep your dirty clothes separate from the clean ones with a laundry bag
• A money belt for easy access to cash & cards
• If you're traveling with kids, you might want to bring along some games
• Depending on your preference, either a backpack or some nice luggage
• Cozy pillows can improve any long flight or car trip
• If you're going to a country where you don't know the language, a translator can be a big help
• A travel mug for your coffee or tea

Rick Steves in Warsaw, Poland

10 Personal Stories About Eye-Opening Travel

In Depth

There are many different reasons why people travel. Some are always on the road for their jobs. Others are lucky enough to have the time and money to vacation as they please. So-called digital nomads take advantage of remote work arrangements to spend life jetting around the globe. Whatever your reason, this list, presented in no particular order, points to nine useful travel resources.

#1 is the publisher Avalon Travel, a division of Hachette Book Group. The imprint handles two major independent travel guide series: Rick Steves and Moon. It also maintains an active blog packed with tips for tourists. Moon was founded in 1973, starting with guidebooks to Asia and becoming one of the premier sources of advice on visiting the Americas. Their books on Morocco and Los Cabos, for example, as well as titles like Rome Walks, have won awards.

Rick Steves has become quite well-known as a writer and TV host on the subject of European travel. While he made his name with the self-published first edition of Europe Through the Back Door, Steves has long published his books with Avalon. In addition to guidebooks on individual countries and cities, Steves authors foreign language phrasebooks, Read-Before-You-Go titles with historical and cultural information, and suggested multi-country itineraries.

While he made his name with the self-published first edition of Europe Through the Back Door, Steves has long published his books with Avalon.

For #2, we've got Grrrl Traveler. The website is run by female solo travel blogger and YouTuber Christine Ka'aloa, and serves to inspire others to visit foreign countries on their own. Demystifying solo adventuring, it deals with questions of cultural diversity while describing the bizarre, unusual, frightening, and often funny experiences of the author.

Ka'aloa became a dedicated solo traveler after a tour through India with friends fizzled. On the site, she covers a wide range of destinations, with entries spanning East and Southeast Asia, as well as the Indian subcontinent, Europe, North and South America, and Oceania. There are also reviews of hotels, tour operators, and travel technology items. With additional resources on booking, transportation, and safety, it aims to be a one-stop shop for travel needs.

#3 on the list, Travel Mamas has the mission of helping parents and their children connect with each other and the world around them. Its website provides travel tips, giveaways, packing lists, and stories for parents and caregivers who want to voyage with children. While the focus is on traveling with youngsters, it also covers adult getaways like romantic vacations and girlfriend retreats.

Its website provides travel tips, giveaways, packing lists, and stories for parents and caregivers who want to voyage with children.

In 2018, the site was given a Silver Award by the prestigious Society of American Travel Writers. Founder Colleen Lanin has published a guidebook and contributes travel tips to television programs and a variety of magazines, such as Parenting, the Orlando Sentinel, and the Chicago Tribune. There's also an accompanying lifestyle blog, helping readers enjoy the journey of everyday life.

#4, Brownell, is the oldest travel agency in North America. Founded in 1887, it boasts deep relationships with the top-rated luxury travel companies in the world. In seeking to provide exceptional experiences for tourists, its watchwords are passion, integrity, graciousness, and innovation. Headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, the company also has offices in Mobile and Atlanta.

The company's travel advisors can help plan trips all around the world, for different kinds of vacation needs. The website provides reviews of luxury hotels. Its blog offers in-depth explorations of a number of tourism-related topics. Another arm of the organization works with clients across various industries to design travel incentive programs that inspire employees to work harder. There's also a professional development division for those building careers in the industry.

Its blog offers in-depth explorations of a number of tourism-related topics.

At #5, it's Geosure, which claims to have developed the most trusted, granular, real-time safety measurement platform ever created. The app promises users the ability to gauge their personal level of safety at any moment, anywhere in the world. A color-coded ratings scale, from 1 to 100, is designed to be a global standard for expressing safety in relative terms that anyone can understand.

The app incorporates safety and security data purchased from brokers. It continuously updates ratings for every popular destination and major cities across the globe, right down to individual neighborhoods. The safety score is produced by an algorithm that analyzes hundreds of variables specific to each place, such as crime statistics, quantified health, economic, and political information, and travel alerts.

In the #6 position, Business Travel Life is a resource for business travelers covering tips and trends, living healthy on the road, accessories, hotel workouts, and other topics that matter to such people. Some material covers individual cities, while other posts deal with general issues. It was founded in 2014 by fitness enthusiast, marketing consultant and frequent flyer Kristina Portillo.

Some material covers individual cities, while other posts deal with general issues.

The company's main priority is making business travel healthier and healthy business travel easier. The need for such a publication comes from Portillo's own experience as someone whose hectic life jetting around the world for work required her to work additionally hard to pursue her health and fitness goals. The site's advice has appeared in outlets like Yahoo Finance and Travel Wire News.

Coming in at #7, Fox Nomad is a publication from blogger and digital nomad Anil Polat that combines travel and tech to help readers make smarter vacation choices. In addition to the writing and videos posted on the site, Polat develops apps to assist tourists in getting around common travel problems, such as Wifox, which offers a map updated in real time with airport wifi and lounge passwords.

Growing up with journalist parents, Polat has been traveling his whole life. He's currently on a mission to visit every country in the world. On Fox Nomad, he and his guest contributors have written about trips to more than 90 nations in Africa; Asia; North, South, and Central America; Oceania; and Europe. The site's tech coverage deals with the gadgets that fellow digital nomads might need to maintain their lifestyle.

Growing up with journalist parents, Polat has been traveling his whole life.

#8 is Solo Traveler, an online community where people who share a passion for traveling alone exchange tips, suggestions, and encouragement. The site publishes posts on the how and why of solo voyaging, as well as user-generated text and photo content. It presents an annual series of awards to companies that excel at serving those making trips alone.

The site maintains regularly updated guides to affordable travel in various destinations. An accommodation guide surveys hotels, hostels, and bed and breakfasts in numerous locations, looking particularly at safety, centrality, and social opportunities for solo travelers. Every month, the outlet pulls together a list of the best tour deals for its readership. It additionally offers a database of relevant statistics.

Closing out the list at #9, Zicasso works to help users plan exceptional vacations filled with inspiring and life-enriching experiences. The service matches visitors with 2 or 3 leading travel specialists who are uniquely qualified to advise them on the vacation they have in mind. These figures are experts at finding and matching people with the world's top-rated travel agents and boutique tour companies.

These figures are experts at finding and matching people with the world's top-rated travel agents and boutique tour companies.

The company's travel partners excel at handcrafting and coordinating complex international luxury itineraries. Their expertise and connections cover all logistics, transportation, and accommodation needs, putting travelers in touch with guides and insider access to unique experiences, and offering them support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Zicasso website features travel reviews from users about trips booked through the referral service.