Best Travel Resources and Apps in 2021 (Best Hostel Gear)

There are many smart websites and apps that make your travel life very easy. You can save money, find better flight deals, hostel prices, and so much more. The Hostelgeeks resource page is your gateway to smart travel gear. Bookmark this site; we always keep this page updated!

We love traveling light, in a minimalist way. We share our backpacks, day packs, gear and packing essentials, and essential guides we wrote for you.

Everybody loves shortcuts. We share following resources:

Tools and Websites we recommend (and use)
- Flight Comparison (and websites to use)
- How to get your proof for onward travel
- Travel Insurance
- Hostel Bookings (and websites to use)
- Travel Apps
- How to get tickets to sights
- Visa
- Public Transport and Bus
Luggage
Travel Essentials
Electronic Gear
Photography Gear
Books
Packing List

Ultimate Travel Resources

Shortcuts:

Flight Comparison – Travel Insurance – Hostel Bookings – Travel Apps – How to get tickets to Sights – Visa – Public Transport

Let us talk about powerful and smart resources to use when traveling.

The whole Hostelgeeks team has been travel a lot, using different apps and websites for budget traveling. We were able to catch a flight from Barcelona to the Canary Islands for just 12€!

Not only that: we took a road trip across Central Europe, saving 70% of the transport costs thanks to an app.

Flight Comparison

The best websites to find cheap flights are:

Especially Skyscanner, Omio.com and Kiwi are incredible powerful website.

It comes with a radius feature. Simply draw a circle on the map around your desired destination and find the cheapest connections.

You can search for cheap destinations only, and compare numerous days to fly from A to B.

Full review of Kiwi.com (+ How to use it)

How to get proof for onward travel?

Did you know, some countries require the proof of onward travel? Meaning, when entering the country you need to show proof that you are leaving the country again before your visa expires.

A proof of onward travel can be a flight ticket, train ticket or bus ticket. The most reliable way to prove onward travel is having a flight ticket.

The problem? As a real backpacker, you do not always have an outbound flight yet, or even know where you’ll be heading next.

This can cause you big trouble. Why? Well, often the check-in desk will ask for proof of onward travel (from the destination you’re heading to), and if you don’t have it, you may not even be allowed to board the flight to your first destination!

Therefore, check if you require an outbound flight and get your official ticket only for $12 on Onward Ticket.

We wrote a detailed guide and review of Onward Ticket and why you need it.

Find below our video for you. It shows the easy steps to get your proof of onward travel.

Check Onward Tickets.com

Find Cheap Flights with Skyscanner

Skyscanner might be the worlds most famous search engine for flights. They compare almost every airline and flight prices in the world.

This site will help you to set price alerts and compare different routes and prices.

Looking for flights on Skyscanner, you can do search for:

Round-trip (most common)
One-way trip (very common for digital nomads)
Multi-city trip

Check out the Skyscanner Review

Travel Insurance

We have used World Nomads on our travels around South East Asia and Europe.

We are currently using Safetywing as well as Iati Seguros and World Nomads. We wrote two guides about our insurances when traveling:

Our review of Safetywing, compared with World Nomads.
a Genuine review of World Nomads Insurance

Since we travel with a bit of gear and planned to do some activities like skydiving, motorbiking, diving and such, a travel insurance simply makes sense.

Our travel insurance really depends on where we travel and what we do. While Safetywing is cheaper, World Nomads covers more destinations and activities. For instance, for Cuba we had to show a travel insurance. Safetywing does not cover Cuba, but World Nomads does.

Therefore, pay attention. We know, it is not the most entertaining topic, but seriously get an insurance. If something goes wrong, you will be incredibly grateful.

Full Review of World Nomads

Hostel Bookings

Booking hostels has become more and more complex over time. There are more hostels to choose from now than there were years before. And there are several hostel websites and booking portals you can use.

First, how to find good hostels? The answer is our website: Hostelgeeks.com!

You can find all our handwritten guides on the best hostels in the world here and all 5 Star Hostels here.

Yet, Which hostel booking site is the best and the cheapest? For sure you have heard of

Hostelworld.com
Booking.com
Hostelz.com
even Airbnb.com (better Airbnb than a horrible hostel)

We wrote an in-depth guide to booking hostels and which websites to use. Find here our guide on how to use Hostelworld. Here is another guide on how to book with Booking.com, a review.

15 Tips How to book Hostels

How to get tickets to Sights?

Travelling the world also means visiting the most famous sights all over the globe.

From Colosseum to Taj Mahal. Some of the sights you really have to pre-book before visiting the city. This goes for Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Colosseum in Rome and other major sights. Please read this up before you go to avoid disappointment.

We use two websites to find tickets to sights:

Both websites are reliable. it is worth it to compare both as there can be different prices. We wrote a full review on Tiqets.com, and how to use them.

Full review of Tiqets.com

Visa

Bookmark this travel resource, you will need and love it: ivisa.com. For many countries of the world you need a visa. Yet, it depends on your nationality and the agreement of your home country with your destination.

So, how to find out if you need a visa? And how much is it? We always use ivisa.com.

It is a fast and simple way to find out if

you need a visa in the first place
how to get your visa
and if it costs money, how much it is.

We wrote a big review on how to use iVisa.

Visit iVisa.com

Public Transport and Bus

Public Transport like buses and trains are a fantastic way to travel cheaper. We love to use two websites for finding public transport:

Omio.com is a website finding all official trains and bus schedules around the world.

Flixbus is a bus company connecting mostly European cities and US cities. We wrote a complete review of Flixbus here.

Travel Apps

We love travel apps. Here we share our favorite apps for your smartphone. We dedicated a huge article on our 47 best travel apps 2021.

1. Maps.me

MapsMe is the perfect offline app for your phone. It works without internet connection.

Thanks to your GPS location you can find your way, wherever in the world you are. As an alternative you can use Google.Maps directly. It works as well offline.

2. TrailWallet

Traveling on a budget?

Then get TrailWallet to keep track of your budget. It is so easy to use and gives you a full, up-to-date report. There is a free version which allows you to test it, but we loved it and invested 4,99€ in the full version.

3. FourSquare

This app is a gold mine!

FourSquare is an underrated app which has been used a lot, but nowa- days less people seem interested. This is what makes it so awesome.

It helps you to find places around, such as

cafés
bars
venues
restaurants

With this app we found so many gems and design-led coffee shops. Go for it!

4. Snapseed and Lightroom

The best app for editing your photos on the road, Snapseed and Lightroom. Snapseed is easy to use and free to download. You can download Snapseed both for Android and iOs.

Lightroom from Adobe is also free for the phone. I absolutely love their functionalities. It is more powerful than Lightroom, yet you really have to know what you are doing. So in a nutshell, Snapseed is lighter and easier to handle, Lightroom more advanced.

5. Kiwi Flights App

The previously mentioned Kiwi.com has also a handy map for finding flights. We love to activate the notifications for cheap deals to destinations we are interested in.

Read our complete review of Kiwi.com and how to use it.

Gear and Packing Items

Below we share our own travel hear and packing items we never leave behind. These items are part of our essential packing list. At the same time, there is a bunch of items we would never pack (or well: not pack anymore). Read here our list of things NOT to pack for travelling.

Did you know: We have created a specific shop in Amazon with all items we recommend. These items are not sold by us, yet we do receive a small commission when you purchase a product at no extra cost for you.

Visit the Hostelgeeks Shop

Luggage

When it comes to luggage, we recommend getting a backpack.

Yet, not any backpack. A bulky, heavy backpack is not recommended. For traveling light, a backpack must accomplish certain criteria, such as lightness and functional. The chic-factor may also be something to take into account.

Here are our top recommended luggage – including Matt’s own #1 choice: Lowe Alpine Carry-On 40l

Minimal Traveler Backpack (Matt’s #1 choice)
Lowe Alpine Carry-On 40l

Backpacker Style
Osprey Porter 46 Gear Hauler Duffel

Day Back Digital Nomads
CoolBELL Laptop Backpack with USB Port

Day Backpack
Fjallraven Backpack

Travel Essentials

The travel survival kit, the hostel starter kit. Here we list a bunch of travel essentials that you should bring.

We made our experiences and recommend bringing certain items you most likely own already. Yet, a few things are worth it the extra investment such as light and quick-dry towels and dry-bag.

You can find our detailed travel packing list here.

Here is our list of recommended travel essentials to bring on your adventure.