I hate making long term travel plans. To be honest, I’m lucky if I plan a week in advance. I probably will never be the type of person who plans months ahead, that just isn’t me. So, if you can relate, how do you plan for the last minute plans? Maybe some of you appreciate the “let’s just see where we land” approach, but for me, I do like to know that when I want to “just go,” I have somewhere I can go.
This is where my iPhone app comes in – my ticket to instant travel.
1) Hotel Tonight
This is for those literal last minute plans. At noon, the app updates their available hotels for the night in your selected city. I’ve never seen a subpar hotel suggested yet, and the prices are reasonable too (and often reduced). They also represent most major cities and if you peruse the comments in the App Store, you can find first time sign up coupon codes to receive points for your next hotel stay.
2) Car Rentals
The reason I like this app is that you don’t have to download 50 different apps to find the best rental car for your trip. The site features popular rental car sites like Budget Rental Car, and will even show you the nearest location to you. It also links to necessary areas on the rental car’s website that you need to get your car.
3) Kayak.com
Kayak is less for us last minute travelers, but one feature of the app I love is the packing list. When you are throwing things in a suitcase to go within the next couple of hours, you don’t want to forget anything. They do have a “hotel tonight” feature, but it’s not quite as quality as Hotel Tonight.
4) OpenTable
So, you’ve arrived in your destination city. But wait, you’re hungry! What do you do? Before you drive around in a hunger fog, make sure to download OpenTable. It isn’t exactly one of the newer apps, but one thing I like the most about this particular app is its ability to book your table at fantastic restaurants – immediately. Not to mention, you can book a table at pretty much any hour (as long as there are open restaurants, that is).
5) Eventbrite
Now that you’re actually in your new city, what can you do for fun? Well, if you have this app, you have easy access to the best events going on around you. My favorite section is the events going around “this weekend.” It lists everything that you need to have fun on the spot.
Travelling at the last minute is fun and it’s even more fun when you have the right tools to have a good time.
Bio: Jason Hall is blogger and Brand Manager for Budget Rent a Car, Australia’s premiere car hire company. He enjoys travel and all things techie.
