Travel Resources Including Best Deals and Discounts for 2025

Whether you’re headed out on a weekend road trip or a year-long around-the-world adventure, you need to start the travel planning process somewhere. Below, find our favourite travel resources, planning tools, tips, travel hacks, and the best current discounts we can find.

These will simplify the process while saving both time and money.

Disclosure: Note that some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning we earn a commission if you make a purchase at no extra cost to you. However, we only recommend products and brands that we believe in.

Travel planning resources

Let’s start with the planning activities we do before we leave home. These include flights, accommodations, transportation, tours, and insurance.

Flights

We search for the best flights and flight deals at Expedia. We have found the site easy to use and very comprehensive.

Start by choosing round-trip, one-way, or multi-city. Add your destinations, and fill in the dates. Select the flight that works best for you.

Accommodations

Hotels
We nearly always start our accommodation search at Booking.com. They make online travel booking easy, offering a huge selection of accommodation options including hotels, aparthotels, bed and breakfasts, and more. Their services are free.

Self-contained units
Sometimes we prefer a small self-contained unit, then we turn to VRBO. Note that in New Zealand, they refer to themselves as Bookabach (a bach being a small, unassuming holiday home or beach house in New Zealand). Reserve your self-contained stay through VRBO here.

Activities and tours

We often prebook tours and entry tickets, especially for popular events during peak season. Not only do we often get discounts, we also frequently can get skip-the-line passes, which sometimes save us hours of waiting.

Viator
Viator, a TripAdvisor company, has a comprehensive list of cities and options, ranging from single attractions to week-long adventures (or even longer), they also have private tours, allowing you to hire a guide and make an itinerary. Check activities at Viator here.

Get Your Guide
Get Your Guide is a newer player in the market that has already earned a great reputation. They offer worldwide tours that are exciting and affordable, and they clearly identify the top customer-rated options. Like Viator, they are easy to use and send your tour voucher via email after purchase. Check activities on Get Your Guide here

Free walking tours
We do much of our travel independently, although we love city walking tours, culinary tours, and cultural experience tours. Many cities have free walking tours (payment is expected through volunteer tipping). These can often be found by typing “city name” and “free walking tour” into google search.

BookMe for discounts (New Zealand or Australia)
If you are in New Zealand or Australia, BookMe is one link you’ll want to know. It provides discounts up to 70% on popular activities and fun things to do. We always check it before we go anywhere, from a zoo or museum to a surfing lesson. Check for discounts on New Zealand activities or discounts on Australia activities.

Transportation options

Renting a car
We have used RentalCars.com for nine out of ten of our last car rentals and were thrilled with every aspect. They are a rental car aggregator working with over 900 companies in 160 countries. It is super easy to use their online system to find the right car in the right place, at the right price. More importantly, their customer service is outstanding and English speaking. Compare prices at Rentalcars.

Campervans in Australia or New Zealand
If you are travelling in New Zealand or Australia and looking to rent a small campervan, we have heard only positive things about both Jucy and Spaceships New Zealand or Spaceships Australia Rentals. We frequently see them on the roads when we travel domestically.

While it’s not our cup of tea, the advantage of a camper is that for one low price you have a vehicle, accommodation, and a place to prepare your food. Spaceships features small campervans with a self-contained option. Jucy also features small campervans but has more optional styles and sizes to choose from.

Read next: Renting a Campervan in New Zealand: What You Need to Know

Busses, trains, and short flights
We have only recently discovered Bookaway for transportation within a country. Easy to use, you simply put in your starting and ending cities, and it gives you a bunch of options and the ability to book them. Reserve your transport with Bookaway here.

Ferries
We have found the best prices for ferries, around the world, on Direct Ferries. We recently used them for big savings in New Zealand when we brought our car between the two islands. Check for your ferry options here.

Cruising resources

Travel insurance (when things go wrong)

We purchase insurance that covers medical and travel emergencies when we head overseas.

VisitorsCoverage
Our current go-to is VisitorsCoverage, a US-based insurtech company which provides travel insurance for millions of global travelers in over 175 countries. Getting a policy is quick and easy. To date, we have had no personal claims, but have heard great things about VisitorsCoverage.

Always read the fine print on any insurance policy to be sure it covers what you need.

World Nomads
World Nomads* offers simple and flexible travel insurance. Buy at home or while travelling and claim online from anywhere in the world.

Travel packing and things we bring along

Debit Cards

We got tired of paying huge transaction fees from our day to day credit/debit card for every international purchase due to their high cost of foreign exchange. We had a good look around for lower fees. While we still pay fees, we believe we the ​Wise card​ is our best defense against high fees. We have used it for purchases all around the world, and have never had a problem.

SIM Cards

We typically get a local SIM card when we travel. These are our New Zealand top picks:

• Prepaid SIM cards from One
  We personally use and recommend One (formerly Vodafone) for our home and mobile internet service. We stick with them because they are reliable, even if not the cheapest option. However, their deal for travellers seems better than what they offer to domestic customers. Best of all, you with an advance purchase, it can be waiting for you at the airport when you arrive. Reserve your One SIM card in advance here.
• eSIM from Airalo
  Check to see if your phone supports eSIM here. If it does, you have the option to download a data plan, install it, and activate it when you arrive. With coverage in 200 countries and regions, we have had great luck with Airalo. Data plan options cover a country or a region, which is very useful when we are travelling to multiple countries. Check the options or reserve your eSIM here.

Packing cubes and backpack

Our two favourite packing items:

• Packing cubes
  Packing cubes are the secret item that makes packing quick and organization easy. Once we tried them, we wondered how we ever travelled without them. See our current favourite packing cubes
• Osprey Porter 46 backpack
  As much as possible, we travel with carry-on luggage only, and this backpack is our current top pick. The durable bag is lightweight with enough pockets for organization. See the Osprey Porter 46 backpack

Read next: Tips for Packing Light – 10 Essentials for Any Travel

T&Cs on special deals above as noted:

Booking.com’s Getaway Deals
At least 15% savings available on new accommodation bookings at participating properties indicated by the “Getaway Deals” badge on the search results and room selection pages. Getaway Deals can be booked between 13 March and 30 September 2025.

World Nomads Travel Insurance
*World Nomads provides travel insurance for travellers in over 100 countries. As an affiliate, we receive a fee when you get a quote from World Nomads using this link. We do not represent World Nomads. This is information only and not a recommendation to buy travel insurance.