20+ Most Useful Digital Tools for Traveling the world with Kids
Taking the opportunity to explore the world with your kids can give them an entirely new perspective on how the world works. It offers them chances to stretch themselves in new and profound ways, and it helps them to feel confident in their ability to overcome unexpected difficulties. Simply put, it is absolutely worth it.
However, while I would 100% recommend traveling internationally with your kids, I also know that for a lot of people the idea of packing up your bags and grabbing a flight to somewhere you’ve never been can be a bit intimidating.
Luckily, modern technology makes travel easier than it has even been! Whether you are just getting started traveling with your kids or if you’re planning your 50th trip, these are the digital tools that can help you get the most out of your time overseas!
Planning your trip
Whether you’re booking a trip to Paris to see the Louvre or an expedition to explore the jungles of Borneo, it all starts with a plan!
Wanderlog
Wanderlog is a website that plots points of interest onto a map and is often my first stop when trying to figure out what to do in a new location. All you have to do is sign up for an account and let them know where you’re headed and Wanderlog will start giving suggestions for popular places to visit in that area!
You can add points of interest to your itinerary right there in your map, and divide them out however you like. Or you can look up a curated guide for the place you’re headed to see what locations other travelers recommend. I like to add all the different spots I want to visit and divide them into different colored lists so I can get a better idea of which area we should stay in to make it easiest to see the places we want to see.
Plus, if you sign up for Wanderlog Pro, you can take advantage of route optimization, automatic reservation importing, and offline access to your plans.
This is hands-down my favorite app for planning trips!
Skratch Maps
The Skratch app started off as a place where you could mark the countries you’ve visited and see it visually on a map, which is how I found it. I was looking for a way to easily track where I’d been and where I was looking to go. However, over time it evolved into an app that does a whole lot more than that!
With the addition of the Explore Tab on their app, Skratch became something of a one-stop shop for all the important information that you need to know before heading overseas! You can check everything from currency conversion rates and vaccination requirements to what shape wall plugs you’ll need if you want to plug in your phone charger, all in one convenient place.
I personally use it most often when I’m checking to see if I need a Visa to travel to a particular place or if I can get a Visa on arrival. Often that can be difficult information to find online because of how many variables are at play, but because Skratch knows my passport country, it can tell me a quick yes or no without me needing to jump through any hoops, which is very appreciated.
Google Calendar (or your calendar of choice)
Other than email, I don’t think I’ve ever found an app that was as useful in as many different locations and situations as the humble calendar app.
This one probably isn’t a surprise. After all, I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t used their calendar app for event planning at some point. But that sort of reinforces its place on this list, right?
Google Calendar lets me put all my plans onto my calendar with all the little details like locations and confirmation codes, syncs that information to my family calendar so I can see it on my phone or my computer, and lets me easily move that information to a different day or time if something changes.
Finding Flights
Congratulations! You’ve figured out where you’re going and what you want to do once you get there. Now it’s time to buy the tickets. However, you’re not entirely sure how best to go about it. Surely it’s not as simple as searching for ‘Flights to X’ into your search bar and seeing what happens, right?
Google Flights
Well, as it turns out, yes. That is exactly where I recommend you starting your search for flights.
I’ve seen lots of bloggers recommending Skyscanner and I myself have recommended WayAway, but 9 times out of 10 we find our flights through Google Flights. To be fair, it can still be worth it to compare your results with other search engines, but this is where we start our search.
Bonus tip:
If you don’t have a particular location in mind and want to head wherever the deals may lead, it’s worth signing up for a Going.com membership!
Going lets you choose your home airport and will alert you when there any flights with particularly low fares. These could be deals that take you across the country or across the globe and are a great way to choose a destination!
Instagram (or other social media)
Let’s be honest. You’re wasting time on Instagram right now, aren’t you? I’m not judging. I am too!
But as much of a time suck as social media can be, it’s also one of the best places to find inspiration for your next trip. I’ve found so many random places that I wouldn’t have otherwise found because I was scrolling through Instagram and stumbled upon them!
So, yeah. While it may not be the best for productivity, it can definitely be a great tool for finding inspiration for your next trip! (Also be sure to follow me! @neverendingfieldtrip)
Finding Lodging
Ok! So, you’ve booked your tickets and you know what you want to do when you get there. Now, you just need a place to stay. Cool. I’ve got you.
I use 3 main platforms for finding a place to stay when we travel, and the one I end up using depends on a few different factors.
Booking – Best for Hotel Stays or Inexpensive Apartments
Far and away, Booking.com is the place where we find most of our lodgings while traveling. They have a ton of places to choose from, and offer a lot of great deals. Plus, Booking has a huge number of filters that you can use to narrow your options down to the ones that will work best for your family! I particularly like the ability to filter my search results to only show me apartments or homestays, since we really enjoy the extra space that those kinds of stays offer.
Airbnb – Best for comfier, longer term stays
If we’re planning on staying in an area for a longer amount of time (more than a month), then we will also look though Airbnb.
Airbnb tends to be quite a bit more expensive than Booking, especially for stays under a month, so we haven’t really used them a lot lately. However, if you can find a place in your price range, Airbnb’s tend to be comfier and homier than the places we find on Booking.
For instance, the Airbnb we stayed at when visiting Capetown, South Africa had two kids’ rooms filled with toys, bookshelves with kids books, and a flower garden complete with a swing! It wasn’t an apartment set up for visitors. It was someone’s actual home that they weren’t using for a few months while they traveled with their kids, which made it perfect for us and our kids to use!
Agoda – Best for finding deals in Southeast Asia
Agoda is one that wasn’t on my list until this year, when we started traveling through Southeast Asia. Because it’s a more popular alternative to Booking in Asia, we can often find properties that aren’t on Booking or find the same properties but at a lower price.
However, the website itself isn’t quite as capable as Booking’s website. If I can’t find a good deal on Booking, I’ll check Agoda, but it’s definitely my back-up option.
Finding Transportation
Once you’ve arrived in country, it’s time to figure out how to get around.
In most places, it’s definitely possible to rent a car or scooter and drive yourself, but driving overseas can be a harrowing experience if you aren’t used to that particular country’s way of driving. Which is why we typically either use rideshare apps or public transportation to get around!
Uber (or its equivalent for where you’re going)
Rideshare apps are far and away the easiest way to get around in most countries.
The app interface is easy to use and allows you to book a car to a particular location without needing to speak the local language. It also has the added benefit of allowing you to pay for transportation with your phone instead of needing cash, which has also saved me a few times.
We used Uber extensively to get around Mexico and Central America, South Africa, and Egypt with very few complaints, and it’s usually the first app I check when I arrive in a new country. However, some countries prefer different apps, so it’s worth asking around to see if there are better options. For instance, the ride share app Grab has worked way better for us in Southeast Asia and when we were in Paris we used Freenow.
12Go (Southeast Asia)
Of course, ridesharing can only get you so far. If you plan on traveling around a country extensively, rather than staying in a single location, trains and buses are often a more cost-effective choice than booking a car.
In our time in Asia we’ve often turned to 12Go to find suitable buses and trains and to book our tickets. In fact, for a lot of places 12Go is the only option for booking tickets online.
Basically, you choose the ticket you want and 12Go sends an actual person to go stand in line for you and buy tour tickets. If they are successful, they send the ticket information to you and you can use it as normal. However, we have run into some difficulties when the tickets we wanted weren’t actually available. If you plan on using 12Go to book your tickets online, be sure to book a bit farther in advance so you have time to pivot if the tickets fall through.
Rome2Rio
Not sure what the best way to get from point A to point B is? That’s where this tool comes in!
Rome2Rio is a website dedicated to showing you all the options for how to get from anywhere to basically anywhere else as easily as possible. It’s a pretty simple tool to use, but it is definitely useful for when you aren’t sure how to get somewhere.
Communication Tools
One of the trickiest parts of travel is the simple act of communication. Whether it’s trying to communicate with your taxi driver or trying to get in touch with your tour guide, having the right tools at your disposal is the key to making sure you travel like a pro.
Saily eSIM (or similar)
Unsurprisingly, the most important communications tool I can recommend for traveling with kids is just internet access. Like, I know that people traveled the world before mobile internet was a thing, but they also probably weren’t trying to book an Uber to get to their tour reservation on time.
I’ve written an entire article on how to stay connected to the internet while traveling that’s worth a read, but if you just want the TLDR, getting an eSIM for your phone for a mobile internet connection is one of the easiest ways to make sure you have internet from the moment your plane touches down until you get back into the air.
Recent statistics put WhatsApp as only being the fourth most popular messenger app in the US in 2024, but this is absolutely shocking to me since I can’t imagine trying to travel internationally without it!
Far and away, WhatsApp has been the most dependable messaging app that I’ve used internationally. Almost any tour company, hotel, or taxi service will have a WhatsApp number available for you to call or text which makes this app a must for travel.
Your WhatsApp account is tied to your phone number and requires a confirmation text to set up, so if you don’t have an account already, be sure to set it up before you leave your cell coverage area.
Google Translate
My family has been traveling the globe for 5+ years at this point and I can tell you that if you speak English you will almost always be able to to be understood. However, there’s a lot of space between always and almost always.
Google Translate helps us fill the gaps!
It’s not a perfect tool, and it’s definitely more useful in some contexts than others, but I absolutely recommend having it on your phone.
You can download languages for offline access to translations, which is super helpful in more rural areas with spottier cell coverage.
Tour Operators
There are a lot of places you can visit without signing up for a tour. However, some places are way easier to navigate or more fun to visit with a guide!
Here are some of my go-to tools for booking tours during our travels.
Viator
Viator is almost always my first stop when looking for tours. Their website has a wide variety of tours in a huge number of places, and the reviews tend to be super helpful when deciding where to go.
More than likely, if you see me recommending a specific tour on my website, it’s going to be a Viator Tour.
Get Your Guide
Get Your Guide is another great resource for finding tours and guides. Whereas Viator typically works with larger tour companies, Get Your Guide works with small operators and individuals. Sometimes this can mean you’re getting a tour with less polish, but it almost always means you’re getting one with more personality.
If you want to see an area from the perspective of a local, Get Your Guide is a great place to start!
Klook (Asia)
I had never heard of Klook before visiting Asia, but at this point it has become one of the first places I look when trying to figure out what to do in an area.
I haven’t tried it for booking a tour, but it’s absolutely wonderful for booking entry tickets to locations around Southeast Asia!
Staying safe while traveling
We’ve been all over the world at this point, and there have been very few times where I’ve felt unsafe. Even so, it never hurts to be prepared!
Here are some of the tools that I would recommend.
NordVPN
I’ve been using NordVPN for about a decade at this point and I am constantly impressed with how easy it is to use!
VPN’s are designed as a way to keep your data private online, and they do that job well. However, if I’m being honest, I mostly use my VPN as a way to watch our streaming services while traveling overseas.
It has also come in handy for doing video calls in places where video calls are blocked.
SafetyWing Travel Insurance
Travel insurance is designed to cover emergency medical costs that come up while traveling and that aren’t covered by your primary insurance plan. It’s not strictly necessary for most people, though, as in most places medical costs are significantly lower than the cost of your insurance plan.
Even so, I know there’s a lot to be said for peace of mind, and on the off-chance that something major does come up, having a SafetyWing travel insurance plan would definitely come in handy!
SafetyWing is my recommendation because they offer low-cost plans, have a super simple claims process, and can even add on trip delay and electronics theft policies, if you need them.
