Solo travel is one of the most liberating and exciting ways to travel the world, but planning your trip and navigating new destinations can be overwhelming, as especially for first time solo travelers! Thankfully, it’s 2025, so there’s an app or website made to make every aspect of travel easier, from booking flights and excursions, to staying safe and connected while discovering hidden gems. After trying countless apps on my many solo trips, there’s just a few that I use on every single trip, no matter what continent I’m on.
These are my favorite apps and websites that make solo travel easier, safer, and more enjoyable. Whether you’re embarking on your first solo trip or you’re a seasoned solo traveler, I hope you can find a new, helpful tool on this list.
Want to know more about solo travel? Check out some of my other blog posts!
- How to Solo Travel as an Introvert: 7 tips from a True Introvert
- 9 Tips Every First-Time Female Solo Traveler Needs to Know!
- A Solo Female Traveler’s Ultimate Guide to Guatemala
1. Google Flights
As someone with a severe case of wanderlust, I spend a lot of time on Google Flights. It’s my favorite site for researching flights, allowing me to find the cheapest dates for the destination I want to go to. It also allows you to track flight prices by setting up email notifications, so you can see if the flight prices are increasing or decreasing.
My favorite part of Google Flights, however, is the Explore page, which allows you to do flexible searches from your home base. Simply put your starting destination and a date range, and it will show you the prices to destinations around the world. It’s great if your travel dates are flexible or you’re trying decide where to go on your next trip.
2. Hostel World
HostelWorld is the best website for booking budget accommodations around the world. As the name suggests, HostelWorld features hostels and other shared accommodations, along with some budget-friendly hotels. It’s widely used by solo travelers, so you know that the reviews are coming from people like you, looking for budget-friendly and solo traveler-friendly accommodations.
I can be quite picky when deciding which hostel to stay at, so I use HostelWorld’s trusted and detailed reviews to make sure I’m staying at the perfect hostel for me. Personally, I like a social hostels, but not party hostels, so I look for hostels with good opportunities for meeting people. But if there’s a lot of reviews saying it’s loud and hard to sleep, I’ll usually avoid those ones.
3. Booking.com
Booking.com is another great website for finding budget-friendly accommodations like hostels and homestays. It usually has a wider range of options than HostelWorld, so I like to use the websites together to find the best option.
Something I love about Booking.com is that after a few stays, you are automatically in their Genius loyalty program, where you can access discounts on hotels and rental cars, as well as free breakfast and free upgrades at select accommodations. During my Camino de Santiago, I stayed in a different hotel every night and I booked almost all of them on Booking.com. With 15+ completed stays, I was able to unlock the highest level of the program in just two weeks!
4. GetYourGuide
If you’re looking for a fun adventure for your trip, GetYourGuide is the place to go! You can book skip-the-line tickets to popular attractions, full-day guided tours, and unique experiences.
As a solo traveler, I find guided tours to be a great way to see parts of a destination that I would’t feel comfortable visiting by myself. It’s also a great way to socialize and meet people from other countries. Here’s some of my favorite experiences that I’ve booked through GetYourGuide, in Porto, Portugal, Reykjavik, Iceland and Baños, Ecuador.
5. GuruWalk
I discovered GuruWalk on a recent trip, and now it’s my favorite budget travel tool! GuruWalk allows you to book free (tip-based) walking tours led by locals in hundreds of cities around the world. The tours are great for diving deeper into a city’s culture and history without having to spend hundreds of dollars on a long, full day tour. Plus, you’re supporting local tour guides!
In Mexico City, I used GuruWalk to book a vegan street food tour which was INCREDIBLE, and so much cheaper than others I had seen on GetYourGuide. We stopped at a few different street food vendors, where we would each pay for our own food depending on what we wanted. My food total at the end was about $20, plus the $20 that I decided to tip the tour guide for her time.
6. AllTrails
If you’re a nature lover, AllTrails is a great app to use while traveling. AllTrails helps you find hiking trails and walking paths with detailed maps and reviews. It’s not just for exploring long trails in the wilderness. I’ve used AllTrails to find popular walks in city parks. You can even download the offline maps, which is a great for safely enjoying your solo hikes.
7. Google Maps
When I’m traveling, Google Maps feels like an extension of by brain. I use it to save all of the places I want to visit, like restaurants, stores, museums and attractions. Once I’m in the city walking around, I use Google Maps to see what I have saved around me.
Google Maps is also the only app I trust to find the best routes for walking and public transit (please don’t use Apple Maps, it’s unreliable outside of the USA!). In most cities, it gives detailed information about which lines to take, transfers, etc. which is great to avoid getting lost in a new place.
Before I arrive in a city, I always download the offline map of the area, just in case I lose service while I’m navigating my way through the city.
8. Airalo
Airalo allows you to stay connected abroad by purchasing affordable eSIMs for 200+ countries. For safety reasons, I like to make sure I can access the internet at all times, so I can find my way around and deal with emergencies if necessary. I don’t like to depend on finding wifi, so an eSIM allows me to connect to mobile data on the go. And it’s a lot easier than having to buy a physical SIM card, which aren’t compatible with many phones now.
Make sure you purchase and download the eSIM before you board your flight to your destination. You must download the eSIM using wifi, then activate it, so you will have internet as soon as you arrive.
9. Mobile Passport Control (for US residents)
If you’re a US citizen who doesn’t have Global Entry, Mobile Passport Control (MPC) is a great option that can let you skip the long lines at US customs. Through the app, you’re able to submit your passport information and custom declarations form as soon as you land in your US destination. Then, when you go to customs, look for signs that say Mobile Passport Control, where you’ll find a expedited line to complete your inspections process
This app has saved me from hours in long customs lines at the busy NYC airports! There’s usually only a handful of people in the MPC line, while there could be hundreds in the regular one.
Can you imagine solo traveling without a smartphone and access to all of these apps?? As a 25-year-old who has had access to the internet almost my whole life, I can not! I have a pretty good sense of direction, but I know I would be unable to navigate around a new city every few days if it wasn’t for Airalo connecting me to the internet and Google Maps showing me the route.
What’s your favorite travel app? Tell me in the comments!
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