by Gavin Donnelly

As rewarding as it is, traveling can also be a stressful process. A lot goes into the planning and execution of a trip or vacation. First you have to decide where to go, then how to get there and where to stay. Budgets, language barriers…the list goes on. So we’ve compiled this list of 10 sites and tools that we think are great resources for you in planning and making the most out of your travels.

1. Hotel Tonight – Hotel Tonight is an app that helps you find the best day-of deals on a hotel room in many major cities around the world. It works by showing you hotels that are offering last-minute deals on their unreserved rooms at highly discounted rates. You can then book your deal right from the app, which is available for both iOS and Android. Hotel Tonight is handy little app for those spontaneous trips.

2. Skyscanner – Skyscanner is a great tool for comparing and finding the best deals on thousands of flights, from anywhere to anywhere. You can access the tool via the website or download the app for your smartphone. Once you decide on a flight to book, Skyscanner will link you directly to the airline or travel agent’s website to complete the process. You can also find and compare car rentals and hotels with the tool.

3. Languages – As you might have guessed from the name, Languages is a translation app that can instantly translate words from 12 built-in language dictionaries without accessing the web. It doesn’t currently have the ability to translate full sentences but is still a nice tool for looking up words on the fly.

4. TripTuner – Trying to decide where to go on your next vacation? TripTuner is a unique website that allows you to “tune” your preferences on a series of sliders and recommends destinations based on your choices. Choose whether you want your vacation to be more relaxing or active, weather to be bikini or parka friendly, cost to be high or low…you get the point. As you move the sliders around to adjust your preferences TripTuner shows you new sets of destinations for you to choose from. It’s a fun little way to get your vacation planning started.

5. Trivago – This is the mother of all hotel search sites. Trivago searches multiple hotel booking sites at once from its current database of 157 different sites to bring you the best options for wherever you plan on staying.

6. TripIt – TripIt is a tool for keeping track of your itineraries all in one place, once you sign up you can email all your different confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and the service will automatically create itineraries for you. You can then access them any time online or from your mobile device to view, customize or share them.

7. Duolingo – Looking to learn a new language but don’t want to spend the money on classes or software like Rosetta Stone? Duolingo is a website that offers courses in six different languages – for free. One independent study suggested that 34 hours of Duolingo courses is comparable to one semester of a college language class. The languages currently offered are Spanish, English, French, German, Portuguese and Italian.

8. GateGuru – Upload details about your trip to the GateGuru app directly or by emailing your itinerary or syncing with TripIt. The app then keeps you updated on all kinds of things like airport weather, flight status and even security wait times. Additionally, you can view a list of airport amenities to find the closest place to grab a pre-flight bite to eat or magazine. This is definitely an app worth checking out as there are even more features not listed here.