Travel more, your way
Our family travels come together in no small part because of useful products, apps, services, and other travel resources. They can help you have better travels too! For some, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you, plus using our links supports our travels and content!
Travel essentials
Travel gear and apparel for women, men, amputees, tech, homeschooling, and more:
International phone plans, data and eSIMs
Phone plan: Google Fi
In the USA and when traveling abroad, Jodie and I use Google Fi. Their month-to-month service has great data (including unlimited data on some plans), and smoothly switches over to other countries at no additional cost.
Airfare
Daily Drop Pro
Racking up points and miles with travel rewards credit cards can be easy… but searching for flights and hotels to use those sweet rewards on can be hard. Daily Drop Pro doesn’t just help you search for flights and hotels. You can see how many points a flight or stay will cost.
Using Daily Drop Pro for our travel planning has made it so much faster and easier to use our precious points and miles to save on travel!
Airline apps
TIP: Download the apps for the airlines you fly on, and add in your frequent flier/reward info. For example, we have sections on our phones for United, Delta, and Air France/KLM.
The app for flight’s airline is a boon. For example, in 2023 when our United flight from Tokyo to Portland was canceled, we didn’t even have to call customer service. The United app immediately served up alternate flights. We looked over the itineraries, tapped the one we wanted, and went to the airport.
Accommodation
Here are links to booking engines we use for hotels and vacation rentals:
TIP: Download the apps for the hotels, rental services, and other accommodation providers you use. For example, we have a folder on our phones for accommodation apps such as IHG, Best Western, Airbnb, and VRBO.
Car rentals
Compare more options for rental cars, shuttles, airport transfers, and more
RVs and motorhomes: Harvest Hosts
The Harvest Hosts program has been huge for helping have a variety of stays when RVing across the USA. From museums to farms, wineries to restaurants, we’ve stayed at incredible places from coast to coast.
Attractions and destinations
Find tours, classes, and more about the world
We travel independently, but sometimes we take part in tours, classes, or other activities. These experiences not only make our days easier, but give us more insight into the cultures we are visiting.
TIP: Download that attraction’s app! For example, as big fans of US National Parks, we have the NPS app on our phones for easy reference about the USA’s National Parks, Monuments, and other properties.
Whether baking cookies in Morocco or touring Bangkok via tuk-tuk, here’s how we search the world for experiences that work for Jodie’s mobility and are family friendly.
Get Your Guide
TIP: If there are activities and/or destinations you travel to, see if they have an app.
Klook
TIP: If there are activities and/or destinations you travel to, see if they have an app.
Trip Advisor
TIP: If there are activities and/or destinations you travel to, see if they have an app.
Disney
TIP: For whatever Disney resort you’re visiting, download the app (eg, Walt Disney World app for Orlando). Anytime we are visiting a Disney property, we make sure to have the app for that property ready to go to monitor wait times, order food, and more. Mobile ordering food and drinks is especially helpful and saves us lots of time.
Get Disney passes
Disney deals & more from Get Away Today
Limited time Disney offers
Disney deals for Aulani Disney Resort & Spa
Japan: Tokyo Disney Resort (Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea)
If you don’t have a Japanese credit card or bank account, it can be tricky to order Tokyo Disney passes online. Foreign visitors can use Klook to get their Tokyo Disney passes online:
Translation and languages
- What we use abroad: Google Translate (iOS | Android)
- Also useful: iTranslate
- Language learning: Duolingo
Transportation
From train services to rideshare companies, we add apps for services we use in a destination.
Note: More and more destinations tie in their train and bus schedules with services such as Google Maps. In Japan and Singapore, for example, we used Google Maps for our route planning.
Rideshare apps can be convenient and, when traveling with kids, can cost a similar amount to public transit for multiple humans. Available apps and how you use them will vary. For example, DiDi in Mexico could connect us with a taxi driver, and tell us the expected far, but we paid in cash after we arrived at our destination. This isn’t an exhaustive list. Availability changes, and we’re noting a country for places where we’ve used an app:
- Mexico: DiDi
- Morocco: Kareem, InDrive
- Portugal and Spain: Bolt, Uber
- Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia: Grab
Klook
Asia & Oceania: Book bus, train, ferries, transfers, and private vehicle travel with 12Go
Airport Transfers: intui.travel
Car rentals
More car rentals
Rent a car in Montenegro, Georgia, Armenia, Greece, UAE, Spain, Portugal, Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech, Turkey, Thailand, Iceland, Mauritius, Azerbaijan, all through Localrent.com.
Money and rewards credit cards
Budgeting
YNAB transformed our personal finances and is the bedrock of how we manage our money to travel more.
Rewards credit card
The annual fee is no joke, but the the benefits have more than made up for it.
Rewards credit cards
Responsible use of travel rewards credit cards has been no small part of how we stretch our modest family travel budget.
Check out top cards here:
This free daily email keeps us in the know on the world of points and miles travel
Other rewards cards we’ve used and recommend
Freedom Unlimited (Chase)
Ink Business (Chase)
Worldschooling, family, and community
We are Worldschoolers Facebook Group
Women’s travel apparel
Travel dresses (with pockets), tops, and pants
Jodie’s go-to travel wardrobe is merino wool dresses.
Travel dresses & more
Travel scarf with hidden valuables pocket
Keeping your passport, money, cards, and other small valuables safe is crucially important when traveling the world. It’s also nice when that hidden storage something-something looks snazzy. Jodie uses this travel scarf with a hidden valuables pocket to dial up her wardrobe and keep things safe and out of sight:
Carry-on backpacks
Cotopaxi 35L Allpa backpacks
Cotopaxi bags, packs & apparel
Cotopaxi 35L Allpa Backpack
Travel insurance
Our family uses SafetyWing
For our global travels, we insure ourselves for emergency medical situations and other travel problems with a simple, flexible policy from SafetyWing.
Our policy doesn’t have a set end date, and we can set it to auto-renew month to month until we cancel it. Plus, special rates apply to kids.
Learn more
The family travel medical insurance we’ve auto-renewed since 2022
Even if we never use our coverage abroad, at least it’s easy to buy and renew for our family of four.
Get a SafetyWing quote now
More travel insurance options
We believe in shopping around. Plus, as much as we like SafetyWing, another policy or program might be a better fit for you. Check out more travel insurance options below:
World travel: VisitorsCoverage
Since 2006, VisitorsCoverage has provided travel insurance for millions of global travelers in over 175 countries. They are a large provider of visitor’s insurance for inbound travel to the U.S. and offer numerous specialized coverage products for travelers around the world.
- Complete range of global travel medical insurance and trip insurance solutions
- Top-rated Customer Service team
- Quote and buy in less than 5 minutes
Travel to USA: Insubuy
Insubuy has been in business for more than 20 years. It is a large provider of visitors insurance—which provides medical coverage as well as emergency medical evacuation, repatriation of remains, and travel-related coverages—for foreigners visiting United States.
- Get and compare instant quotes from multiple U.S.-based companies
- Instant purchase online in minutes
- No paperwork required
VPN, or, how we can always be in the USA wherever we are in the world
From streaming shows to logging into some of our professional accounts, there are times where our connection needs to show it’s from the USA. We use Surfshark as a VPN, or virtual private network, across our devices. From one account, we can set up our VPN for a private, secure connection, wherever we are in the world.
RV: Portable backup battery, charger & power supply
Jackery Portable Power Stations
Jackery 300 Portable Power Station
All Jackery
Outdoor recreation gear
LEKI trekking poles
Jodie travels with a pair of collapsible LEKI poles. They make a huge difference in everything from hiking to everyday walking as an amputee.
Sea Eagle inflatable kayaks, paddleboards, and other watercraft
We travel with a pair of Sea Eagle inflatable kayaks. They’re durable, compact, and help us get on the water in so many places!
Shop outdoor recreation gear, apparel, and more at REI
REI has been a long-time go-to for when we need outdoor gear and apparel. A low-cost lifetime membership gets you access to quality gear from great brands.