Let’s face it – traveling can be expensive, overwhelming, and, at times, a logistical nightmare. You’ve got flights to book, bags to pack, and at least one friend who insists on creating a 17-tab spreadsheet just to plan a weekend getaway. (Okay, fine, I am that friend.)

But here’s the good news: the internet is full of free, life-saving websites that can turn you into a travel genius – no overpriced apps or unnecessary stress required.

Whether you’re hunting for entertainment, decoding foreign signs, or just wondering where that plane above you might be flying to, this list has you covered. In this guide, I’ll be sharing the most helpful websites for travel that most people haven’t heard of, which is such a shame because they are honestly so cool. 

I hope you find them useful!

I’m going to start with some fun ones that I think are awesome, but perhaps not as practically useful as some others on the list, beginning with…

1. FlightRadar

For those with restless wanderlust, FlightRadar is a very cool website that allows you to stalk planes up in the air… all around the world! One click and you’ll get to see where the plane departed from, where it’s headed, and tons of other specs about the aircraft as well.

And yes, this thing truly eye-opening. In fact, hop on the site right now and I’m sure you will be floored by how many planes are up in the sky all at the same time. Not only can you see which planes are flying anywhere in the world (which is useful if you want to track somebody’s flight to make sure they arrive safely), they even have an app, so if you’re just out and look up to the sky, wondering where a specific plane is headed, you can find out that information too.

There’s also a similar website called MarineTraffic, for if you want to track boats on the water!

2. Radio Garden

Another really cool website is Radio Garden, which allows you to listen to thousands of radio stations around the world live.

Head to this website and you can check out what’s playing anywhere in the world. While it’s maybe not necessarily the most useful website out there, it’s definitely really interesting and fun if you’re trying to learn a new language or just want to tap into what other people are listening to in other countries.

And if you’re ever feeling homesick while overseas, you could always use it to tune into your local radio station from back home for a bit of comfort!

3. Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is another interesting website, and it’s great if you want some reading material to practice in another language maybe, or if you just want some reading material for those long flights. 

This website is actually the world’s largest digital library with over 70,000 ebooks available for free. That’s a lot of books to load up for reading while you’re on the go!

If you’re more of an audiobook person there’s also LibriVox for that.

And just a quick plug, if you don’t already have a library card for your local library, please do yourself a favour and get one. Libraries have sooo many amazing free resources, including digital ones like free magazines, free guidebooks, and so much more. 

I am honestly the biggest library nerd – if you agree that it’s an underutilised resource, please comment on this post and tell me what your local one has because I love to hear it. Mine has free hiking backpacks and poles you can rent out and a free seed library!

4. Temp-Mail

Now for this next one, let’s say you’re travelling and you need to enter your email for some reason, like to get free WiFi or something, but you don’t want to get emails from them for the rest of your life.

Well, Temp-Mail is a website that will give you a free temporary email inbox to use so you can register, get what you need, then go. 

There’s nothing more annoying than receiving dozens of emails from services you were kind of forced to sign up for, but you don’t need to use or hear from ever again. Of course, you can always unsubscribe afterwards, but when you’re traveling, time is precious! With Temp-Mail, you don’t need to waste any time at all on unsubscribing, which means more time to explore and take photos.

5. Cruise Mapper

If you are planning a trip anywhere that is a big cruise destination but you’re not going with a cruise yourself, then the website CruiseMapper is SO handy.

As we know, destinations can get very crowded and crazy during times that cruise ships are docked, just because thousands of extra people pour into the city at once.  So if you want to avoid the worst of the crowds but don’t want to just guess, then this website is perfect. 

Basically what it does is allow you to look at the schedule for different cruise ports so you can plan your own trip accordingly. If you’re headed somewhere during peak cruise season (like Dubrovnik in summer) CruiseMapper is a must-have!

6. Photographer’s Ephemeris

The website Photographer’s Ephemeris is ideal for those of you who are interested in photography and enjoy capturing nice photos on trips, which I think is most people!

We’ve all been on trips where we’ve reached a bucket list monument or attraction and unfortunately, the light is not cooperating. Photographer’s Ephemeris shows you the direction of the sun and how it will fall on the land at anytime, anywhere, so you can better envision the lighting conditions of your photo or video shoot. 

And sure, there’s so much more to travel than taking pictures, and the Roman Colosseum is stunning even when it’s backlit or overcast, but if you have a special shot in mind (maybe for a particular occasion – like a proposal!) then this website will help you ensure everything will be perfect, right down to the lighting.

7. AirHelp

AirHelp is a super helpful site if you have a delayed flight but don’t know how to claim compensation or how much you’re entitled to.

They basically do all the work for you, so you can continue to enjoy your travels even after a delay. Using it is as simple as just scanning your boarding pass and it’ll tell you whether or not you’re entitled to compensation. They’ll also take care of the compensation claim for you and won’t charge you anything unless they win.

And even if they do win you some compensation, their fee then comes out of the claim, so if you can’t be bothered to do it all yourself or don’t know how, then it’s a no-lose situation. 

8. Forvo

If you are planning a trip somewhere where you don’t speak the language and you want to be prepared with some basics, then at some point you might need help with pronouncing things. I like to know the local way to say my destinations names, for instance, because they can often be different to what we know them as in English. 

Well, if that’s the case for you, then the website Forvo is a “pronunciation dictionary” where people from around the world record themselves pronouncing different words. 

Unfortunately there are some robotic AI uploads but you can easily weed those ones out. 

In a pinch, sometimes I also just hop on Google Translate as well and type words in then press the speaker button to hear the pronunciation. It’s not fool proof but often pretty good. 

On a similar note, if you need help pronouncing something that’s not on Forvo and the only thing you can find is stuff written in the International Phonetic Alphabet (which let’s be honest, who actually knows how to pronounce those symbols?), there’s actually an amazing website called IPA Reader that lets you paste the IPA bit in and it’ll pronounce it for you. 

9. TinEye

Now, if you’ve ever come across a photo that seems too good to be true, maybe on a hotel listing or someone has messaged you and they might seem a little too good looking to be messaging you out of the blue, the website TinEye allows you to search the Internet for other instances of that image… so you can quickly identify where that image has come from and where else it appears online.

And if it turns out that image has been used a bunch of times for fake-looking profiles or scammy websites, then you’ll have a pretty good idea that you shouldn’t be trusting that person or deal.

It’s basically a reverse image search, and while you can also do reverse image search on Google as well, I feel like TinEye gives you a more structured list and is just generally more accurate.

10. Spoken

In a similar way, if you ever find yourself looking to buy a product online, whether that’s a bit of travel gear or something for day to day, check out the website Spoken.

Here you can actually upload a photo of the product you want and it’ll search the internet for retailers selling it or similar looking items, so you can get the best deal. 

Unfortunately, it seems to only work for American retailers at the moment… but maybe that will change in the future!

If you shop on Amazon and want to monitor prices though, then the website CamelCamelCamel works in multiple countries. This site is useful for viewing the price history of items so you can tell if those “sales” or special offers are actually special or not, or if you want to keep an eye out for sales on a specific item you have your eye on.

11. Archive.Today

Lastly, Archive.Today is the ultimate free website that I can’t believe isn’t common knowledge!

This site comes in super handy anytime you just want to quickly read something but come across a paywall. 

For me personally, I’ve encountered this a lot when looking up local news articles that have information about events like Christmas market dates or anything abroad, and realistically I’m not going to subscribe to some random tiny German newspaper just for a quick date check. So with instances like that, Archive.Today is a very simple way to bypass most paywalls and read the content you need.

Basically, this website allows you to look up pretty much any link and load it up just by pasting the URL. It then takes a ‘snapshot’ of that webpage, allowing you to read it without signing up or paying anything – always a win in my book!

Did I miss any other free useful websites for travel?

Let me know in the comments so I can add them to the list. Happy and safe travels! 🙂