Traveling can be relaxing, exciting, and fun, but it’s rarely an easy endeavor. Between finding a place to vacation, selecting a hotel, and choosing excursions, travel planning can be exhausting. Not to mention the things we have no control over such as delays, long lines, and bad weather.

Finding apps to assist with travel is necessary in this day and age to help better manage the inevitable stress that comes with planning a trip. Below, are three apps that will help alleviate the headache that often comes with travel!

1. Travel Channel

User: The traveler who needs to be inspired.

Operating System: Android and IOS

If you’d like to start traveling, but haven’t really had the time to do your research, use the Travel Channel app as your source of inspiration.  Travel channel programming features interesting places in the U.S. and abroad and will appeal to even the laziest couch potato. Through watching travel programming you can learn about a region’s culture, food, climate, and more. The cool thing about watching travel is that it helps viewers discover places they may not have heard of before. When traveling, it’s important to get off the resort and get into the action. This app will help you discover that there’s more out there than beaches and resorts (not that there’s anything wrong with that form of relaxation).

2. Flipkey

User: The traveler looking for adventure.  

Operating System: Android and IOS

This popular Airbnb alternative offers more than 30,000 rental listings in over 1,100 cities from around the world. Its users aren’t looking for the typical hotel stay, but rather an immersion into the culture of the city they visit. Flipkey hosts list their own properties (extra space and sometimes their own homes) for visitors to rent for a vacation or sublet. If having a maid clean up your room after every visit and free breakfast is your thing, then Flipkey may not be right for you. If adventuring to a city and getting down how the locals live is, then take the Flipkey route.

3. Kayak

User: The traveler on a budget.

Operating System: Android and IOS

Scanning the web for deals can be stressful. How many of us have purchased plane tickets only to find a better deal somewhere else later on? To alleviate the pressure of getting the best deal on a flight, hotel, or car, Kayak searches travel sites to find low prices. Although there are multiple price comparison apps out there, Kayak made this list by its ease of use and price forecasting, which will tell you if a better deal will be available in the future. With Kayak, you can use the time spent finding a deal, to instead, find your next excursion.  Let this app do the hard work while you plan the fun stuff.

Elizabeth Aguirre is a technology professional with more than 8 years experience working in the software industry. Currently, Elizabeth is pursuing an M.S. in E-commerce at DePaul University and works as a consultant for the National Council of State Boards of Nursing in Chicago. She is on a one-woman mission to empower small business owners through the use of technology. When she’s not being a cool mom to her daughter Esther, she enjoys tweeting and mediation.