Booking a vacation can be stressful, right? It starts off fun, when the only decision you have to make is where and when you will be going. In your head are daydreams of sunny beaches, gorgeous vistas and colourful cocktails that you will be drinking as you wile away the day.
But once all that is done, the more detailed stuff has to be thought about. Namely, the flights, the accommodation, the costs, the logistics, everything and anything you donโt want to care about needs to be cared about, otherwise the whole vacation could turn out to be a disaster.
Thatโs why weโve spent the last month checking out vacation planners. For those who often feel stressed when organising a vacation, a trip planner can give you the peace of mind that comes with having all those details sorted for you. Whether itโs the flights, the locations, or the travel, a tour planner is a touring companion that works through all the organisational parts and lets you focus on that cocktail on a sunny beach.ย
During our online travels, we came across around twenty tour planners and tried out each one of them โ that isnโt to say we went on twenty vacations, by the way, this was strictly professional. All of these tour planners had their own merits, but there was one that clearly stood up above the rest. Its name was RoutePerfect, and below youโll find our full review exploring everything the site has to offer.
An Overview
Route Perfect is a site that lets you explore potential destinations, plan your vacation, and then book with minimal hassle. It also uses AI powered by GPT to predict your ideal trip and optimise it with a crowdsourced database, built upon thousands of well-reviewed trip itineraries. Not only this, but there are also free travel perks on offer only for RoutePerfect customers who have booked flights, hotels and services through the website.
The UI
Straight off the bat, the UI is incredibly accessible and user-friendly. On a number of sites that we tested, it was a little unclear what the tour planners were actually helping you plan. On RoutePerfect, however, itโs clear from the get go.
The home page is full of vital information about what services the planner offers, as well as testimonials that can give you an idea of how others have found the experience. The server performance is strong and optimised for mobile, and the site is very intuitive โ we did notice, however, that heavy traffic and multiple images could slow things down by a second or two.
Our favourite thing about the site is the ability to either plan quickly or take your time.. By this, we mean that you can start planning immediately โ toward the top of the page is a taskbar including โStarting Dateโ, โEnding Dateโ, โDurationโ and โSpecificationโ, and then a โSearchโ button. If you continue scrolling, however, you can find โPopular Itinerariesโ to give you a few ideas, and then a blog that explores several vacation ideas along with travel tips โ some of the most recent posts include โBest Things to do in Romeโ and โPlanning Your Perfect Trip to Paris: A Step-by-Step Guideโ.
Online Content
Speaking of the content, there is a lot of it, and this is always indicative of a good website. When it comes to travel, specifically, itโs always important that a website has a good amount of strong, quality content that can give the user as much information as possible. RoutePerfectโs content gives you a good round-up of several interesting locations, as well as facts and tips on how to efficiently plan, budget, and save during your trip. As we mentioned before, this is incredibly useful for customers who are early in the planning process โ they are not yet set on a specific destination and need a helping hand to guide them through a few options.
A Run-Through
Weโve spoken enough about the UI and user-friendly content, so what about the planner itself? Well, we gave it a go, and itโs safe to say weโre impressed. Using the search filters on the home page, we planned a trip beginning on 21st June 2024 and ending on the 5th of July. The starting destination we chose was London, United Kingdom, and the trip would end in Reykjavik, Iceland โ we wanted chilly, black sand beaches over sunny beaches!
Once the fields were filled out, the site gave a classic itinerary, created by the crowdsourced algorithm we mentioned earlier. Along with that, it gave us the option to chat to Route Perfectโs AI. We asked it to plan the 15 day trip, and it came back with a fully-realised itinerary including a prolonged stay in London, Edinburgh, Akureyri, and finally, Reykjavik. Along with this, it also gave us a few ideas of what we could get up to โ including landmarks like the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace โ and gave us some more detailed travel descriptions about how to get to each place.
Weโre not too sure, but it almost seemed to know that we were more familiar with the UK than Iceland, as the descriptions got more detailed as the itinerary progressed โ not a lot of detail is given about getting from London to Edinburgh, but the route from Edinburgh, through the Faroe Islands, Seyoisfjorour, and into Reykjavik, were far more succinct. Below the chat, we were treated to even more information, including things to do between destinations, sightseeing tours, cruises, along with accommodation and travel options.
Our Summary
In terms of usability, convenience, and the sheer amount of information, RoutePerfect certainly takes the cake. Using these services not only makes vacation planning easier, but far less stressful โ which is important, considering that vacations are all about alleviating stress! Thatโs not to say there is no room for improvement โ as mentioned before, the site can run a little slower depending on traffic and content, the AI can take a bit of time to load, and the specific travel tidbits could be a little more all-encompassing โ but these are minor nitpicks in what is otherwise a strong route planner. When it comes to our next vacation, weโre definitely going to be using it.
Last Updated on by Icy Tales Team