Travel Apps - Are They Really Necessary?

For context I'm a planner, I'm organized, and I really like a good app for my devices. With that said over the last decade I've used TripIt, Roadtrippers, Wanderlog, Tripsy, and several others. I've spent more time than I care to admit trying to finding the latest and greatest travel app. All of those apps seem to have become so bloated.... they want to give me a discount on hotels, cars, and excursions. They want me to read trip guides and traveler suggestions. They want to budget my trip, know about my car, invite everyone to collaborate. It almost seems to have made planning more complicated. Realistically for us our trips are pretty simple, probably similar to most people. It's a flight, a hotel/resort/cruise, and maybe a few ideas about what we want to do each day. I need an airline app, maybe a hotel app, and an Apple Notes file and that's probably enough. If we are traveling with friends or family maybe a pizza and few beers one evening to collaborate. I suppose for a 14 day trip to Europe with multiple stops and stays not might be useful but for the average vacation they all seem like overkill. Anybody else skip using these travel planning apps in favor of simplicity? --- **Post Details:** - **Subreddit:** r/travel - **Author:** u/bart1218 - **Score:** 7 upvotes - **Upvote Ratio:** 82.0% - **Comments:** 20 - **Posted:** 7/8/2025 - **URL:** https://reddit.com/r/travel/comments/1luiee3/travel_apps_are_they_really_necessary/