Weekend getaways can be great, but the headache that comes with holiday travel? Not so much. This time around, we’re opting to forgo the overbooked flights, the impossible-to-hail cabs, and the unattainable reservations by arming ourselves with a crop of new travel-ready apps and sites that’ll make Labor Day go off without a hitch.
Here’s the DL on what to download and bookmark—quick!—before you skip town:To Book a Flight: Flight Tonight
Embarking on a spontaneous adventure? Flight Tonight helps impulse travelers track down the best last-minute flight deals from your city. The easy-to-use app aggregates the cheapest airfares for round-trips departing in the next 24 hours. If you need a hot minute to pack, fear not: There’s a 2 to 3 hour buffer so you have ample time to load your weekender with vacay supplies.
Download Flight Tonight for free on an iPhone from the iTunes app store.
To Stock Up on Beauty Supplies: Travel Beauty
Packing for a flight can be a pain and a half—especially when it comes to your vanity. One could conceivably spend hours transferring beauty products into tiny, 3-ounce containers. Enter Travel Beauty. The e-commerce site crafts the ideal beauty regimen for your trip—culling the best of the best from around the globe—and lets you customize your very own travel-friendly kit of products (all TSA-approved).
Head to travelbeauty.com to create your own travel kit.
To Hitch a Ride: Lyft
Don’t waste your time off going through the hassle of renting a car. With Lyft, you can get a driver on-demand in just a few quick swipes.
All you need to do is open up the app and tap a green button that says “Request Lyft” and—voilà! Like magic, your car arrives in the specified amount of time. What’s more, each car comes equipped with a neon pink furry mustache across the front of the vehicle, and every ride commences with an introductory fistbump (and if you’re lucky, sometimes free candy).Head to lyft.com or download Lyft on an iPhone from the iTunes app store.
To Reserve a Room: Hotelied
If you’re on the hunt for last-minute accommodations, look no further than this genius app. Hotelied offers exclusive rates on the country’s best hotels, with each one tailored to your own personal specifications. Each user creates a travel profile, which culls information from your LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google + profiles (all kept confidential) to ensure a good fit for your personality. Currently, its database includes 40 hotels in 14 different destinations, including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Palm Springs, and Paris.
Head to hotelied.com to sign up.
To Make Reservations and Nab Tickets: Quintessentially
Kiss Frommer’s goodbye. With Quintessentially, users can get expert advice, as well as exclusive access to top tier restaurants and sold-out shows and events (think: the last two seats to Swan Lake at Lincoln Center). Its global team of 2,000 managers speaks over 35 languages and each specialize in the preferred services offered in your area of choice. Suffice it to say that if you become a member, you can kick back, relax, and enjoy that vacation.
Head to quintessentially.com to sign up.
Want more? Click here to see more of our favorite fashion and shopping apps.