19 Jul Trip planning like a pro with Slide

After all the Covid madness, it feels like travel is making a proper comeback in 2022. In March, we finally made it to Asia, spending seven blissful weeks in Thailand and a month in Bali, followed by a spontaneous trip to Australia for our first taste of van life and a Perth housesit. I can’t tell you how good it’s been to have our freedom back, to ride a motorbike around tropical islands and trek to unfamiliar viewpoints; to visit temples, beaches and waterfalls and watch the sunset on the other side of the planet.

Although Covid restrictions have eased considerably in 2022 – even Australia is letting people in without a PCR test – travel planning has been more important than ever this year. From figuring out the Thailand Pass requirements to getting a PCR test to fly to Bali, our journey has required extensive research. Now, as a travel-planning fanatic I love mapping out a trip, reading blog posts and Googling vegan restaurants, but in this post-Covid era of travel, any tool that can help streamline my plans is a bonus – that’s where Slide comes in.

Slide: the ultimate travel planning app

Let me introduce you to Slide, the ultimate trip-planning app that allows you to find, save and share cool travel experiences. Rather than accumulating hundreds of bookmarks, saving tickets on your phone, creating spreadsheets and searching through endless email threads when you’re trip planning, you can organise everything in one place with Slide. The app is free to download from Google Play and the App Store, here’s how it works and why I love it:

• Save trip ideas – just type in your travel destination and Slide will give you tons of trip ideas which can be supplemented with your own links and research. You can save anything that catches your eye, be it hotels, restaurants or tours, then view everything on a map, which I find particularly useful as a visual guide when planning an itinerary.
• Create a calendar – once you have some activities, transport and accommodation settled, you can easily add everything to the trip calendar in Slide to stay organised.
• Share plans with your travel companions – Slide is great if you’re taking a group trip, as everyone can discuss plans on the app, share ideas and add to the travel calendar. There’s even a feature that allows you to track and split trip costs.
• Collate your travel documents – rather than searching through emails and taking endless screenshots on my phone, I love being able to store all of my trip documents in one place on Slide, from plane tickets to PCR test results, hotel bookings and car hire confirmations.
• Create a travel to-do list – you can note down and tick-off all those pesky travel planning tasks on Slide, such as renewing your passport (something I’ve just managed to do), applying for visas, booking accommodation or buying travel items.

As well as acting as a trip-planning tool, Slide also works as a social platform where you can upload your own photos, videos and links to places you love, adding comments to your travel recommendations. Unlike other social platforms, Slide also allows you to earn money through your content; other users can save your ideas, ask questions and tip you for your expertise. You can also earn 30 percent from ad revenue on your content and there’s a 5% referral initiative – what’s not to love? I’ll definitely be using Slide as my thoughts turn to our travel plans for the rest of the year.

Our onward travel plans

Sat here in the midst of a UK heatwave, my thoughts are already turning towards our autumn travel plans. With London housesits scheduled until mid-September, we’re thinking of heading on to North America afterwards; that 2020 trip we had booked to Canada and Yellowstone, cancelled thanks to Covid, still haunts me. So, I’m dreaming of a road trip through the USA and Canada, with a stint in Mexico when it gets cold. Perhaps we’ll even do it in a van, considering how much we fell in love with the freedom of van life in Australia, with housesits along the way to help keep costs down. Wherever we chose to go, it  feels like the world is finally open for us to explore again – I can’t wait to get travel planning.