My best travel APIs
Published: 2022-04-28 12:25:17

If you are reading this article you probably already know what an API is. But just in case you were wondering, here is a quick explanation. API (Application Programming Interface) is a software medium that allows two programs to interact. So Travel APIs can do various sorts of things such as retrieving information about hotel and flight bookings and presenting it in different forms according to your needs. The same goes if we talk about restaurant reservations, public transport timetable, travel itineraries and other things. Basically it collects vast amount of travel data from one place, structures it and pass it on to other applications to use. In this article we are going to look at some of the best travel APIs to date.

## Amadeus

Amadeus APIs are available in two options: Self-Services APIs and Enterprise APIs. Each of them is comprised of several categories:

Self-Service APIs

- Air (flight search, flight booking, flight prices, prediction and analysis, schedule and seat maps, airport information and more)
- Hotel (hotel booking, hotel search, hotel prices, hotel ratings)
- Destination content ( safety rated locations, COVID restrictions, tours and activities)
- Trip (trip parser, predictions and recommendations)
- Enterprise APIs
- Air (customizable search, calculating, shopping and ticketing services)
- Booking Management (booking interactions)
- Car & Transfers (complex car search, car booking)
- Cruise (searching and booking)
- Customer Profile (personal preferences, payment details and more)
- Hotel (hotel search, hotel booking)
- Insurance (travel insurance booking and shopping)
- Payment (virtual cards)
- Queue Management
- Rail (searching and ticketing)

So you can see that the set of travel APIs is different and the choice depends on your needs. While Self-Service travel API seems to be more traditional, Enterprise travel API allows for a customized experience.

## Sabre

The variety of travel APIs offered by Sabre is divided into three categories:

- The Sabre Platform (Travel Solutions APIs)
- The Sabre GDS (Airline Solutions APIs)
- SynXis Central Reservations (hospitality APIs)

But for a more suitable fit, you can filter the 465 existing travel APIs by target audience, category, function, and product type. 

## Travelport

Typically Travelport would offer its classic Travelport Universal API (SOAP based), covering such services as: 

- Air (flight search, flight booking),
- Car (car search, car booking), 
- Rail (ticket search, ticket booking), 
- Hotel (hotel search, hotel booking), 
- Customers’ profiles and reservations management. 

But recently they’ve appeared to launch a pilot program Travelport Trip Services, which is REST based and optimized specifically to be used for mobile apps. The APIs are divided into “kits” for convenience (Air APIs, Trip Change Kit, Hotel Kit, Car APIs Kit, Payment Card Services API Kit). Even though it’s a pilot program not available for everybody, it seems very promising.

## AwardWallet

AwardWallet offers several APIs to choose:

- Email Parsing API
- Web Parsing API
- Account Access API

Email Parsing API allows you to retrieve the information from booking confirmation emails and use it (for example travel data for itinerary planning). It can also scan your email for any future (or previous) bookings to adjust the data. Web Parsing API extracts information from users’ online loyalty accounts and structures it in a needed format. Account Access API gives access to users’ AwardWallet account (if authorized) and shares the necessary information.

## Skyscanner

Skyscanner flight search API will allow you to search flights, compare prices, and find the cheapest ticket and the best route. It started as a flight search engine, but now its travel services include car rental and hotel search. You can get Skyscanner APIs for free, but to achieve full functionality you will have to go through a vetting process.
 
## Flightstats

Flightstats APIs provide us with all the necessary information concerning flights, airports and aircrafts. This includes, but not limited to: weather forecast, flight ratings (time accuracy), flight tracking, flight status, flight amenities, delay index, connections, schedules and changes alerts. Essentially, Flighstats APIs are divided into two categories – Flex APIs and Trip Data Services. The first category delivers comprehensive data on commercial flights and airlines, whereas the second one focuses more on itinerary management.

## Tripit

Tripit travel API collects information about users’ hotel and flight bookings to build an itinerary. Tripit is a free platform and it can be integrated into any travel websites or apps. It promises the process to be easy for travelers as one of the features available is the button “Add to Tripit”. By clicking the button on your site users automatically add their booking confirmations to their Tripit account. 

## Concur

Concur API is similar to TripIt, but it is mostly used with business travelers. It helps with planning the itinerary, tracking the expenses, thus providing easier reimbursement. 

## Booking

Booking travel API is one of the biggest hotel booking APIs. It shares the information about hotel inventory, real-time pricing and hotel rooms availability, as well as property descriptions, names of cities and hotels, facilities, photos. As far as the booking process is concerned, it can be done in two ways: you can either confirm the booking by redirecting the user to Booking.com or you can become partner and process the booking on your site.

## Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor Content API provides access to Tripadvisor content which is one of the richest in travel industry in terms of hotels and restaurants reviews and photos. Each item contains a set of details, such as:

- name and location
- detailed reviews
- rating
- pricing
- attraction type
- cuisine

The travel API is free, but for API integration you have to register and go through minor evaluation process.

## Google

The APIs offered by Google Maps are grouped into three products: Maps, Routes and Places, each containing a set of APIs.

- Maps (Maps SDK for Android, Maps SDK for iOS, Maps JavaScript API, Maps Static API, Street View API, Maps Embed API)
- Routes (Maps JavaScript API, Directions API, Distance Matrix API, Roads API)
- Places (Places API, Places Library, Maps JavaScript API, Geocoding API, Geolocation API, Time Zone API, Elevation API)

If you are not sure which Google Maps API is better to use in your case, you can have a peek at API Picker. It is made to help you choose by showing the functions each Google Maps API will bring to you.

## Travelopro

Travelopro is a car rental API that deals with car search and car booking. Once the API integration into your site is complete, you get access to a full inventory of car rental offers. You can search the available cars by price, number of passengers and level of comfort. Travelopro supports several languages and has a car fleet from more than 190 countries. They also offer Travel APIs, Flight APIs, Hotel APIs, and Cruise APIs.

## Windy

Windy API gives access to a vast collection of webcams around the world. It is available in two plans – Free and Professional. Free plan allows you to either link your site to windy.com or embed a player. Professional plan allows you to get unlimited API access without any in-player ads or size restrictions. The webcams can be filtered by country, category, nearby location and other features.

## Expedia

Expedia travel API is a hotel booking API with a huge number of functions. It has got standard features, such as hotel booking and hotel search, as well as some extras:

- Hold & Resume – this feature lets you pause the hotel booking and get back to it with price staying unchanged
- Property Collect Deposits – lets the client leave a deposit and pay the rest of the sum at the hotel
- Cross-Sell Recommendations – interaction between different types of APIs for more desirable experience
- Notifications – let you know if any changes occur
- User-Generated Content – gives you access to reviews and ratings

To proceed with Expedia API integration you will have to become a partner and get approval.
	
## Tiqets

Tiqets API is dealing with tickets to museums, galleries, concerts and other places of interest. It provides full booking experience divided into three stages:

- Content Discovery – allowing you to find the place you want to visit
- Product Availability – checking if there are tickets available for the chosen date
- Booking Order – finalizing the booking by purchasing the tickets

The ticket itself contains the information about the venue, cancellation policy, disability access, “Skip the Line” option and many other details.

## Numbeo

Numbeo API provides you with all kinds of information about cost of living, property prices and quality of life around the world. Numbeo gathers information about local prices (housing, utilities, food, transportation, education, etc.), salaries, healthcare availability, crime rates, pollution and many more. The API boasts vast collection of cities with cost of living and life quality indexes. The API is available by purchasing a subscription, but you might get it free you want to use it for academic and not commercial purposes. And a bonus discount of 40% if your company is not very big.

## RoadGoat

RoadGoat Cities API shares travel related data about various destinations around the globe. It covers 232 countries and more than 4 million cities. Each destination features such details as:

- Photo
- “Known for” tags
- RoadGoat community info
- Budget, safety and COVID ratings
- Geodata
- Booking links 

The API is available for free or by purchasing the subscription.

## OpenWeather

Weather API does what it is supposed to do – it gives you weather forecast. On top of that you get information about solar radiation, road risk information, historical weather, weather maps and national weather alerts. The API is available in different variations with flexible payment plans. 

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