Once upon a time, groups of travellers roamed aimlessly across the wilderness, only stopping when one of them stumbled, thus signifying that this was the spot to rest and explore in more detail – wherever this happened to be. This is where the term ‘trip’ came from and how olden day explorers haphazardly defined their itinerary.

Of course, the above is all complete and utter bollocks and merely designed to illustrate the fact that, while randomly flitting across foreign lands may seem exciting, it’s almost always better to plan ahead and make sure you only stop off in the places that are really worth visiting.

I’ve spent the morning surfing the internet with all the style of Keanu Reeves in Point Break to bring you my two favourite web-based travel planners that might be worth looking at. Love them? Hate them? Know of better? Let us know…

TripWiser – TripWiser lets you add, share and review itineraries, meaning you can find inspiration for your own trips from other travellers – always an excellent start before starting a trip (that’s kinda why we’re here, after all). The site’s also got a funky Facebook app which promises to be far more useful than Zombie invites or Flirts – find out more.

TripHub – TripHub can pretty much do the same as TripWiser, but with the addition of excellent group features that give it that little bit extra. With TripHub you can plan a trip and invite others to join in – check out this Girls Getaway page as an example. If you want to inspire a whole horde of your mates to get out the local, you can’t go wrong with TripHub and a cattle prod – find out more.

STA Travel Round-the-World Trip Planner – Of course, both of the sites above are useful assuming you already have a good idea of where you want to go. If you’re still not that prepared this is a useful tool to get your round the world trip laced without too much effort, letting you pick the destinations and showing you an overall cost – find out more.