There's an app for that: Part 1

Many people will argue that technology is ruining our society. I am not one of those people, especially when it comes to traveling. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about turning off my phone and enjoying the view - sometimes for a few weeks at a time. But technology just allows you to relax and focus on the vacation while handling for you the hassle of getting there. Here are a few of my favorite apps and websites that make the whole process a breeze.

Google Now. Google Now is actually a service found within the Google Search App, and it comes as close as possible to an intuitive assistant. It learns your settings preferences, studies what you search online to make finding results more personalized, and connects all your Google outlets like email and calendar, among thousands of other uses. Most of the day it's very convenient. On travel days, it's invaluable. Here's the large catch: You have to keep your important travel notifications (confirmations, email chains etc.) in Gmail. Google Now can't pull from outside apps as of yet.

So this is how the magic happens: Google Now can peruse your email and other apps to pull out important tidbits and display them on your home screen. This is what that means on a typical travel day for me: The night before I get a summary of flights, including up-to-date gate and timing info, and the local weather in all the cities I will be traveling through. The next morning the app will display all electronic boarding passes and a confirmation of my hotel booking for that night, including a phone number for the front desk. All gathered from two emails in my inbox: a flight confirmation, and a hotel confirmation.

Kayak. If you believe finding deals on hotels and flights is a game, as I do, Kayak and Hotwire will become your bread and butter.

Kayak is crowned champion for condensing the completely overwhelming amount of flight pricing data into a user-friendly search engine. Just type in your departure and arrival cities and dates, and watch as it cycles through airline after airline (the only one not included is Southwest, which you'll have to check prices on independently) trying to find the best itineraries.

Kayak will even tell you when to buy (the confidence meter), what weekends are cheapest (month price matrix) and, if you require, wake you up at 2 a.m. because the prices have just dropped by $100 (fare alert). Two points of advice: always buy when Kayak suggests that you buy, and always search using an incognito tab on your browser. Browsers have a nasty habit of storing your info in the form of cookies, and if you don't use an incognito tab, Kayak will remember what you searched for and give you outdated (read: more expensive) prices.

Hotwire. Generally if you're flying somewhere, you'll also need somewhere to sleep. That's where Hotwire shines. Hotwire, if you haven't seen the commercials, specializes in finding the discounted rooms that hotels offer when they fail to book them at a normal rate. There's really no need for a fare alert, and you should definitely buy the day you decide to go. Of course there's a catch for room prices that are 50 percent off or more: The hotels are anonymous until you buy. So first you'll pick a destination, and more specifically an area, then the quality range you're comfortable with (side note: Never book a 1-star hotel if you can help it - just don't) and search. It will give you a list of hotel prices that fit the criteria you specify. You just won't know if it's a Hilton or Ramada until you buy. After many Hotwire deals, you can start to predict what chain the hotel will be, but you'll never know for sure. Annoying? Yes. Worth the half-price rooms? Absolutely.

Next time: Part 2 of the Technology in Travel series, including Groupon, HopStop, and TravelAdvisor.

Julianna Satterly is a Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy graduate who worked as the editor in chief of her college newspaper at Washington and Lee University for 3 years. She's lived in three states, visited 28 others, and has toured 13 countries. Contact her at juliannasatterly@gmail.com, or on Facebook or Twitter at @jsattz.