Travel tools
Free calculators and checkers for Schengen days, visas, carry-on sizes, points value, eSIM plans, trip cost, lounges, compensation and insurance — each paired with a methodology guide so you can judge the output before you book.
- InteractiveSchengen calculatorTrack your rolling 90/180-day Schengen allowance from trip dates.
- InteractiveVisa checkerNationality + destination → visa requirement, cost and processing guidance.
- InteractiveCarry-on checkerCompare your bag dimensions against airline cabin rules.
- InteractivePoints valuationsCents-per-point table plus a quick “is this redemption good?” check.
- InteractiveAvios calculatorEstimate British Airways Reward Flight Saver Avios by distance band, cabin and peak dates.
- InteractiveeSIM finderCountry → cheapest plan per GB across Airalo, Yesim and Drimsim.
- InteractiveTrip cost calculatorDestination + style + days → daily budget breakdown.
- InteractiveLounge finderAirport → lounges, access options and cheapest way in.
- InteractiveCompensation checkerFlight details → EU261/UK261 eligibility and payout bands.
- InteractiveInsurance comparisonTrip profile → cover level guidance and provider shortlist.
- InteractivePacking list generatorDestination + month + trip type → printable packing checklist.
Which tool should you use first?
Match the tool to your next decision: the Schengen calculator before any multi-week Europe trip, the visa checker the moment your itinerary crosses a border, points valuations before any transfer, and carry-on checkers in packing week. The eSIM finder and trip cost calculator settle the two money questions — data and daily budget — before you pay for either.
Europe-bound travellers get the most immediate value from the Schengen 90/180 calculator: enter your past and planned stays and it returns your remaining allowance against the rolling 180-day window — the single rule that ends more long trips than any visa refusal. Anyone with a connection or stopover should run every country on the itinerary through the visa checker, including pure transit points, which sometimes require their own authorisation even when you never leave the airport.
Points collectors should treat the valuation tools as a pre-transfer ritual: award pricing moves constantly, and a transfer is irreversible, so check the redemption's cents-per-point value against the cash fare before moving a single point. The packing and carry-on tools close the loop in the final week — airline sizers vary by centimetres and kilograms, and the checker compares your exact bag against your exact carriers before the gate agent does it for you.
How do TravelShifu tools work?
Each tool pairs an interactive calculator with a companion guide: the tool runs your numbers in the browser, and the guide documents the assumptions, data sources, worked examples and edge cases so you can judge the output instead of trusting it blindly.
Tools are snapshots built from primary sources — government border portals, published airline baggage and fare rules, official loyalty-programme terms — and every tool page shows when its supporting data was last reviewed. Treat that date as a freshness label: visa rules shift weekly somewhere, Schengen counting depends on your exact stamps, and points valuations drift with every programme devaluation.
Two habits make any tool trustworthy in practice. First, set your real parameters — passport, travel dates, airline — because defaults assume someone else's trip. Second, treat near-boundary results as a prompt to verify, not a verdict: day 88 of 90, a bag one centimetre over, a valuation within half a cent of the cash price. The companion guide for each tool names the official source to check, and that link is part of the tool, not a formality.
Are these tools free, and what is coming next?
Yes — every TravelShifu tool is free with no account and no usage cap, funded the same way as the rest of the site. New calculators are added as their companion guides and data pipelines pass editorial review, not before.
Free here means genuinely free: tools run client-side in your browser, so the dates, budgets and bag dimensions you enter never reach our servers — closing the tab discards them. There is no signup wall, no "premium tier" of results, and no throttling. When a tool links onward to a booking partner, that relationship is disclosed on the page like everywhere else on TravelShifu.
The roadmap is driven by reader questions: the most-requested calculations in our inbox become the next tools, each shipping only with a full methodology guide behind it. If there is a travel calculation you still do by hand — split-ticket logic, stopover pricing, family bag allowances — the contact route on the About page reaches the editorial desk directly.
How accurate are the calculators?
Calculators apply their stated assumptions to your inputs. Results can still be wrong if the model, underlying rules or inputs are incomplete or out of date. A displayed update date is not a guarantee that every rule has been independently reverified.
Rule-based tools help organise a check; they do not establish immigration permission, an airline’s acceptance of baggage or an authority’s decision. Confirm the current rule and any exceptions with the responsible authority or operator. Keep your travel history and leave room for uncertainty.
Estimate-based tools (points valuations, deal comparisons) are different by nature: they express editorial judgement grounded in award-chart analysis and real booking comparisons, and the guides show the working. A valuation of 1.4 cents per point is a well-reasoned midpoint, not a market price — use it to compare options against each other, not as a guarantee of what a specific redemption will return on a specific Tuesday.
When accuracy really matters — a visa application, a border entry, a five-figure points transfer — use the tool to narrow the question and the linked official source to settle it. That two-step habit is the difference between a calculator as a decision aid and a calculator as a gamble.