Essential Travel Apps

Turn your smartphone into the perfect travel tool with these top apps! We’ve tried and tested many apps along our travels and compiled this list of the very best, must-have travel apps.

TRIPIT

This has to be one of our favourite apps, this app turns your phone into your very own travel PA. The app automatically scans through emails then creates an itinerary putting all your plans and documents into one place, it even tells you where you need to be and when allowing you to keep on top of travel plans with ease. The app is free to download for both Android and IOS. There is also a premium version which costs 50 US dollars a year, this offers some extra features as well as real time updates and alerts.

EVERNOTE

A great app for taking notes on the fly especially if you’re like us and want to remember the little details after a trip. Evernote’s essentially a notebook on your phone that allows you to take and easily organise notes into folders/notebooks including attachments, web clippings and voice notes.

HERE WEGO

Hiring a car abroad? Adding a GPS onto a car hire package can be pricey as most rental companies charge by the day as an extra. Here WeGo is an offline map and GPS application, it lets you pre download maps by region or even country for navigation even when there’s no internet connection. Here WeGo also allows you to search for restaurants and local businesses as well as navigate on foot in offline mode ensuring you never get lost in that foreign city again — very handy! The app is free and available to download on both Android and IOS.

TRABEE POCKET : TRAVEL EXPENSE

This app is great for budgeting and keeping track of your daily spend whilst travelling. The app allows you to create your own categories such as food, drink, accommodation etc. making it easy to track where you’re spending money. You can also quickly check how much something costs from foreign currency to your own.

GOOGLE TRANSLATE

Confused by the local language? Perhaps you want to translate a menu or sign. This is where Google Translate comes in handy, it uses the phones camera to scan the foreign writing or text converting it to the desired language, this can also do this by typing. The app can translate over 100 languages, 59 of which can be done offline in the form of downloadable packs. The app is free and available to download on Android and IOS devices.

WIFI MAP

This app allows you to locate WiFi hot spots whilst avoiding data roaming charges. The app brings up a map highlighting any hot spots nearby as well as providing you the password to use them. Maps can also be downloaded to use offline and it has over 100 million WiFi’s worldwide. Remember to be careful what data you access when connected to public WiFi. Free and available on Android and IOS.

UBER

Uber is readily available across most worldwide cities and the list is growing, we recently used Uber in Las Vegas and saved a ton of money as well as gaining information on local gems in the area. The app uses your smartphone to connect you with Uber partnered drivers, you can then select a pickup location for which the driver will pick you up. You can view all the drivers information before hand such as name, registration number as well as car type and colour. The apps map shows the drivers current location as well as an estimated arrival time and fare, all payments are done electronically via selected or saved card within in the app.

WHATSAPP

WhatsApp is a free cross-platform messenger app that allows us to stay connected with friends and loved ones whilst on the road. The app allows users to send free messages, photos, videos, documents and voice messages via the phones internet connection. The app is also one of the most secure with end to end encryption ensuring all messages/conversations stay private.

AIRBNB

Airbnb is an online marketplace allowing people to rent out their properties across the world. It’s a great way of experiencing a vacation through the eyes of a local and there are some stunning properties available on here. You can rent anything from vacation homes, lodges, villas, apartments and entire houses to stationary tents, boats or private rooms. The app allows users to contact hosts if they have any queries about the property and you can read reviews by previous guests allowing you to get a feel for the place you’re going to book. When you book a place through the app you will have to pay a security deposit which is set by the host, Airbnb charges a service fee, generally 6-12% and there may be an additional cleaning fee if the hosts chooses it.

INSTAGRAM

Instagram is one of the most popular social media apps on the planet and is a great way to share your photos and videos. You can search for images using the name of a location or attraction or by using hashtags. It’s a great way to see other people’s real life photos and videos from a particular destination and it’s really easy to connect and engage with other Instagrammers! Instagram stories is a still a fairly recent addition to the app where you can share snapshots of your day with your followers and also see what other people are up to in almost real time.

SKYSCANNER

We use SkyScanner to book a lot of our flights and with the app we are able to book flights on the go as well as monitor prices when we choose. The app has an easy user interface that allows you to compare and book flights, hotels and car hire then automatically pairs them together without the hassle of repeatedly entering check in times, destination or pick up location.

FLIPBOARD

Flipboard does a great job of combining all your favourite reading material into one place, it works by gathering information and stories from social media, news feeds and other websites and presenting them in a magazine format. You can pick from your favourite topics and interests, Flipboard will then search for stories from those categories and create a personalised magazine for you to read, perfect for catching up on the news you love.