Considering the luggage restrictions on most airlines these days it’s a good thing that technology allows us to pack our entertainment in the slim weightless volumes of a phone, tablet or e-reader. But our tech buddies can be so much more useful on a trip, not only replacing maps and guides but giving us access to things we never had ‘on the go’ even 20 years ago. Here is our guide to the best travel apps you’ll need when traveling, be it for business, gap year or those last minute holidays.
If you are looking for a great deal on flights, accommodation, eating or entertainment while you are away this pretty little travel discount app will find the best available. Every day you can search the top 20 deals available in a range of categories, including the wildcard ‘inspire me’, which is great for new ideas. The deal roller in this section was particularly fun to use.
To chronicle your trip, TripRider is the Swiss Army Knife of travel apps. Beyond travel management tools and notebook functions TripRider features an array of travel planning solutions, including Packing List and Expense sections as well as a Wallet to securely store important information–documents, credit cards and tickets, and a Maps sections to organize and add photos of all the essential maps for your journey, which can be accessed without an internet connection.
This smooth little app will take care of all your bookings and reservations for travel, hotels, car hire etc. You simply send all your online information to Tripit and it stores it in your smartphone for a simple itinerary with a scan-able format, meaning no more wallets stuffed with pieces of paper. A concept which would have been unheard of in the 20th century when you had to check for tickets in your bag at least 3 times on the way to the airport!
If you are traveling without a full plan of where to stay and what to see, the Trip Advisor app can give you access to thousands of reviews to help you to decide on hotels, activities, sights and routes. This is in addition to any other travel guide apps, which can be better ordered to discover things in the area you are visiting, but once you have your range of choices it’s great to read the opinions of travelers like yourself en route.
Yelp will also help track down great eating, drinking and entertainment venues while Big Tipper will help to decipher local customs and calculate the right amount to keep your hosts happy.
This little currency converter has been a favorite online resource for many years and is now available in a slick app which shows you exactly what you are spending in that chic little restaurant or boutique. It also stores conversion data for offline use so you can plan ahead in case of a loss of connectivity.
There are a good many phrasebook apps out in the ether but this one covers the widest range of languages if you are traveling across continents. It will deliver audio translations for certain countries and while it’s not always 100% accurate, it is the most comprehensive around.
*Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of Beers and Beans Travel Website & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you do want to use one of them please contact me first. Thanks!
7 comments
I feel like an out of touch old man because every time I go on a trip there’s an ocean of new technology I know nothing about. Back in my day (yes, I said it), traveling with a laptop was almost pointless due to lack of Wi-Fi. You crazy kids and your damn travel gizmos.
I agree that these are the most important things in your mobile device nowadays when traveling.
Surprising list since I’ve tried a few of these, particularly TripIt (which added things to my calendar in triplicate and stored times and dates wrong all the time), and disliked them. But I might have to give one or two of these a second chance if you believe in them so strongly.
Notably missing is the AFAR app which allows you to save places you want to go, with detailed address and mapping functionality, for access offline when you’re in a place without connectivity.
I love Yelp and Tripadvisor and they work great in the states. However, in Costa Rica and much of Central America Yelp doesn’t work at all because they haven’t mapped much of the places. Sad 🙁 One super helpful app for people driving in Central America is a GPS driving app called Waze – it has very accurate maps (more than Google) and people post tips if there are police around, traffic or accidents.
Thanks Kirsten! You beat me to it. 🙂
Nice list, I didn’t know about triprider. I’ll have to add it!
trip it is certainly my favourite
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