Essential Travel Apps

There’s literally thousands of travel related apps out there and we thought we’d share some of our favorites that we go to time and again that help with planning and during travel. If you have a favorite we should know about and missed please let us know via comments. In no particular order….

Kayak

We use this one all the time for flights and car rentals. It does a great job of collecting flight information and gives prices, etc. You can select multiple city itineraries and choose your class of travel. It’s the first place we go when planning. Skyscanner does the same thing but for some reason I keep coming back to Kayak instead.

Rome2Rio

I found this one a couple years ago and it is great because it gives options for city to city transport such as bus, train , plane and even ride-share – including times and prices. So, for example to get from Krakow to Gdansk you can fly (2:47 including time to get to airport $36-52); Train (5:09, 1$16-28), Drive 5:57 $63-90), or bus (9:05, $35-40). You can’t really use it too well for booking but its great for reviewing options.

DB Navigator

This is the best train app I have found for European trains – gives you the actual schedules and costs, number of changes, etc. It gives some prices (but usually only for the German trains). You can book through it for some trains. Even with limitations I find it the best train trip planner.

TripIt

I like this app a lot, my daughter not so much. In any case, you get your travel receipt in email and just email it to plans@tripit.com and the app puts everything in an itinerary. I think it’s a great way to store your stuff. If it puts it in wrong place or can’t read the email you can edit and correct. You can also use it for sharing your plans.

Booking.com

This website and app seems to have the most options for booking (although not all). But they do make it easy to store your bookings and are very clear with whether a room is refundable, etc. It might give you more flexibility to book directly with the hotel website but honestly we have not had problems in general with booking and on occasion have found cheaper rates on Booking.

Mobile Passport

This is a GREAT app. Your airline lands and arrives at the gate. You add your travel information on the app (including passport information and photo), fill out the same information you need to at passport control, get off the plane and look for the mobile passport lane. A couple years ago we came back from overseas with our daughter who did not have Global Entry. She dowloaded the app, entered the information, and skipped what looked like at least an hour long line at SFO. I think the line was actually shorter than the Global Entry line.

AirBNB

Before you venture here, read the post about how to choose lodging. You may do great, but buyer beware. If the cost of rooms is ridiculous or you want a big place for a group, this may be an option. But don’t use it without reading our other post.

Lyft / Uber

Listed together because they essentially do the same thing. You may prefer one to the other but availability by city / country varies a lot between them. Of interest these may be the preferred way to get around in some countries where the cabbies are unscrupulous and inevitably try to rip you off. Since it’s all handled by the app, this can be a lot more hassle free. They are also a lot more convenient in places without a lot of cabs. I would not travel without these apps.

Metro apps

Most large cities with metros have an app (or more) devoted to the metro system. There are too many to list specifics here by city – just search the app store and find one. Free is usually fine. Read the reviews – and pick one. If you don’t like it delete it and grab another. They usually have a map, trip planning tools, schedules, etc. They really makes your life a lot easier.

Airline Apps

There are probably still airlines out there without their own app but if so I can’t think of any right now. It is worth it to grab the app for the airline you are taking before the flight. It might not help too much or it may be invaluable to stay up to date with what is happening with your flight. For example, I found it interesting to open the Delta app and see that my bag was sitting in the Reykjavik airport while I was landing in Minneapolis (no wonder it was not on the baggage carousel). These apps are often the fastest and easiest way to rebook if you get a flight cancellation or late arrival (faster than a call or the onsite customer service people in many cases)

Google Maps

This works all over the world. The downside is if you don’t have a data plan on your phone you can’t use it as it’s just too expensive – unless you download and save a map of the area ahead of time. Consider springing for a data plan (often $10 per day), or buy a device like SkyRoam – which allows 5-10 users to access a local wifi device that runs off of local cell networks (various data plans including daily). Alternatively there are many navigation apps for specific countries you can buy (IGO, Navigon, Sygic, Navmii for example), that download the navigation information and don’t use data while traveling. I used to use these until my international data plan got cheaper and just made it easier to stick with Google maps.

Currency

Grab yourself a currency converter (I use one called “currency” which seems to work fine). No need to pay anything for it but it will make your life a lote easier – especially when hopping between multiple countries with multiple currencies or when trying to decide if spending 2 million Vietnamese Dong is a good deal or not..

Translate

There are a lot of translator apps out there. Be sure and download an offline version so when you are stranded in the wild somewhere you can still get a translation. If you are used to using something like online google translate, they also have an offline version that’s popular. But like currency apps, find one you like and download it, but don’t pay for it..