Thousands of travel apps competing for your phone space, but how do you know what you truly need? That’s why you have me! I’ve traveled around the world using only wifi, so I know what apps are absolutely necessary. And trust me, you cannot leave your home country without these 4.
4. Airline App
Every airline, and I mean EVERY airline has an app now. It will behoove you to download the app of the airline you’re flying with even if you want to check in and print your physical boarding passes at the airport. Airlines are getting savvier with their apps. They offer baggage tracking, and flight information via the app. Some airline apps allow you to use their wifi on the plane for free but only if you have the app. On the plane wifi, they will often have watchable entertainment through the app. Not all airlines have this, but a lot of them do! Another reason to have the airline app IS if you want to check in early, check most updated flight status, and use a mobile boarding pass (more eco friendly). Airline apps also have airport maps which can prove useful if you have a quick connection and you want to plot out your route. They also include their club locations, so if you’re an American Airlines Club member, the app will tell you the nearest available clubs.
Each airline app is different but I have definitely found it useful to download the airline apps for every trip!
3. Google Translate
This one is KEY, and RAD! Google translate has become so incredibly useful. They have talk to text features. You can download specific languages to have offline. There’s a camera feature to point at menus or signs you don’t understand. It can talk for you! The possibilities are endless and has saved me many times in countries where it would take years for me to learn any possible language (read Mandarin or Thai). They have all the major languages, and there’s really no reason NOT to download it before you go, unless you’re going somewhere they speak only your language!
2. Rome2Rio
This app is pretty new to me but I love it. It’s a great app to figure out your way from A to B. They tell you the fastest, the cheapest, and the most direct way to get anywhere by checking trains, taxis, public transit, private cars and anything that’s available. They then offer links to schedules and tickets. It’s a bit better than google maps which only offers public transit, walking, or car routes. Rome2Rio works in a lot of places that google maps just doesn’t have the intel. It’s a great app, and hopefully they’ll continue working on it so it gets better and better.
1. Google Maps
To be honest, I’ve just never removed google maps ever from any phone. This app has improved so much over the years, but the best feature that a traveler can’t live without is offline maps. You can now download a map of wherever you’ll be and it will be at your fingertips without data or wifi. You can see your little blue dot moving so you can locate yourself in a taxi or on a train and know when you need to get off or if you’re going the wrong way. It can’t load walking directions without wifi but pretend it’s the “olden days” and use it like a proper map.
Offline maps has saved me more times than I can count. It’s the most useful travel tool one can have! If you don’t know how to download offline maps, I can send you a tutorial I made, just let me know.
Happy travels!
ADDENDUM!
Hi Again, I’m adding an app after some recent traveling and thoughts.
5. WHATSAPP
A LOT of businesses around the world are now using whatsapp to communicate. It’s a great way to be able to do so with wifi and not cellular. And since a lot of businesses only use this, I highly recommend downloading it before your journey! It’s difficult to set up when you aren’t in your own territory, in case they need to send you verifying texts, etc. Whatsapp is also a great way to communicate with your friends back home without data usage. And maybe your new friends abroad…
Leave a comment