It’s always an exciting experience to board a plane and jet off to explore some new far flung places. But with so many things to see and places to discover, it makes sense to do a bit of organisation before you leave, giving you more time to be a tourist!
Everyone travels with a smartphone in their pocket these days, and there’s a huge selection of useful travel apps available at your fingertips that you can download to make your next adventure a little easier.
So before you head off on holiday, have you thought about downloading some useful travel apps? After all, you never know when they could come in handy. Let’s break down which travel apps to use, and what to use them for.
Pre-holiday
1. Baggage – Packing List
It’s a holidaymaker’s worst nightmare to be taxiing down the runway and suddenly remember that you’ve forgotten something essential. To get your hands on your tailor made packing list, all you need to do is fill out a few details about your trip; it can even be shared with anyone travelling with you.
By installing a travel itinerary app, you’ll take the stress out of your holiday and ensure that you don’t forget a thing.
Price: Free, but contains ads
2. Holiday Extras
Traffic can be unpredictable, and waking up at the crack of dawn to avoid it can really put a dampener on your holiday mood, meaning that it’s sometimes best to stay at an airport hotel the night before your flight. This is one of the essential travel apps, as it will show you a whole host of deals on parking and hotels at airports across the country. It even includes some fancy add-ons, such as having your car valeted for you while you’re away!
Price: Free
3. TripCase – Travel Organiser
Holidays can often feel quite stressful, especially if you’re visiting various places and trying to keep up with multiple travel arrangements and accommodation details while you’re abroad. If you’re worried about losing any of the important information you’ll need while you’re away, then it might be a good idea to download a travel organiser app, such as TripCase.
TripCase helps to keep all the details about your trip in one place, including flight bookings, hotel information and car reservations. You can even get live flight updates, allowing you to check your flight information without having to wander aimlessly through the airport in search of a screen.
Price: Free, but contains some in-app purchases
Once you’re there
4. Navmii
Navmii is the perfect city travel app to help holidaymakers easily travel around their chosen destination. It is available in over 150 countries and combines live traffic information, points of interest, local searches and voice-guided navigation.
It can even be used offline, as maps can be downloaded and stored on your device, avoiding any roaming charges for those travelling outside of the EU.
Price: Free, but contains ads and some in-app purchases
5. Translator
You’ve gone through passport control, grabbed your bags and you’re ready to embark on your adventure in a foreign country - only to realise that you don’t actually understand a word anyone’s saying to you! Slightly problematic when you’re trying to give instructions to the taxi driver.
But never fear - Translator gives you access to instant text and voice translation for hundreds of different languages. This is really useful for those wishing to converse with the locals, and makes a great learning tool.
Price: Free, but contains ads
6. World Travel Guide by Triposo
Sometimes it can be a bit tricky to find the absolute must-see places, or find those amazing restaurants off the beaten track, but Triposo provides users with reviews and recommendations across 50,000 destinations around the world. Bookings can even be made through the app. It even works offline, avoiding any unexpected roaming charges!
Price: Free, but contains ads and some in-app purchases
7. OnTheSnow Ski & Snow Report
Heading off for a trip to the mountains, only to find out half the pistes are closed due to a lack of snow can be a little disheartening. But aside from trying to pre-empt potential disappointment, it’s important to keep an eye on the weather conditions to ensure you don’t get caught out by a snow storm or heavy fog – something that unfortunately isn’t too uncommon when skiing. Stay safe on the piste by taking out specialist winter sports insurance, as well as downloading a suitable weather reporting app, such as OnTheSnow.
As well as providing live weather reports, OnTheSnow also includes maps for over 2,000 ski resorts worldwide, and access to live webcams for when you’re pining for the snow back at home. It might even make you want to book a last minute budget ski trip!
Price: Free
8. Currency Converter
If you’re heading off on holiday, you might be asking yourself - what’s the currency over there? This nifty currency converter app will provides you with the current exchange rates, as well as working offline. This is especially handy if you’re travelling to multiple places, as it allows you to convert up to 15 currencies simultaneously.
Price: Free, but contains ads
When you’re back home
9. FreePrints – Photos Delivered
Capturing your holiday memories through the trigger-happy snapping of photos is one of the best bits of the holiday experience. FreePrints lets you order over 500 photos per year from your smartphone, and delivers them to your door for a very reasonable cost.
Price: The app and prints are free (up to 45 a month), but standard delivery costs between £1.49 - £3.99
10. Countries Been
Countries Been allows budding world travellers to highlight all the places they’ve been to, as well as those that they would like to go and explore. It even gives you access to the world map, allowing you to find out all sorts of useful information about all the countries you’d like to visit, including famous tourist sites and attractions.
The last thing you want is for those special holidays and trips away to fade from your mind. So, download Countries Been on your phone and keep your own record of all things holiday – perfect for those who love to travel the globe!
Price: Free, but contains ads and some in-app purchases
This post was contributed by Sun-hat Villas, a villa rental company specialising in luxury Algarve villas, but operating all across Europe and the Caribbean.