It is safe to say that *almost* all of us are in possession of advanced technology gadgets. Yes, I am talking about the smartphone/tablet you are using to read this right now. If you’re using desktop — that’s cool, you’re cool too, okay? Anyway, we rely on our smartphones for daily tasks, more than ever now. So why not make full use of its potential and turn it into your best travel companion! Travel Apps are extremely useful for booking tickets and accommodations; making restaurant reservations, help you navigate your ways — but did you know they’re also super handy when it comes to planning and organising? So you can use them before, during and even after your trip!
These are my top 12 Useful Travel Apps that could be your best friend on your next trip :
Omio
Omio is famous among travellers to the European continent and lately, USA. Previously known as GoEuro, this third-party App is a lifesaver when it comes to hassle-free booking of tickets for flight, trains and busses! You’ll even get live updates on the status of your train and platform info when travelling. To answer your questions, YES, it is legit, safe and reliable. Search for tickets and sort them according to your preference ie lowest price or time. If you’re lucky, you even get to enjoy exclusive deals for your intended journey. Once your booking is made, you’d get a copy of your e-ticket stored in the App for convenience — cause, you know, paperless world save Mother Earth yasss. Just whip out your device and show them the barcode to scan.
The best part, this App is absolutely free!
TripIt Travel Planner
This App helps you to declutter all your trip bookings like flights, accommodations, rail travel tickets, car rental reservations, Airbnb experiences, your date with a local cat — absolutely anything! All you have to do is forward the bookings to an email address provided and the TripIt will instantly create a master itinerary for your trip. You can also choose to sync your email with the App so all of your bookings are automatically updated. What makes it so cool is that you can even share the itinerary with whomever that needs to coordinate with you, like your travel buddy or the person who’s forced to pick you up at the airport or train station.
TripIt is free to download. However, the Pro version is available for a whopping $48.99 / RM204.90 annual subscription. The upgrade includes real time alerts on flight, baggage claim info, security wait time and so on.
Stylebook
Okay, so not everyone needs this App, but Stylebook is extremely useful for those who wants to coordinate their outfits for their trip. Travel bloggers, influencers, or even someone who is just super organised is going to love this App. You can update your virtual closet with pieces you intend to bring for your trip — you can either take a photo of your clothes with plain neutral background or just find a picture online. After that, you can mix and match those pieces to create your perfect outfit! You can even sort this out according to the days of your trip. With this App, I have saved a tremendous amount of time in the morning by planning ahead my outfits especially when I have photoshoots in my itinerary. Though, I strongly advice to try your outfits at HOME first before committing to them. Sometimes they may not be as comfortable as you hope them to be.
This App is available for $3.99 / RM16.90.
Download for iOS
Packr Travel Packing Checklist
So if you need a little help in packing & planning what to bring for your trip (if you’re anything like me, you definitely would need the help), Packr could easily organise that for you. All you have to do is enter your trip details like dates, destination and roughly filter your activities then Packr automatically creates a custom check list for you. It is fully customisable, you can add new items to the list and if you find some things irrelevant, you can just swipe left on them. Once your item is packed, you can also check it off your list.
If you need to pack for a multi-city trip, this function is available for through the in-app Purchase for $2.99 / RM7.90. The Packr Premium does things like synchronising trips with TripIt and all your other devices; give you 8 day weather forecast even for dates far in advance.
Download for iOS
Tripadvisor
Tripadvisor is THE encyclopaedia of the travel world! It is one of the most comprehensive online sources for travellers on background information of different cities. You can find almost everything you need to know on Tripadvisor; accommodations, activities, best places to eat, places of interests, and even discussion forums where you can post or answer questions on anything travel related. Tripadvisor is also known for having reviews of accommodations/restaurants written by members of the community as well as photos from their experiences. So you’ll know what to expect when you travel — unless you’re the type who just loves living on the edge then.. hey, YOLO! Plus, you too can contribute to the reviews and score some karma points with future travellers.
On top of all that, Tripadvisor partners with various booking sites. Therefor, you can easily make your reservations after you’re done with your research. If luck is (still) on your side, you’ll find the lowest prices offered by these partners on this platform as well.
See, useful for planning, during and even after a trip! Oh, and this App is absolutely free to download — bless you Tripadvisor.
TripScout – My Travel Planner
TripScout is the essential App for modern travellers. It combines the best travel articles and videos from top publishers and local influencers to create a personalised travel guide. Every point of interest featured in the content is mapped, so you can create a customised itinerary according to your preferred destinations on a map.
What got me really excited for this App is that TripScout personalises the content based on your actual travel dates, budget, interests and even travel companion. Best part of all, you can download your entire travel guide and map to be used offline — say whaaaat! So, no data — no problem! The only downside, Android users can’t enjoy this App (yet).
You’ll be glad to know that Trip Scout is also 100% free to download.
Download for iOS
Trail Wallet Travel Budget
Built by travellers, this App is a fuss-free travel expenses tracker. You can organise your expenses by trip or by month and get detailed summary of what’s eating up your cash. All you have to do is pick a suitable daily budget for the trip. Then, whenever you make payment or receive the bill/receipt, key in the amount via the Quick Add screen. Trail Wallet keeps my expenditure in check with the daily budget label which shows how much I have left to spend each day. I love that I get to choose the exact currency of my expenses and with internet connection, I get updated with the latest exchange rate. And of course, huge love for that colourful pie chart telling me I’m overspending my budget on pizza and ice cream.
Trail Wallet is free for the first 25 items, but with the in-app purchase priced at $4.99 / RM19.90, you’ll be able to unlock the unlimited entries.
Download for iOS
AccuWeather
Both iOS and Android devices have their own respective built in apps for weather updates. But I cannot tell you how many times I have found myself typing “accuweather.com” on my browser to find out if I should step outside with an umbrella or in a bikini. (Jokes, mum. I don’t wear bikini. Outside. Heh.) So naturally, the App version became a companion I never travel without. AccuWeather offers the most accurate, worldwide real time updates, together with RealFeel Temperature. This cool feature helps to fill you in with the difference between what the weather looks like and how it really feels like.
Apart from that, the weather forecasting seems to be the most accurate for travel planning with 15 days in advance. However, with Platinum Upgrade at $3.99 / RM16.90, you can access the 25-day forecast and no pesky pop-up ads!
Google Maps
While Android users are blessed with this, my fellow iOS buddies should consider this navigation App OG. Obviously, this App gives you directions to your destination via a few mode of transportation : by car, public transit, on foot, on bicycle, by cab and who knows, maybe one day on dragon. But did you know you can also get real time updates on places of interest like museums, restaurants and so on? You can easily find out what time these places open and when their peak hours are.
I personally love the feature called Your Places on Maps. Whenever I plan to visit a city, I would create a list of places I intend to go by pinning them on the map itself. Once I am done, I can then decide on the optimal route to take, now that I can clearly see which place is closest to one another. This is how I usually plan my photoshoots with the local photographers! It is particularly helpful if you have limited time but want to see so many things.
You can enjoy this App at no extra cost — it’s completely free.
Citymapper
Whenever I have some extra time to do a little exploring — especially in a new city, I like to use Citymapper. The real time departure feature makes it so handy when you are using the public transportation. The App guides you with step by step directions and even sends you alert when you need to get off the bus. On top of that, it can even tell you which tube/subway carriage to board for fastest exit — how cool is that?! The only downside, it is not available in every city. So, do check Citymapper coverage list.
Citymapper is free to download and if you have extra cash to burn, you can even join the Citymapper CLUB for $29.99 / RM124.90 or CLUB + for $99.99 / RM419.90. To be honest I’m not sure what the extra perks are, I am perfectly content with my free version.
Rome2Rio
I’ll be perfectly honest, I first came across Rome2Rio back in 2014 when I went to Italy. I did not use it so much then but over the span of 6 years, I am quite surprised at how dependant I have become of this App, whenever I am searching for travel options. And not just in Italy, basically in any countries I’ve travelled to. I would use Rome2Rio to determine the best mode of transportation for intercity travels. Would it be economical to use a train or get a flight? Or should I take the bus or just YOLO and swim across the river — that sort of thing. So you get to compare the estimated prices and also the journey time, see which one suits you best. Apart from that, you can buy tickets and book accommodations with the App too.
Also, Rome2Rio is free to download, so you can have that extra serving of gelato the next time you are in Italy — YUMMM.
Uber
A ridesharing App, for a (relatively) fast and reliable ride to get you from A to B, SAFELY. Okay, I can’t guarantee you Uber is 100% safe BUT it could be the safest option you have depending on the circumstances. Especially during later part of the day! For example(s): when you are extremely tired from a long day of exploring (and queueing), when you are not feeling too well out of the blue, when it is raining cats and dogs, when you’ve had too much to drink, when it’s really late/dark outside and your accommodation is not exactly nearby — you could be more vulnerable and less vigilant in any of these scenarios!
So don’t risk your life just to save cash; your life is worth so much more than that. For added safety purposes, you can actually share your Uber journey with a family/friend so they’ll know you have arrived at your destination safely.
I have had the experiences of getting Uber drivers who tried to con me by taking the longer or the most congested route. Jokes on them cause every single detail of my trips were stored in the App. So, apart from giving the drivers star ratings, you can actually report any incident directly through the App itself. Uber is usually quick to respond and you’ll either get a full or partial refund. Sometimes €5 credit — so yay Uber!
Its reliability is based on the availability of this service throughout more than 700 cities worldwide. So, there really is an Uber for every occasion. For a fuss-free ride, get UberX. Got more time than money, get UberPOOL. Feeling a little Boujee, get UberBLACK.
Uber is free to download but everything else onwards is payable (obviously).
Do you have a favourite App you use for when you travel? Do share with us!
Disclaimer : NOT getting paid/sponsored by any of the Apps for this post, all opinions are of my own.
Planning a trip? Check out my post on tips for solo travellers!
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