The world is saturated with travel apps as every week seems to usher in a new crop of apps claiming to be the most “innovative,” “essential” and “necessary” for your next trip. From before the flight to during the trip, the following apps prove to be the creme de la creme of travel apps and necessary for any tech savvy traveller to have on the road.
Before the trip
PackPoint
If you think PackPoint is just another app to build out packing lists, think again! PackPoint is a new app that builds packing lists for you based on the destination you’re going, length of your trip and time of year you’re visiting. Using this basic information, PackPoint generates a recommended packing list.
Available on iTunes and Google Play.
Rome to Rio
Rome to Rio helps you trace a path from where you are to anywhere in the world. Visiting Buenos Aires and interested in checking neighbouring Uruguay? Rome to Rio will pull up flights, trains, buses, ferries and more to get you there.
Available on iTunes.
Duolingo
Whether you are brushing up on your Spanish, trying your hand at French or revisiting that semester of Italian, when you travel abroad it is smart to come armed with a basic knowledge of the local language. Duolingo is a fun app that has games and quizzes for people to practice a language of their choice.
Available on iTunes and Google Play.
CreateTrips
CreateTrips is a top 10 travel app in 80 countries around the world and is a unique way to build out trip itineraries with your friends. By culling together tips and recommended experiences from locals and travellers, CreateTrips allows you to create a custom itinerary (and invite a friend to add to it!) where you can save any tips or experiences for the destination you are visiting.
Available on iTunes and coming soon to Android.
Agoda
Priding themselves on smarter hotel booking, Agoda is a great resource to discover accommodation. Dying to book that gorgeous hotel room but short on the cash? One of the greatest features of Agoda is that it allows you to tap into deals, book now and pay later on select properties so that you can reserve your accommodations ASAP.
Available on iTunes and Google Play.
Finding affordable airfares
Skyscanner Flights
Skyscanner is one of my favorite search engines to look up airfare. Similar to other flight search apps, Skyscanner compares million of flights to find the cheapest airfare. Yet unlike Orbitz or Expedia, Skyscanner pulls in smaller airlines and has other useful functions such as searching from “where you are to everywhere.”
Available on iTunes and Google Play.
Momondo
Searching for flights is like a choreographed dance–it takes multiple flight search engines, knowing the right time to buy and being savvy to airfare saving tricks to walk away with an affordable ticket. Like Skyscanner, Momondo is a global aggregator that pulls in smaller, local airlines. Both Skyscanner and Momondo are good starting points when looking for affordable flights.
Available on iTunes and Google Play.
Hopper
Hopper tells you when to fly and when to buy your plane tickets to help you get the lowest airfare rates (consider me sold!). As a helpful hint, you can also visit hopper.com where you can subscribe to airfare deals from your homeairport and have them e-mailed directly to your inbox.
Available on iTunes.
While travelling
Help Call
Although emergencies are the last thing you want to think about when traveling abroad, Help Call is a useful app that auto-detects your location and allows for one-touch access to local police, fire stations and ambulances in over 120 countries. ‘Knock on wood’ that you won’t have to use this little app while on the road but it is good to know that if needed the large buttons and shake to call function are in your backpocket.
Available on iTunes.
Gypsy Circle
Pssst..you heard it here first! The newly launched Gypsy Circle is a travel app that acts as a social network for travelers to share their upcoming itineraries, connect with friends in other destinations and ultimately arrive connected wherever you are traveling to. Gypsy Circle allows you to build out a profile and add in your upcoming trips as well as connect with friends (and friends of friends) to see where they will be jetting off to. Whether solo traveling to Morocco or backpacking through South East Asia, Gypsy Circles helps you connect to people within your network that are traveling to, have been to or know the destination you’re visiting.
Available on iTunes.
Entrain
Most travellers tend to struggle with jet lag, which is where Entrain steps in. Entrain is a handy app that essentially serves as a high tech alarm clock where you input your sleeping behaviours (wake up time, bedtime and timezone, etc.) and the app then recommends a sleep schedule and lighting system even to help you overcome jet lag that much faster.
Available on iTunes and Google Play.
Camera360
I was introduced to this photo-editing app by a photography buff and haven’t looked back since; this is the only app to use for Instagram shots as it helps create images are clear, crisp, vibrant and much better than those tortured with over-exposed Instagram filters.
Available on iTunes and Google Play.
VideoShop
I must admit that I’m not the most savvy when it comes to editing videos, so I was thrilled to discover this mobile app that helps me easily turn my random travel clips into videos I can then share with friends and family.
Available on iTunes and Google Play.
