A feature-rich mobile application is a necessary companion during any journey today. Some of them are designed to simplify the process of booking tickets, finding a hostel for an overnight stay, selecting sightseeing tours, etc.
In our article, we compiled a short list of the most helpful applications designed to become your indispensable travel assistants. Since more than 98% of mobile users are happy owners of either iOS or Android devices, we will focus on the applications that are available for both operating systems. Another important point — all applications from our list are free to use.
Airbnb (housing)
Who hasn’t heard about Airbnb? This application allows users to quickly find housing all around the world. It can be a 2-square-meter guest room in a shared house, or a whole estate — you will certainly find either option with the help of Airbnb. The application performs the same functions as the site. However, using the app is a more convenient experience.
The best thing about Airbnb is that it offers an opportunity to live together with the locals, adopt their way of living, follow their national spirit, and experience a new lifestyle. Airbnb should be your go-to travel assistant because the application is ready to provide you with options for housing in more than 190 countries.
Kayak (all-in-one)
Kayak is a universal assistant on any trip. The application is a convenient service for booking apartments, flights, car rentals and so on. With Kayak, you can compare the offers of different agents and choose the most suitable one. Specify your budget and the application will provide you with the most viable options for flights, rentals and best travel destinations (just in case you haven’t yet decided where to go).
What makes Kayak one of the most popular apps in 2019? Numerous travel planning tools, helpful tips throughout the journey and a huge selection of rental offers.
Worldee (Itineraries)
Planning your own vacation can take so much effort, so why not take advantage of someone else's hard work? Find out how other travellers explored your next destination on Worldee. See all the locations, photos and detailed notes, and then convert it into your next travel plan. Take the platform to the next level with 10GB of free storage to share your travel adventures, either publically or privately with friends and family. To get started, find a healthy dose of inspiration on their blog with dozens of destination articles.
XE Currency Exchange (currency converter)
You will definitely need this application during your trip if you are going to deal with money. Enter the countries that you are going to visit (you will need an Internet connection to do this though) and XE will provide you with the current exchange rates for the local currency in a convenient format.
This data will be available even in the offline mode. However, you will still need an Internet connection to receive the recent updates and get the latest information on the exchange rates. Plan and monitor your spendings in a foreign country with this currency converter.
TripAdvisor (all-in-one)
This ultimate travel guide consists of millions of user reviews on hotels, restaurants, sightseeing places, etc. The reviews also contain videos and photos for you to check. All this combined in one application on your phone.
Set the necessary parameters and look for a place that suits you the most. Share your own impressions and reviews, rate the services. The “Near me now” feature will show you the nearby places that the users recommend to visit. TripAdvisor is one of the most popular applications with more than 100 million downloads from Google Play alone.
Colibra (flight delay compensation)
Did you know, if your flight is delayed by more than 1 hour, you can get compensated, cash, in your bank, without really doing anything? No, I didn't know that either. All you have to do is register your boarding pass on the Colibra App and that will guarantee payment for every 1+ hour flight delay! Simply register your flight ticket before take-off and you can get paid in 24 hours after landing. Happy days. Worth a go. Colibra is kind of the Robin Hood of the travel app world.
AccuWeather (forecast)
What can potentially ruin any vacation and disrupt plans? The weather. Regardless of the type of vacation you prefer, you should not forget about the weather forecast. AccuWeather is an application with international coverage. The application provides users with 15-day and 5-day forecasts. But AccuWeather’s killer feature is a momentary MinuteCast. This mechanism allows the application to determine your location, and after that, AW will provide you with a weather forecast, minute by minute within the following two hours.
Over 50,000,000 downloads from Google Play and the proven service make AccuWeather the leading application for weather planning.
In Case of Emergency (unforeseen circumstances)
You will most likely take out insurance before the trip. However, you won’t be able to insure yourself against unforeseen circumstances. A resort vacation, of course, implies all the necessary medical care. However, if you travel in nature, you may need accurate knowledge of what to do in certain situations.
ICE is a perfect fit for this type of holiday. The application contains basic information and tips on maintaining your health, and other medical advice. Also, you can feed all your emergency contacts into the application.
Maps.me (navigation)
With a base of more than 100,000,000 users worldwide, Maps.me is, perhaps, one of the best offline apps for navigation. All data is stored offline so you can travel step by step with an offline navigator even in the most distant places of the world.
The application also allows you to book hotels and restaurants, which makes it even more versatile.
TripIt (planning)
You’re planning a long vacation across a large number of countries, and want to have all locations, hotels, and tour options in one place? Certainly, it’s impossible to keep such a large amount of information in your head, notebook, or reminders. Therefore, TripIt is your choice.
The application is designed to consolidate all your plans and notes into a single clear schedule. TripIt is synchronized with your phone, so that you can share your plans with your friends online. The ability to link the application to your email in order to automate all the processes where login or confirmation via email is required is also a convenient feature. All your check-ins, bookings and airline tickets are stored in one convenient place. The free version will show you ads, but the paid version is completely ad-free.
GasBuddy (gas prices)
This is a simple and convenient application for those who like to travel by car. GasBuddy helps to determine the cheapest fuel prices in the region where you are located. Let the application track your GPS location, and you will receive a list of all the nearest gas stations with price comparisons and other useful data like reviews, mall availability, etc.
Since the application’s data is constantly updated by the users themselves, the GasBuddy developers decided to reward their customers with cumulative points. For making updates, you get the reward points that can later be exchanged for free gasoline and other gifts.
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, and there are many more applications that you might find useful. For the purpose of this article, we have listed the top 9 travel apps covering the host of spheres — trip planning, flight booking, hotel and car renting, etc. As you can see, having a couple of such apps downloaded to your mobile phone may facilitate your trip management significantly, and thus, result in a positive traveling experience.
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