If you’re a grown ass adult who’s ever traveled with your grown ass adult friends, you know how difficult it can be to successfully plan a trip. Long gone are the days of your parents booking flights, reserving hotels, and scheduling activities for your summer vacation to whatever destination city they force you to go to—you’ve got your own bag now, so that means you’ve got your own travel plans, too. Whether you’re willing to splurge for your own personal holiday or need to flex on a budget, there is always a new place waiting to be explored.
But with great power comes great responsibility, and your ideal weekend getaway is gonna take some organization. While winging it might be good enough for some wanderers, visiting a new city (especially in a foreign country) can make even the most laid-back person stressed beyond belief. Delayed flights, lost reservations, and culture shocks in new locations can be stressful enough to lead even the most down to Earth person into a full-blown frenzy.
Luckily, tech junkies and travel lovers have found common ground in the world of smartphone apps to ease the frustration of planning and going (airplane emoji) on a trip. Though you’ll need some more tangible tips and tricks to make your travel experience a rewarding one, downloading a few apps ahead of a trip is a must nowadays. Before you pack your bags and take off, here’s our list of the best travel apps to assist with making your dream vacation a reality. Bon Voyage!
Hopper
If you’re looking for a headache-free planning experience, Hopper is a top-notch choice. This app not only tracks price changes, but predicts them with up to 95% accuracy and sends price alerts when it’s the best time to book your trip. For more impulsive or free-spirited travelers, Hopper will show you when different destinations have travel deals; for the planners and analyzers, you can check predicted flight prices up to a year in advance and book with just a few simple taps.
Kayak
You may be sick of hearing about travel accommodation sites after years of watching their commercials on TV, but Kayak’s travel booking app really is an efficient way to book flights, hotel reservations, and even rental cars all at once. Kayak sifts through hundreds of travel sites to pinpoint the best deals for your desired destination, and will let you know whether you should book now or wait for a price change that may occur later. It even works as your personal assistant by tracking everything during your travels, including a countdown for your flight layovers and estimating wait times for airport security.
FLIO
When your travel experience doesn’t go exactly as planned, FLIO is the know-it-all app that will keep you calm and prepared at unfamiliar airports. FLIO not only tracks flights and schedules, but also offers money saving deals on restaurants and retail stores at more than 5,000 airports around the world, and provides airport mapping for easier navigation to your gate. It even shows deals for discounted lounge access if you’re feeling like first-class treatment will reverse the sadness caused by flight delays or lengthy layovers.
PackPoint
Those who overpack for trips are shameless creatures, but you can avoid the whirlwind of panicking over your packing list with PackPoint. Just enter the details of your trips, including the days you’ll be visiting and the activities you have planned, and PackPoint will generate a packing list based on the weather forecast and your reported itinerary. You can customize the list further by adding and deleting items, and easily share it with your travel buddies to ensure their suitcases aren’t stuffed to the brim, either. Accountability, people!
Mobile Passport
Going through customs at the airport can be a huge pain. But U.S. Customs and Border Protection has authorized the app Mobile Passport to make the process quicker and less stressful. Mobile Passport allows you to create a profile, input trip information, and submit that information to the CBP once you arrive at your port of entry. A quick receipt of verification will be sent to you once your request is submitted, which you can then have scanned in the Mobile Passport Control line. It’s more efficient and can currently be used in 25 different airports and three cruise ports around the United States.
XE Currency
Spending money internationally can get a little tricky, especially if you’re not sure how much you’re actually spending. XE Currency is a currency converter that offers live updates for exchange rates all around the world. Track up to 10 currencies at a time and save the last updated rates when you’re offline for ease of access.
Citymapper
Citymapper is the all-in-one transit app that will get you around just about any major city as efficiently as possible. It shows every possible route to get to your destination, with various transportation options including an Uber sync-up. Travel times, prices, and durations are among the details provided by Citymapper, and the app will even tell you how long it would take you to teleport somewhere. Very dope.
Google Translate
Visiting another country may mean a language barrier, but the Google Translate app is an accurate and quick way to communicate with locals at the touch of your fingertips. With handwriting recognition and audio pronunciation, Google Translate has far surpassed carrying around a tiny dictionary in your pocket—though you can save words and phrases for offline reference and view dictionary results. And if you have headphones with Google Assistant built in, their translation feature is available to you there, too.
WiFiMap
The generation of cell phone addiction and tech advancement has finally done something productive, and it’s ‘cause you be on that phone. WiFiMap is an interactive, crowdsourced map that pinpoints various public WiFi access points, including free services, passwords, and hotspots around the world. It’s like the new age version of Take a Penny, Leave a Penny at the grocery store, only you take WiFi passwords and leave comments to update other users on the network accessibility.
Keeping in touch with your friends and family back home while you’re traveling internationally can be a pain in the derrière. With WhatsApp, you can easily chat with your loved ones or new friends you make on your trip when connected to data or WiFi, without the expensive hassle of an international phone plan. If only there was an app to convince your group chat to switch from iMessage to WhatsApp while you’re gone.
Google Trips
Google Trips is the ideal way to coordinate every aspect of your trip using one app. The app finds suggestions based on your travel arrangements (which can be pulled directly from your Gmail account) and accesses Google Maps to find local destinations and the most efficient routes between them. Pin your chosen activities to the map for easy access, view all of your travel information in one spot, and access everything you need while you’re offline to avoid any mishaps while you’re out and about.
Viator
With over 50,000 tourist attractions and destinations to choose from in 2,500 destinations around the world, Viator is a highly rated travel app that allows users to review and book activities with a few simple clicks. Their Skip the Line option is useful at more popular attractions with longer wait lines, and exclusive VIP experience options at iconic locations like the Sistine Chapel will make you feel like tourist royalty.
Roadtrippers
If you’re keen on hitting the open roads instead of jet-setting somewhere far, far away, Roadtrippers is the perfect guide for opportune stops along the way. Roadtrippers will suggest stops along your route, with everything from niche roadside attractions to full-blown amusement parks on the radar. Plus, you and your travel buddies can add stops to your route using the interactive map, so future travelers can enjoy your finds. Like if a highway, baby!
Trip Advisor
We like to call this one “Old Reliable.” The TripAdvisor app is a staple when it comes to getting destination recommendations for your trip just about anywhere. You can personalize your travel feed to see articles, videos, and other content related to your suggested destinations, and follow friends and experts to see what recommendations they have for your trip. It’s a go-to option for even the laziest trip planner.
Guides by Lonely Planet
Guides by Lonely Planet is a highly-rated city guide curation app that will make sure you’re never bored on your holiday. Neighborhood guides, offline maps, and lists of all of the must-see locations are specially curated by Lonely Planet’s travel experts, who have first-hand knowledge of the cities you can choose from. The Guide app also includes tools like a currency converter and transportation info, so you’re not left switching between other apps and wasting precious battery life.
