But there are plenty more travel apps beyond the obvious ones that are making their name amongst tech-savvy travellers looking for something more. From managing your travel documents to planning the flattest hike, these are the apps that make travel a breeze.
Here are 9 apps you should make sure you don’t leave home without.
Hire a car for cheap, from a real person (Photo: Drivy)
Drivy are like an Airbnb for cars: pay less for a more personalised experience. Thousands of car owners in the UK have listed their cars on Drivy, and the best is that you can borrow them to drive internationally. Now Europe’s leading (and most innovative) car sharing app, Drivy eradicates the need for tedious key handovers and the requisite lectures from car rental companies, and you won’t need to drive back to an airport to drop the thing off at the end. Choose the owner closest to you – easy peasy.
TripIt looks after all the essential paperwork needed for trips so holidaymakers can switch off and not worry about dropping their hotel reservations down the toilet. The app keeps documentation in chronological order, whether it’s a restaurant reservation, scuba diving session or ferry connection. Just send everything to TripIt and you can’t go wrong. And if you lose your phone, the documents are backed up online.
Learn just enough French/Spanish/Italian (and the rest) with DuoLingo
Learning another language no longer requires a tedious listen and repeat exercise. With DuoLingo, pick from 30 languages and commit for the long-term, or learn enough to get by with ‘restaurant-level’ language skills for your holiday. Teaching involves playing lots of games, basically, so the journey to get to your French/German/Swiss feels refreshing and modern, and there’s none of the hassle of having to commit to a string of lessons which may or may not be horribly overwhelming.
If booking hotels months ahead of time is as likely as, well, managing to do anything months ahead of time, you’re not alone. Nifty hotel bookings programme Hotel Tonight collate daily hot offers, sometimes from extremely nice hotel rooms which haven’t sold, and platforms them up daily, for your last-minute bargain-grabbing pleasure. You can lock in some seriously special deals, if you’re hawk-eyed enough…
Balance and currency conversions appear on your phone (Photo: Monzo)
Monzo has graduated from being that thing your good-at-life friend has to being an international travel essential. The main attraction is that there’s no fees to use your card internationally, so you can blithely tap away without fear of a surprise 12 Euro transaction fee, and you can take out up to £200 worth of foreign currency fee-free every 30 days. There’s tech-savvy add-ons too, like break-downs of exactly how you spend your money (we’re not sure we want to know, to be honest) and instant notifications about currency exchange when you arrive. Oh – and those swish coral-coloured cards…
Komoot maps the topology of your cycle or hike and plans the best route forward, even when you’re knee deep in snow/undergrowth/wild animals. The best is that the programme works offline, and so does the voice activated direction system so you’ll not be cut short if you’re way out of internet signal. Which is likely if you’re so far into the wilderness that you’ve got lost.
Guides by Lonely Planet provide solid insider travel advice and information from those who know the areas inside out. The guides are accessible, yet packed with juicy tips and are updated frequently so you can find the best authentic spots wherever you are.
This programme is ideal for solo travellers keen on meeting new friends. Wherever you are in the world, be comforted by the swathes of people using this app, for boozy pursuits and wholesome ones. Events are posted daily, which you can attend free-of-charge and lots are organised by locals who have a keen interest in meeting travellers – so you’ll be in good hands. An instant social life without the bother of having to walk up to strangers in bars awaits.
Looking for travel inspiration but feeling paralysed by choice? Swerve endless online searches and head to Travideo, the service that produces excellent short films about unusual locations to inspire your next trip. Okay, so technically not an app, but the videos on this website are made by professional filmmakers all around the world and are well worth your time. The ‘travel by video’ experiences are never more than a couple of minutes.
