The 23 Best Travel Apps for Android & iOS
Below is a great list of the Best Travel Apps that are the most useful for planning a trip, getting around, finding friends, and saving money along the way. Most apps are free and available for Android and iOS.
Instead of combing through dozens of the latest travel apps to determine which tools are the most useful for travelers, I went to the best source; travel bloggers. I asked some of the most seasoned travel bloggers about their favorite travel app.
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23 Best Travel Apps
Beanhunter
The world seems to be in the throes of a love affair with Starbucks that just refuses to die. For serious coffee lovers, finding a decent barista-brewed coffee can sometimes be a challenge, especially when you are traveling and don’t know the local area.
Beanhunter uses GPS to find your location and points you in the direction of the best coffee shops in your area. You can read reviews from coffee gurus who have been there before you, and leave your own reviews for others. The best bit – no chain shops are included on the app; this is for independent, specialty shops only.
— courtesy of Marianne Rogerson from Mum on the Move Make sure to Follow her on Instagram @hungrymaz
CityMaps2Go
I work, live and travel in countries that are off the usual travel plans. The problem that I encounter more often is that I have difficulties in finding my way through the country, especially if I am on a road trip, as signs are not very common.
The Internet is not always available, and even when I can find cheap sims or Wi-Fi, the network is almost always really bad. And when I am technologically fine, the problems come with GoogleMaps, which obviously does not show all the tracks in the middle of Uganda or Madagascar. A solution that I found is CityMaps2Go.
It is updated and it works offline. In the free version, you can download all the maps of a country, but for less than 10$ you can have the pro version, with all the world downloadable. And once in a while it is available for free, a very nice deal!
Dosh
Dosh is a free app that allows you to save money while traveling. The app promises to put money back in your pocket “auto-magically”. Simply shop as usual and any business also signed up with Dosh, will turn into a cash back bonus.
The app helps you start earning cash back (in the form of Dosh) when you shop at any of their partners that include retail stores, restaurants, and hotels. The cashback (dosh) goes into your DOSH wallet and is easily viewable in the app. Your cashback then converts into real money that you can transfer to your bank or PayPal account.
— courtesy of me; alexa from 52Perfectdays Please follow me on Instagram @52Perfectdays
Evernote
My favorite and most used travel app has nothing to do with searching for flights or hotels. But, it has everything to do with organizing the chaos that is travel planning and life in general. It’s Evernote, one of the most popular productivity apps on the market. The free version has plenty of features that will help you get organized. Not only can you make typewritten notes and lists, you also have an option to create audio notes (voice recordings), camera notes that let you save a picture directly to your Evernote, and ink notes when you need to make a drawing.
Web clipper browser extension allows you to bookmark and save full web pages (including an option of saving text-only version of a page), emails, PDFs, and images. Free version of Evernote can be used on up to two devices. I like to plan my trips (create lists of must-visit places, must-eat foods, and daily schedules) on my computer. Evernote automatically syncs notes on all devices so when I am out and about I can easily access my notes on the phone.
— courtesy of Yulia Dyukova from thefoodiemiles.com Follow her on Instagram @thefoodfamilies
Field Trip
If you’re a wanderer, there’s nothing like the thrill of stumbling upon something amazing. But what about the great things in the other direction, or down another street? That’s where my favorite travel app, Field Trip, comes in. The Field Trip app is filled with information about interesting sights around you from a variety of categories, including architecture, historic places & events, lifestyle, food, drinks, & fun, cool & unique, and art & museums. Field Trip will send you notifications as you move, helping you find cool places to check out. The thrill of finding a fantastic new spot is one of the best parts of traveling. While it’s great to randomly find those yourself, a useful travel app like Field Trip can help you find even more of them.
— courtesy of Jonathan Sacks – Everybody Hates A Tourist Please follow him on Instagram @everybodyhatesatourist
Foursquare
I’ve been using Foursquare extensively for years. I’ve found that it’s a lot more unbiased than Yelp is and has better photos. So why do I love using the app for travel? It’s a really intuitive way to find and save different types of list for a place, category, and more. You can also search other users’ list if you don’t have the time to make your own.
It’s also great for on-the-fly suggestions. I’ve found incredible places on accident using the app in multiple cities and not just major ones. This is key when you’re wandering around and #hangry. Another plus about Foursquare is that it connects with Swarm, so that you can always look up that place in that neighborhood in Paris that you went to two years ago! — courtesy of Anna from www.ventureandeat.com Follow her on Instagram: @ventureandeat
Get Stoked
Google Maps
Google Translate
Google Translate is a must have travel app when you are traveling to a place where you can’t speak or read the language. If you want to communicate with someone in a foreign language, you can type something and Google Translate will translate it to one of 103 languages. The other person can either read the translation on your phone or there is a voice that says what you wrote in their language. You can even draw characters instead of using your keyboard for most of the languages.
The app offers additional cool and useful features for some of the languages including the ability to use your camera to translate text instantly and two-way automatic speech translation. Google Translate can even be used offline by downloading language packs ahead of time. — courtesy of Patti from The Savvy Globetrotter Follow her on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/savvyglobetrot
HotelTonight
HotelTonight is one of my favorite travel apps for finding and booking last minute hotel deals. Hotel deals are exclusively available on the app – you cannot search for or book hotels on their website. HotelTonight is able to offer lower rates because they work with hotels that give them last minute discounts on their empty rooms. The app is fast and simple to use with categories (like basic, hip and luxe) to make it easy to find a hotel in your budget. As the name implies, you can book a room for the same night, but they also offer discounted hotels up to week in advance. — Matilda from The Travel Sisters https://twitter.com/travel_sisters
Our favorite travel app is Instagram. Whilst it’s more famous as a social media app, we’ve found it one of the most invaluable apps for getting inspiration for our travel planning as well as with connecting with locals in that destination or fellow travelers. We always check out the hashtag or geo location of the place we want to visit, which helps us get an idea of what the highlights are and also, gives us inspiration of what sort of photos/poses we want to take. We also found fellow travelers do the same thing and we’ve reached out and made many new friends with them. We also love to meet locals when we travel, particularly in the gay community. Often, the local LGBT communities will have their own hashtag and have found this a great way to connect with them. Our use of Instagram has flourished since we began our travels and we highly recommend it to all travelers to use. — courtesy of Stefan and Sebastien from nomadicboys.com. Follow them on Instagram @nomadicboys
KeepSafe
Maps.Me
If you haven’t heard already, there is an amazing app called Maps.Me which allows you to download maps and use them offline FOR FREE. They have detailed maps from all over the world so you only download what you need – and you can even do responsive, A to B directions on them! You can wave goodbye to the GPS charge car hire companies try and stick you with – and have no worries at all about racking up a huge data bill. Maps. me is the best map app you could ever have!” — courtesy of Vicki Garside from maketimetoseetheworld.com Follow her on Instagram @maketimetoseetheworld
Period Tracker
One of my favorite travel apps is for the solo female travelers! Travel can wreck havoc on your menstrual cycle sometimes, due to long flights and a change in your diet and exercise regime. Therefore, I love to use Period Tracker to keep track of my monthly cycle. It’s free to download and will tell you when you’re ovulating and when you need to be ready with your feminine hygiene products. It’s a good way to know when you need to be prepared, especially if you’re going to be in the backcountry camping or going on a long hike. — courtesy of Alice Teacake from www.teacaketravels.com Follow her on Instagram @teacaketravels
SeatGuru
When I’m checking into my flight online I always like to look at one of my favorite travel apps, SeatGuru to work out where the best place on each flight is to sit. Each airline has different aircraft models and seat layouts. By using Seatguru the app allows me to locate the best seat location with insider tips from frequent flyers. I love how the app is kept up-to-date to ensure the best information is available. Especially when a flight is longer than three hours its great to get advice such as seats that don’t decline, locations for power plugs and notes such as if the seat is by a toilet and would cause noise. The perfect app for smart travelers that like to plan ahead and travel in comfort. — courtesy of Dave Brett from Travel Dave UK. Follow him on Instagram
Spotify
I couldn’t travel with Spotify premium. I need music on tap to be the soundtrack of my trips. Luckily for me, my husband makes playlists for everywhere we go and with Spotify you can follow them (you can too @ Craig Armit). No 3G? No problem! Spoty let’s you download to your phone or device in WiFi and use out with. Need new music? They also create a weekly ‘Discovery’ playlists for you of music similar to what you’ve been listening to. No inspiration? Just browse the themed Spotify playlists – Indie, Sunday chill, summer vibes, wedding playlists, etc. Podcasts are also available. All of this is included in your monthly payment, no wonder Taylor Swift came grovelling back to Team Spotify! — Gemma from www.twoscotsabroad.com Follow her on Instagram @twoscotsabroad
TraffickCam
TraffickCam is an app that enables travelers to help combat sex trafficking around the world. After downloading the app you can upload photos of the hotel rooms you stay in while traveling. The app asks for the hotel name, room number, and up to four photos. They recommend taking two photos of the entire room from varying locations, one picture from the foot of the bed, and one photo of the bathroom from the doorway. Traffickers typically post photos of their victims in hotel rooms for advertisements to online trafficking sites. The photographs you upload on the TraffickCam app can be used to help find those in sex trafficking rings. Once you’ve uploaded your photos to TraffickCam, it is saved in a database so that investigators can easily search and match images with those posted on trafficking sites. — courtesy of Logan & Kallsy from Pages of Travel Follow them on Instagram @pagesoftravel
Trail Wallet
TripHax
Trail Wallet
As a budget traveler, Trail Wallet has to be my absolute favorite travel app. Although I cringed a bit at the $4.99 price tag (your first 25 entries are free, but you have to pay to add more), it has turned out to be worth every single penny.
At its core, Trail Wallet allows you to set a daily budget, input your spending, and see how much you’ve spent each day and over your whole trip in both your home and the country’s currency. The feature I probably turn the most often too, though, is the pie chart, which shows how much you’ve spent in one of any number of categories.
The app is also highly customizable, which means no matter what kind of traveler you are it can work for you. — courtesy of Addie from AddieAbroad.com
TripHax
One of our recent favorite travel apps is TripHax – a multinational platform for travelers. It provides information that helps travelers to save money, time or to visit interesting places. Every user can upload/share the smart “Hacks” (as we call the pieces of advice) and can search for such, uploaded by others.
The most powerful feature is that in return of one uploaded hack users can get plentiful of useful information from every point of the Earth. The platform can function online and offline. Users can save some important hacks for offline usage. Every user can brand their profile page and redirect followers to their personal social media page. That makes it easy to share TripHax content to social media platforms.
We love the platform because it builds a loyal community of travelers, willing to help each other! — courtesy of Bistra from www.themagicoftraveling.com and follow her on Twitter URL @tmoftraveling
TripIt
Uber
Although there are many genuine taxi drivers out there, there are many that prey on tourists. Thankfully, there also Uber. Gone are the days when taxi drivers can say the “meter isn’t working”: with Uber you can now see how much a journey will cost you before you get in. This allows travelers to not only avoid unfair taxi fares, but also to more accurately plan trips and to decide whether it’s worth taking a taxi or another form of transport instead.
WAZE
I may very well be the only successful travel blogger in the world who has never owned a smartphone. Fortunately my wife/business partner Mary does, and Waze is the one app we simply cannot live without. How do we love this GPS app?
Let us count the Waze! First off, it uses user-generated data to tell you the quickest route from point A to point B, adjusting in real-time to accidents, congestion, etc. It finds CRAZY backroad juke moves to avoid traffic (which we loathe), and has even introduced us to awesome shortcuts in our own area.
Better still, it will alert you to stalled vehicles, objects in the road, and even police speed traps ahead. We’ve been using Waze on all our road trips for the past year, and can’t imagine driving long distances without it. It may even convince me to finally get my own smartphone! –- – courtesy of Bret Love of Green Global Travel Follow him on Twitter: @GreenGlobalTrvl
Zomato
One of the best ways of experiencing a new destination is by trying the local food. In most of cases, it is best to follow the recommendations of the locals when it comes to where to eat, what to order, etc.
One app that makes this process super simple is – Zomato. Not only can you read the reviews, but you can also read the entire menus of most of the restaurants that are listed on this app.
I love this feature because it gives me the ability to quickly find a restaurant that fits my budget, find walking directions to it, and figure out what to order while I’m there as per the recommendations. – – courtesy of Sonal Kwatra Paladini of Drifter Planet & Please follow on Twitter @DrifterPlanet
There you have it! The Best Travel Apps that are the most useful for planning a trip, getting around, finding friends, and saving money along the way. Have a favorite app that isn’t included in our list? Please share it below in the comments!
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Awesome list and some new ones here to add to the list 🙂