We live in the day and age where most of us carry around too much technology for our own good. With so many options available, and the fact that they just do so damn much, leaving them at home can be detrimental at times. And flat out wrong! When something is such a big help, why not use it to your advantage? There are applications for just about everything these days, from flight schedules to detailed city maps, and foreign language phrases to audio guides, there’s something to meet the needs of any traveler.
I’m definitely guilty of this as well. I frequently lug around my iPhone, iPad, and camera. That’s just on a normal work day. And I wonder why my back hurts at the young age of 26…
2. Hotels combined, Free: Hotels Combined gives lots of good bargains for accommodation, with hot deals from the world’s major travel sites, all combined on your phone or ipad. The price comparison searches and compares over 2 million hotel deals from over 100+ booking sites, which ultimately finds you the lowest rate on the best hotels. Indicates the distance from the city center as well! A must for any traveler!
3. Triposo, Free: Provides general tourist info about places you’re going. The app includes a map Basically, pick the country you will be visiting and the download starts immediately. You only have to download it once (preferably before you go) and the guides work offline. The guide includes an overview map for the country and detailed city maps for the top cities. For major cities, you get a special city guide with information about all the major sights, a list of great restaurants and different nightlife options. And an added bonus! A travel dashboard with a currency converter, local weather and useful phrases for the selected city.
5. Skyscanner, Free: Great app for the awesome cheap flights site. Easy to use and you can now even tab between different searches, making it really easy to compare what you are looking for at a good price. If you want to book they can take you to the booking site there and then.
7. Pocket Guide, Free: provides an audio guide through a lot of the big cities in the world. It gives you a selection of tours, maps, distances and the amount of time it will take to complete the tour. The app itself is free, but there are some in-app purchases. She haven’t been able to use it yet, but she’s excited to try it on her next big adventure.
You can find her on Facebook and Twitter.
8. Notability, $1.99: a handwriting app used with a stylus, is not known as a travel app but she uses it as one. She purchased it because she wanted to use her ipad for work and not just for play. Mary quickly found that she could use it to annotate pdfs and that’s when she had her “lightbulb moment”.
Before her trips, she creates pdfs/screenshots of any documents that she may need (i.e., itinerary, packing lists, maps, guides etc.) and imports them into the app.
With the writing feature she can then add notes in the margins, cross things off the list. With the highlighter feature she can colour code/highlight urgent items, map out a route. With the erase feature she can revise her notes, or erase back to her original pdf and start over again.
Mary from Calculated Traveler recommended Notability by Gingerlabs.
You can find Mary on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and G+.
9. Trip Advisor, Free: an obvious app for those traveling permanently or those taking vacations. Provides reviews of the top attractions in each city from all over the world. An absolute must for any one doing some site seeing or beach combing!
10. iFly Pro, $6.99: Keep track of flight delays and navigate around hundreds of airports with the help of iFly Pro. The ultimate airport guide and flight tracker. A must need for anyone who flies pretty frequently. It is the world’s largest airport app with over 700 airports included.
11. Hotel Tonight, Free: If you’re looking for a last-minute hotel deal, the free Hotel Tonight app may be your best bet. Find discounted hotels in your area available that night, with bookings available until 2 a.m.
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