Top 10 Travel Apps
If you’re anything like me, you love traveling… but not the coordination, navigation and planning. As much as I love to be spontaneous, I inevitably forget socks and toothbrushes, get confused by the navigation signs and post the wrong tags with my Instagram photos. So whether I am walking the jewelry markets of Jaipur or flying to Miami for some low time of the beach, it’s easy to stress when the signs are all confusing, or when people try to force me to buy things at “tourist rates.” Thankfully with a smartphone, things get easier. I now have travel apps that take care of virtually every detail of my trip that I had to fumble with earlier. They’re a lot less likely to fail, and even better when you use them together.
1: A+ Gallery Photos
What to do when you forget where you took a picture? Open A+ Gallery and let it tell you your location on a map! Besides being a great app for viewing photos and videos and more, A+ Gallery Photos is amazing at keeping your media organized. It also has a very YouTube-esque video player that could very easily challenge any app out there.
Available: Android only
2: Google Translate
Google Translate now has an AR element. Turn on Translate and point your camera at a road sign, a billboard or a restaurant menu. Translate lets you translate over 90 languages from around the world into the language you prefer. There needn’t be any language barriers anymore.
Available: Android, iOS
3: Duolingo
If you’re taking a trip to a place where they speak a language you don’t speak, and you have a few weeks before you take off to your destination, you might want to learn the basics of that language using Duolingo. The app is pretty popular too. And while it doesn’t really match the utility of a professionally carried language course, it does get you aware of the commonest verbs, nouns and adjectives you’re likely to use, if not more.
Available: Android, iOS
4: LiveTrekker
Sometimes, a barrage of Facebook statuses isn’t enough to tell the world how awesome your weekend getaway was. LiveTrekker helps in making a digital journal for your trip. Want to be able to share and relive your journey? Take the app of your trip! It monitors your speed, lets you add photos, videos and text as well as maps the route entirely. The benefit? You get to relive the trip in vivid detail, plus the diary can be shared with friends.
Available: Android, iOS
5: Tipulator
Going on a trip with your buddies is a great idea. But somebody always ends up paying more than the rest in the group, and not many people mind, but those who do get a bad taste in the mouth the next time you decide to make plans. Tipulator is an app that helps clear the air and tells people how much ought to come out of their pockets. All you need to do is enter in the cost of the stuff you ordered, and the tip and the individual share will be visible for all to see.
Available: Android, iOS
6: Soundhound
Discovering local music is perhaps the best way to get in tune with a new culture you’re visiting. You don’t want to fumble with your broken Cantonese or Bengali to ask what song is playing on the radio. So you tap a big yellow button and let your smartphone do the hard work for you. The Soundhound app can quite easily get you the song that’s playing using a clip barely a few seconds long. It can also get you lyrics, iTunes store links and music videos too, if there are any.
Available: Android, iOS
7: TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor takes care of several travel needs at once. The app is the best platform to reserve hotel rooms, compare air ticket prices and discover interesting stuff to do wherever you are. The app has a pretty active community that takes great pleasure in reviewing a place, event or restaurant. You can also download maps for over 300 cities for free to avoid the exorbitant internet costs. The app has forums for you to ask questions, ratings you can dole out and so much more. The human factor is really the core of what is good about TripAdvisor.
Available: Android, iOS
8: PackPoint
Like I said, the biggest inconvenience in travelling is when you forget to pack important stuff for your trip. No sunscreen on a beach trip? Didn’t bring your swimming trunks to enjoy the infinity pool? PackPoint’s got you covered. Answer a series of simple questions, and the app will automatically prepare a packing list you can check after keeping each item inside. It is the easiest way to ensure you don’t have to run around looking for your body lotion or running shoes in a new city because you forgot yours at home.
Available: Android, iOS
9: Polaris Navigation
If you love going camping, trekking or canoeing, you don’t want to rely on paper maps and magnetic compasses with estimates of speed and time to say where you are. Polaris Navigation is the perfect app to carry with yourself. At least for a second opinion. The app makes quite an impression with multiple views and modes to choose from, displaying direction, latitude, longitude, destination and path along with all other information that might be relevant to you.
Available: Android only
10: Maps.MeThere are many other good apps that certainly deserve to be tried out. Unfortunately tabling them all out would be impossibly difficult. Tell me if you know of another good app and I’ll be sure to try it out.
Another map application that lets you get to know all the good stuff you can do in a city is Maps.me. The app gets you an awe-inspiring amount of detail in the maps, and shows you parking lots, bus stops and everything else! Maps.me doesn’t have a community as active as TripAdvisor, or even as major an online presence, but the amount on detail it can get you gives you quite an edge in figuring out where you are and how you can get from one place to another.
Available: Android only
