Travel Tips & News

The Best Travel Apps and Gadgets

Recently updated on January 17th, 2020 at 10:21 pm

This post is written by Jacintha Verdegaal. You can read more about her life as an expat in London on her personal blog Urban Pixxels.

One of the things I remember about my childhood summer holidays are my parents leaning over a map, figuring out whether we should have turned left or right at the previous crossroad. Now you may have this romantic idea about a road trip in another country, getting lost and then finding charming little villages where you would end up having the most amazing meal… I on the other hand couldn’t wait to reach our destination and get out of the car.

tablet
Tablet – By ebayink under creative common licence

It might explain why I can’t see myself travelling these days without my favourite apps and gadgets. They help me plan my trip in advance, make sure that I never get lost (at least not unintentionally), that I get to experience the best the location has to offer, and that I’ll be able to stay in touch with family and friends at home.

Planning your trip

Evernote

Why would you carry printed documents for every single detail of your trip with you, if you can access all this information on your smart phone or tablet? Evernote is an app that will help you save information about – well – everything. Create a notebook for your upcoming trip and add your flight and hotel confirmations, articles and emails with recommendations, a copy of your passport (just in case) and everything else you need to remember.

Airline apps

Almost every airline has a mobile app these days. Not only does it let you easily check in for your flight, it also gives you a mobile version of your boarding pass. No need to print out an email or collect it at the airport, just show your mobile and you’re ready to go.

Ipad use
Photo by Tom Rafferty under creative common licence

On the road

XE Currency

When using a foreign currency, you want to make sure you’re not accidentally spending more than you thought. XE Currency lets you add your own currency and the one of the country you’re visiting, so you can quickly calculate what you’re paying for that original souvenir.

Local offline maps

If you’re planning to travel to a remote area, you don’t want to be dependent on a WiFi-signal. There are many apps available with maps that you can download on your phone. TripAdvisor Offline City Guides is just one of them. Type in your destination or ‘offline maps’ in the search field of your app store and you’ll find lots of free and paid apps.

Close up of friends using smart phones.
Smart phones – By abh Allah Foteih under creative common licence

Sharing your experiences with family and friends

iPad camera connection kit

If you enjoy taking photos with a camera other than the one on your phone, you can add your photos to your IPad with this connection kit, so you can edit them with your favourite photo apps and share them with the people at home.

Instaplace

Turn your photos into a great looking postcard before you send them via email or post them on Facebook.Instaplace uses the location where you took the photo to add captions and overlays with different themes.

Skype and Facetime

Calling home when you’re travelling abroad can be very expensive. With the mobile Skype or Facetime (IOS only) app, you can make calls for free whenever you have a WiFi-connection. You can even make a video call. Just make sure that the person you’re calling has installed the same app.

laptop

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Want to hear more from us?

Sign up to receive inspiring travel articles, offers & news

"*" indicates required fields

Hidden
Receive Monthly Emails*
Receive All Brand Communications
Terms and Cons*
Generic filters
Exact matches only
Search in title