Best Helpful Apps for Travel You Can’t Leave Without

Phones have made travel much more convenient with so much information and tools at our fingertips. It is a hard to imagine how we would plan and go on a long trip, a 2 week vacation or even a weekend getaway without our phones. Not only do phones help us stay connected to any information we need to search for, there are extremely helpful apps designed to make travel that much more convenient and enjoyable. Here are the best helpful apps for travel that you must download before your next trip.

And another bonus: all of these helpful apps are FREE!

Apps for Travel Planning

TripIt

• When to use: Before and During
• Available on: Web, iOS, Android
• Website: https://www.tripit.com/
• Description: Don’t leave without this travel app! TripIt is the go-to application to know everything about your upcoming( and past) trips. It keeps all of the logistics of your trip organized and consolidated in one place. It makes it easy to see in a glance that you aren’t missing a connection or forgetting about an accommodation on a specific leg. It is helpful for any length of trip but is particular helpful for trips with multiple destinations, flights and accommodations. The best part about this travel application is that it is very easy to use. Simply forward your confirmation email to TripIt and the app will then organize all your travel documents for you.
• Cost: FREE (There is a PRO subscription that provides you with additional convenient features to help manage your check-in and track your flight information in real time)

TripAdvisor

• When to use: Before, During and After
• Available on: Web, iOS, Android
• Website: https://tripadvisor.com/
• Description: Looking for a good restaurant, a great sight or something to do when arriving in a new location? Well TripAdvisor is there to help out! This app comprehensively covers every travel business, restaurant, hotel and sight around the world. There are hundreds and thousands of reviews to help out during your research and a very active forum to find answers to common questions. Google Maps is another helpful app to do research but may not be popular in certain countries.
• Cost: FREE

Pocket

• When to use: Before, During and After
• Available on: Web, iOS, Android
• Website: https://getpocket.com/
• Description: Pocket is a helpful app that lets you save information from a blog post or website offline so that you can access it even when you are not connected to wi-fi or data. This is very helpful when you are in areas without reliable reception or you are just landing into a new country and you haven’t worked out a data plan yet. Helpful content to save on pocket are things like a blog post of a travel itinerary, detailed instructions on a hike or a news article. Thanks to Pocket, you can save all of these precious web resources on your phone and access them offline.
• Cost: FREE

Apps for Managing Travel Expenses

Splitwise

• When to use: Before, During and After
• Available on: Web, iOS, Android
• Website: https://splitwise.com/
• Description: Splitwise is great for keep track of individual expenses while traveling. You can categorize all of your expenses, select your currency and also identify people you’d like to split certain expenses if. It is especially helpful for those traveling in groups because it is designed for sharing and splitting multiple expenses (hence the name). Splitwise has started charging for certain features so keep in mind, you might not be able to access all features for free. If you’d like more detail, see this in-depth post on how to track travel expenses using Splitwise. You can also check out our own travel expense app that is built to meet the particular needs of long-term travelers: Nomad Purse.
• Cost: FREE (The PRO version provides you with the ability to automatically convert your expense to your local currency as well as itemizing receipts by scanning them)

Apps for Accommodation

AirBnb

• When to use: Before, During and After
• Available on: Web, iOS, Android
• Website: https://airbnb.com/
• Description: AirBnb is available as a website but if you are frequent user and traveler, having the phone app is very convenient. The UI for booking is very nice and makes it easy to research homes. It’s also helpful to have the app to message the host and to access instructions on how to check-in. If you like staying at AirBnbs, see our best tips to score top deals on AirBnb. If you prefer other Accommodation platforms such as Booking.com, they all generally have dedicated phone apps as well.
• Cost: FREE

Apps for Communication

Speedtest by Okta

• When to use: Before, During and After
• Available on: Web, iOS, Android
• Website: https://www.speedtest.net/
• Description: This phone app tracks how fast the internet speed from wherever you are. This is helpful to check the internet speed of the the hotel or AirBnb you are staying at. The app is quite simple – connect on the wifi and start the measurement. If the internet where you are staying is unreliable or slow, you can let the host or owner know what the speed is. You can also ask the host or owner to download this app themselves before you check-in in order to confirm that the speed will meet your needs. This is particularly useful if you plan on working remotely at any point during your trip.
• Cost: FREE

TunnelBear

• When to use: Before, During and After
• Available on: MacOs, Windows, iOS, Android
• Website: https://www.tunnelbear.com/
• Description: If you are looking for a good VPN that works on both laptop and mobile, look no further than TunnelBear. You can use VPNs when trying to access websites that are restricted only to the US (like some bank websites). You might not need it for general browsing but if security is a concern, VPN also helps keep your connection secure. TunnelBear comes with 2.5 GB of free VPN browsing per month.
• Cost: FREE (The PRO plan offers unlimited VPN usage)

Apps for Socializing

Meetup

• When to use: Before, During and After
• Available on: Web, iOS, Android
• Website: https://meetup.com/
• Description: Meetup is great for finding events happening in a given city. It’s a great way to meet with locals and travelers alike with shared interests. Whether we would like to join a hiking group, a board game night or anything in between, there usually are plenty of activities in the larger cities.
• Cost: FREE

Apps for Getting Around

Google Maps

• When to use: Before, During and After
• Available on: Web, iOS, Android
• Website: https://maps.google.com/
• Description: The most popular application to drive or navigate within cities. A very helpful feature for travelers is the ability to download maps offline so you don’t need connectivity when driving in remote places. Plus Google Maps lets you pin your favorite restaurants, accommodations and other sights so you can easily find them.
• Cost: FREE

Maps.me

• When to use: During Travel
• Available on: Web, iOS, Android
• Website: https://maps.me/
• Description: While Google Maps is great for navigation while driving and within the city, it does lack when it comes to hiking, and this is where Maps.Me really shines. The quality of the maps are much greater and you can also download all of them offline, which was something they provided years before other major navigation apps.
• Cost: FREE

Strava

• When to use: Before, During and After
• Available on: Web, iOS, Android
• Website: https://strava.com/
• Description: Strava is great for tracking hikes, runs, swims or bike rides and sharing it with your friends. It’s designed to keep you motivated to exercise and stay fit by tracking it in detail and making it social. The free version lets you track pretty much any type of activity and connect with your friends to see what they have been up to. This is a great app to make sure you always stay active.
• Cost: FREE (The PRO subscription provides great performance tracking features if you want to bring your training to the next level)

Miscellaneous Apps for Travel

AccuWeather

• When to use: Before, During and After
• Available on: Web, iOS, Android
• Website: https://www.accuweather.com/
• Description: Weather is really important when you plan a trip to the beach or a long hike in the middle of the jungle. Thanks to Accuweather, you can get good weather forecasts anywhere in the world. There are many weather apps out there and AccuWeather seems to get much better forecast predictions (especially compared with the built-in apps that come with your phones)
• Cost: FREE

Google Translate

• When to use: Before, During and After
• Available on: Web, iOS, Android
• Website: https://translate.google.com/
• Description: Another extremely helpful travel app, especially when you visit a country where you don’t speak the language. You can input the text, use the microphone to speak into it or upload a photo for translation. Not only can you use this app to translate language, you can also point the app to any menu, sign or piece of text and it will translate instantly via your camera. Google Translate also works really well offline if you download the language in advance. This is a must-have app for any traveler.
• Cost: FREE

Libby

• When to use: Before, During and After
• Available on: Web, iOS, Android
• Website: https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby
• Description: If have access to a public library with a digital book borrowing program, you can borrow numerous books, magazines, and movies. Libby connects to your library’s digital collection and allows you to borrow the material and download to your phone completely FREE. This helpful app lets you read offline which is pretty important when you want to read on a remote beach in South East Asia. There’s an endless amount of information and entertainment made available to you during your travels.
• Cost: FREE

Lounge Buddy

• When to use: Before, During and After
• Available on: Web, iOS, Android
• Website: https://www.loungebuddy.com/
• Description: If you spend a lot of time at the airport, staying at a lounge is a really nice perk. Lounge Buddy is an app that lets you easily identify which lounges are available near your terminal or gate and provides some useful reviews and pictures to let you choose the best one.
• Cost: FREE

Final Thoughts on the Best Helpful Apps for Travel

There are a hundreds if not thousands of travel apps in the market so hopefully this helps you identify some of the best travel apps out there. Although our phones and apps have made travel so much easier, don’t forget to disconnect once in awhile and enjoy the moment! It’s can also be fun to get lost once in awhile and leave room for spontaneity. These helpful travel apps are always available to help you have the most efficient, convenient and memorable trip.

Have you used any of these apps? Do you have others you recommend? Please let us know as there are so many new innovative apps being created everyday. Also, if you think we missed some critical categories, let us know as well.