The Best Travel Apps
In the age of travel apps, booking a holiday has never been easier. Long gone are the days of sluggishly wading through garish (although admittedly creative) pages of Teletext in search of a travel bargain. Yet while many of us book flights, hotels and tours with a smartphone, few make the most of travel apps once they’re on holiday. So throw away the map, ditch the phrasebook, and put your mind at ease with our pick of the best travel apps around.
Atlas Obscura Travel Guide
Atlas Obscura is a travel guide written for explorers, by explorers. It is available on the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store. The app helps you unleash your inner explorer by offering unique places to experience, all marked by previous travellers. But don’t worry! The Atlas team reviews and approves each location to make sure it lives up to your expectations. You can learn the backstory of every spot, plan and track your adventures, and explore the app’s many features as you wish.
MAPS.ME
Don’t hope for the best when you have no internet connection. Instead, turn to MAPS.ME, which you can download on the Google Play Store or the iOS App Store. Google Maps’ limited offline abilities have fuelled a demand for trustworthy offline maps, and in our opinion, this easy-to-use app is leading the pack. Once you download a city map, the app uses your smartphone’s GPS to locate your position. Whether you’re in a car, on public transport or on foot, the map shows your location in real time. Another feature that sets it apart from the crowd is its offline search option, which removes the need to plan your adventures ahead.
Eatigo
A first-time trip to Southeast Asia is a life-changing feast for the senses. It must be said, though, that delving into the culinary delights of a culture different from your own can be tricky. Perhaps you’re facing a language barrier, struggling to choose between all the good options, or stressed about the price. Either way, Eatigo has you covered.
The app eases your dining anxieties by giving you a lowdown on highly revered local eateries. Each review provides precise details on the food, the location and the language skills of the waiting staff. Along with the reviews, you’ll find a range of discounts updated daily, plus the option to reserve tables online. Download it now from the Google Play Store or the iOS App Store.
Duolingo
We can’t forget about that famous green owl. Duolingo is an internationally renowned language-learning app that helps users learn the basics and brush up on their skills. You can download it instantly on the Google Play Store or the iOS App Store and start learning within minutes.
Duolingo features 42 language courses, and its game-like structure is highly engaging. As a result, users feel confident in the basics of a foreign language. To date, the app has racked up over a billion downloads and has 60 million daily users.
Of course, learning a few words of the local lingo is extremely useful when travelling. However, it also comes with health benefits. Recent research has shown that studying another language can prevent Alzheimer’s. So what better excuse do you need to try out your new skills on the waiter during your next holiday?
Lara by Translated
While Duolingo is great for learning basic conversational skills, travellers often find themselves in complex situations where professional translation is needed. That’s where Lara comes in, available on the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store.
Standard translation apps often fall short and offer robotic phrasing that doesn’t get your idea across the way you intended. To fill this gap, Lara supports over 200 languages and uses a context-aware AI model rather than word-for-word results. It also lets you adjust the tone of your conversation. Choose Fluid Mode for casual banter with a local, Faithful Mode for an important chat with the pharmacist, or Interpreter Mode for real-time conversations.
Travel Spend: Budget Travel App
When you’re travelling around the world, the last thing you want on your mind is your finances. Fortunately, Travel Spend takes care of that for you. This all-in-one budget travel app lets you add expenses on the go and split costs with family and friends. It also helps you stick to your budget and understand your spending habits. You can even export your data, and it takes the worry out of exchange rates. The app is available on the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store.
Flush
We’ve all been there: you find yourself in an unknown place with an unsettled stomach, hoping to find a public toilet in time. For this exact reason, we have included Flush in our list of the best travel apps. It’s best to be prepared, so download it from the Google Play Store or the iOS App Store before you go.
This handy app holds a database of over 190,000 public toilets worldwide. Alongside their locations, it features up-to-date ratings of the toilets themselves. Thankfully, you can save the maps and access them without an internet connection. Flush isn’t quite a lifesaver, but it’s not far off.
Ready to put these apps to the test? Take a look at the affordable holiday packages we offer and start planning your next trip!
