GOING ON VACATION? HERE ARE THE BEST APPS FOR GETTING AROUND
HERE ARE THE BEST APPS FOR GETTING AROUND
Make your iPhone your number one travel buddy.
Looking to book your next dream vacation? There’s an app for that. With all of the necessary tools now available on your smartphone, some might say that the days of the travel agent are long gone. You can check your airfare, check in at your hotel, or find out where the nearest art gallery is – all at the touch of a button.
Make your iPhone your number one travel buddy using these apps that can memorise your itinerary, offer dining recommendations and provide you with the best public transport route to get around.
Skyscanner Flights Hotels Cars
By Skyscanner Limited
Category: Travel
Requires iOS 9.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
KAYAK Flights, Hotels & Cars
By Kayak Software Corp
Category: Travel
Requires iOS 10.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Apple TV.
Hopper - Book Flights & Hotels
By Hopper Inc.
Category: Travel
Requires iOS 10.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
THE BEST APPS FOR: BOOKING YOUR FLIGHT
SKYSCANNER
Book your flight, hotel and car in one go with the Skyscanner app. It works by searching the most affordable options via a number of travel partners, allowing you to view the cheapest flights across an entire month. Even if you’re not sure where your next trip will take you, you can search Skyscanner’s ‘Top Deals’ from your nearest airport to hopefully make your decision a lot easier.
KAYAK
Much like Skyscanner, Kayak will search across a number of sites for flights, hotels, and rental cars and often gives you deals that you’d struggle to find on other sites. If you’re looking to pinch some pennies, the app allows you to set a price forecast so you can decide whether to buy now or wait. Details such as your gate number can be seen in real time both on your phone and on other devices such as the Apple Watch.
HOPPER
The great thing about Hopper is that it gives you push notifications to tell you when is the best time to book your flight. The company behind the app claims that this can help you save up to 40% off your next flight, by analyzing and tracking billions of flights. This one even made the App Store’s Best of 2015 list.
THE BEST APPS FOR: BOOKING YOUR ACCOMMODATION
AIRBNB
If you’re a seasoned traveller, there’s almost no doubt that you’ll have heard of Airbnb. Although a lot of popular tourist cities have started to crack down on the site, it is continuing to undercut hotels by offering much lower prices. Regardless, a short-term rental in the home of a local allows travellers to have a much more authentic experience.
HOTEL TONIGHT
Last-minute bookings are often unavoidable, so it’s definitely worth having an app that allows you to book accommodation when you need it most. Hotel Tonight is partnered with hotels that offer a discount on late minute empty rooms, and you can book one of them in less than 10 seconds.
HOTELS.COM
Hotels.com gives you over 240,000 hotel choices around the world so even if you’re incredibly fussy about where you stay, you’re bound to find something on this app. You can access your reservations offline, which is great for data saving or for those who like to stay off the beaten track.
Airbnb
By Airbnb, Inc.
Category: Travel
Requires iOS 9.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Apple TV.
HotelTonight - Hotel Deals
By Hotel Tonight Inc
Category: Travel
Requires iOS 10.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Hotels.com - Hotel booking
By Hotels.com, L.P.
Category: Travel
Requires iOS 9.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Apple TV.
Google Translate
By Google, Inc.
Category: Reference
Requires iOS 9.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Duolingo
By Duolingo, Inc
Category: Education
Requires iOS 9.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Babbel – Learn Languages
By Lesson Nine GmbH
Category: Education
Requires iOS 9.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
THE BEST APPS FOR: LEARNING THE LINGO
GOOGLE TRANSLATE
Google Translate now provides translations for more than 103 different languages. Not only that but thanks to machine learning it has been updated to be more conversational than ever before. You can listen to your translations out loud, translate diction and even your own handwriting on screen. Plus, starring your favorite words and phrases means that you can learn the language of the country you’re visiting a lot quicker.
DUOLINGO
Tackling a language via Duolingo is great if you’ve planned your trip a few months ahead. It’s a fun, game-like app that offers beginner level courses in a number of popular European languages including French, Spanish, German and even more complicated ones such as Chinese and Russian. The option to chat with bots in selected languages is great for getting to grips with phrases you’re most likely to use while you’re abroad.
BABBEL
Much like Duolingo, if you’ve already planned your trip and you want to master some conversational skills before you go, Babbel can help. The free version of the app comes with 40 classes in 13 different languages so you can still learn a fair amount even if you don’t pay the price tag. However, if you already have a basic knowledge of the language, the premium
version of the app can help you improve your weaknesses by focusing on specific areas and skills.
THE BEST APPS FOR: GETTING AROUND CITYMAPPER
Anyone who’s travelled before will know how frustrating unfamiliar public transport can be. Luckily Citymapper has an easy to use interface that lets you see the fastest route to your destination via the transport that’s available in that particular city. If you need to catch a regular bus, you can set up a subscription that will alert you at what time you need to leave so you won’t be late.
GOOGLE TRIPS
Google Trips makes it easy for you to plan your itinerary by pulling flight, hotel and event reservations from your email and creating a framework for your trip. The app will give you ideas for day trips, restaurant recommendations, and sightseeing destinations both online and offline so you can plan your whole day. This one is great for families travelling with small children who want to pack as much into their day as possible.
XE CURRENCY
While this app isn’t necessarily about getting you around the town, it’s still important to know how much you’ll be spending on your trip. Download XE Currency, and you’ll be updated with live exchange rates for world currency making sure that you’re not paying above the odds at the airport.
Citymapper Transit Navigation
By Citymapper Limited
Category: Navigation
Requires iOS 10.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Google Trips – Plan Your Trip
By Google, Inc.
Category: Travel
Requires iOS 9.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
XE Currency
By XE.com Inc.
Category: Travel
Requires iOS 9.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
THE BEST APPS FOR: STAYING SAFE PREY ANTI THEFT
You might be on holiday, but you still need to be wary of petty theft. Even in some of the world’s most scenic destinations, you can still be a victim of crime so its definitely worth downloading an app such as Prey Anti Theft that can help you manage your digital accessories, helping you find your laptop, phone or tablet even if they’ve been snatched.
bSAFE
Travelling alone? Then you won’t have anyone else to rely on other than yourself. In that case, you’ll want something like bSafe that can privately alert your designated contacts that you’ve arrived at your chosen destination and even schedule faux phone calls to help you get out of awkward situations. As the saying goes, it’s better to bSafe than sorry.
Prey Find my Phone Tracker GPS
By Prey, Inc.
Category: Utilities
Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
bSafe - Personal Safety App
By Bipper USA, Inc.
Category: Lifestyle
Requires iOS 9.3 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
BUGLE
Bugle send notifications when you don’t so if you promised your significant other that you’d text them when you arrived at your hotel, they’ll be alerted by text or email on your behalf. This is an app that was created by Search and Rescue professionals, giving you and your loved one’s peace of mind when you’re off on your travels. You can also use Bugle’s timer as a back up in the instance that you can’t reach your phone and need to call for help.
We know better than anyone that no one needs a smartphone that’s full of useless, gimmicky apps. That’s why you can trust us in our choice for the best travel apps of the year.