Whether traveling for business or pleasure, a little planning goes a long way to make your trip a more pleasant one. Thankfully, the tech world supplies hundreds of apps designed to assist travelers with everything from booking flights and accommodations to calculating gas mileage or predicting the weather or traffic. But not all apps are created equally. Some are more user-friendly than others, some are more accurate than others, and some are simply a must-have. Here are eight of our favorite travel apps.
FLIO —Android, iOS: Free
FLIO is a wonderful app that assists travelers in airports around the globe. As an official partner of 300 worldwide airports, FLIO also retains info on hundreds more. This app offers users maps of terminals, with booking options for and directions to lounges and shuttle buses. It contains a boarding pass scanner and is also equipped with a flight tracker. Given the variety of capabilities all within one app, it’s a convenient choice to install on your phone whether you’re on vacation or are traveling for work purposes.
Google Translate — Android, iOS: Free
Google Translate is a must! This app can interpret words, phrases, and short sentences in one language and convert them to another. Extremely user-friendly, it doesn’t even require that you type the phrase, you can simply dictate into the input language and then select one of 103 available languages that you require the text translated to. New features include a visual translation that allows the user to input a photo, such as a sign that requires translation. Additionally, the app offers 59 extra languages offline, 37 languages for the photo mode, and 32 languages for live, two-way voice translations.
iExit — Android, iOS: Free
If your travel plans involve a road trip or a lot of driving once you reach your destination, iExit is the perfect companion. This app offers listings for food, hotels, gas stations, and businesses that can be found at each highway exit. It even gathers up and lists deals and discounts for nearby amenities.
Mobile Passport — Android, iOS: Free
Mobile Passport is an approved app by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It assists users in speeding through immigration lineups by allowing U.S. or Canadian passports and customs declarations to be submitted via the app. This process replaces traditional paper forms so that everything can be processed quicker. However, please note that your physical passport is still necessary.
MyTSA — Free: Android; iOS
MyTSA is the official app of the Transportation Security Administration. It has the ability to check on security point wait times at crucial airports while offering real-time and historical wait times. It also provides information regarding what can be brought onto the plane and what must be removed from your carry-on, in addition to featuring info on the TSA PreCheck program as well as live assistance if needed.
PackPoint — Android, iOS: Free
Regardless of the destination or nature of your trip, PackPoint is designed to assist users by offering a checklist of essential items to pack. Users can simply input their destination, the purpose for travel, and length of stay, and PackPoint will customize a packing list that not only recognizes clothing changes for business or pleasure but also for weather changes based on forecasts.
TripIt — Android, iOS: Free
TripIt aims to integrate travel plans into a convenient itinerary that is viewable on the user’s cell phone and can be shared with contacts. It’s just a matter of inputting your email, and TripIt will search your inbox for booking confirmations and related information in order to build an organized itinerary. Two versions of TripIt exist – the free version which contains ads or the paid version which removes ads depending on your preference.
XE Currency — Android, iOS: Free
Visiting a foreign country not only presents the traveler with differences in language but also differences in currency. It’s not easy to do quick mental calculations while on the go so the XE Currency app is a convenient addition to your phone when traveling. The app supports almost every national currency and is capable of simultaneously tracking up to 10 currencies at once. Rates are updated regularly and the user is able to adjust the frequency of those updates. Then the app stores the information so you can access it again even when you are offline. This is a must-have app!