Traveler's App Kit: Best Travel Apps for Digital Nomads
We have come a long way since the map and compass. Nowadays, travel has gotten both more convenient and more complicated. It helps to have informational products to help you book tickets, find lodging, find locations, contact local services, and more. Here are the best travel apps that every adventurer ought to make use of.
Of course I won’t be mentioning the obvious apps such as Google Maps, Google Travel, Uber, Trip Advisor, or Airbnb since they are already well known. This is a list of alternative travel apps with some added value or specialization in one area or another.
Best Travel Apps for Planning
Hopper
You should use the Hopper app while you plan your journey and before you purchase any tickets. The app records flight prices and provides purchase guidance, including alerts when the price drops.
The app also provides a date when the price is anticipated to climb rather than merely advising you to wait to purchase your ticket. Hopper also allows you to make reservations with a little commission charge.
Roadtrippers
With the aptly called Roadtrippers, discover intriguing spots to stop during a road trip. With the use of this app and website, you may look over a map of the United States and Canada (along with some coverage of Mexico, too), which features a variety of odd roadside attractions, museums, amusement parks, campgrounds, restaurants, and other amenities. Simply add a site to your journey when you find one you like, and Roadtrippers will adjust your itinerary accordingly. You may add an infinite number of stops to your itinerary and download offline maps with a Roadtrippers Plus account for $29.99 per year, as opposed to only five with a free account.
TripCase
By creating an itinerary for you, the free software TripCase aids with vacation organization. Flights, lodging, rental vehicles, dinner reservations, and other things can all be on the schedule. You send TripCase your travel confirmation emails to create an itinerary, and it takes care of the rest. An whole chronological lineup of your journey will be ready for you when you open the app or connect onto the website the next time. You can also manually add information. Although the end result is comparable to that of TripIt (see below), the information was gathered in a different way.
TripIt
While TripIt and TripCase both help you arrange your vacation plans, TripIt does so by snooping through your inbox for confirmation emails and extracting the pertinent details. TripIt may be used without giving it access to your email by forwarding emails to it or by manually inputting information, but it defeats the purpose of the program. TripIt might be quite helpful if your trip plans are disjointed and unplanned.
Best Travel Apps for Booking and Search
Booking.com
Booking.com is a website where you can reserve places to stay, flights, cars to rent, airport taxis, tours, and attractions. The service is best recognized for assisting you in locating wonderful hotels across the globe that meet all of your requirements at an affordable rate. Due to the fact that Booking.com is a subsidiary of Booking Holdings, Inc., which also owns Kayak, Priceline, Agoda, Rentalcars, and Opentable, you could see some parallels between these services.
Culture Trip
Originally a website and app for reading about vacation places, Culture Trip has now grown to predominantly provide package trips. Search for the nation or location you wish to visit, and Culture Trip will offer multiday experiences there, such as an eight-day Patagonia hiking adventure or a safari through Kenya and Tanzania. Through the app or website, you may immediately reserve these package tours. Additionally, there are several recommendations and magazine-style articles on Culture Trip.
Expedia
Expedia is a fare aggregator website and a one-stop shop for travel-related searches and purchases. To obtain the greatest alternatives, you may look for flights, lodging, and vehicle rentals among a variety of suppliers. Expedia, not the airline, hotel, or other provider, is where you book or purchase your trip arrangements. Expedia is a component of the Expedia Group, which is also the owner of other travel aggregators including Hotwire.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, and Trivago. You could find that these services are comparable to one another.
Hotels.com
Hotels.com is a search and reservation service for lodging, although not being limited to hotel rooms, as its name would imply. You may browse and book accommodations on the website, including apartments, hotels, bed & breakfasts, and holiday rentals. The sibling brands of Hotels.com, including Hotwire.com, Orbitz, and others, are all a part of the Expedia Group. When a US customer uses it from outside, the Hotels.com mobile app might be unpredictable. The website may redirect you to a translated version that isn’t in English or doesn’t display prices in dollars.
Kayak
Kayak is another comprehensive travel search engine, but you can’t make a direct booking there. Instead, Kayak directs you to other locations where you finish your trip arrangements, such as a different aggregator, an airline, or a rental car company. Hotel stays, vehicle rentals, rail and bus tickets, and travel experiences are all covered by Kayak. It includes several helpful features for researching locations depending on airfare costs for the desired vacation dates. In addition to Booking.com, Priceline.com, Agoda.com, and Rentalcars.com, Booking Holdings Inc. also owns Kayak. Kayak also runs Swoodoo, checkfelix, momondo, Cheapflights, HotelsCombined, and Mundi among other metasearch brands.
Best Travel Apps for Camping and Glamping
Glamping Hub
For your upcoming vacation, use Glamping Hub to find a bell tent, a safari lodge, or a complete yurt. This website allows you to reserve “unique outdoor lodgings,” making it the perfect option for anyone who enjoys being outside but lacks the necessary equipment.
Harvest Hosts
With the help of an app and online membership program called Harvest Hosts, RV owners can choose picturesque locations like vineyards, breweries, farms, and golf courses where they can park their vehicles for free for the night. It’s solely for RVs with their own water and sewage systems due to the drawback that you won’t have access to any connections. Each stay is for one night, and memberships start at $99 a year for unlimited stays.
Hipcamp
Hipcamp lets you locate both public and private areas where you may set up a tent or spend the night in one that has already been prepared. You may search and reserve tent camping locations, RV parks, cottages, treehouses, and glamping on the website. The US, Australia, Canada, France, and the UK are all countries where it functions.
Pitchup
You may search for and reserve campsites, RV parks, and other camping and glamping facilities on Pitchup. If you’re bringing your own equipment or prefer a full-service experience, filters can help you discover a spot. For those who aren’t quite ready to spend the night outside, Pitchup also offers lodges and cabins that may be reserved. The website includes information about North and South America, as well as Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and some regions of Africa.
Tentrr
Tentrr is not a dating app like Tinder despite the name appearing to be a play on such apps. Tentrr, which is similar to Airbnb but for camping and outdoor lodging, serves a large portion of the lower 48 states and Puerto Rico.
The Dyrt
The Dyrt, like other camping and glamping applications, aids in locating locations for overnight camping, including RV parks and campsites. The Dyrt provides a Pro subscription ($35.99 annually) that features offline maps for locating cell coverage, free camping, and other essentials, which sets it apart from similar apps.
Best Travel Apps for Recommendations
Happy Cow
Happy Cow is a great alternative for vegetarians, vegans, and anybody seeking for a nutritious supper after several days of dining out. You may locate restaurants, cafés, health food stores, and other places to dine without meat with this app and website. Although not all of the suggested restaurants are vegan or vegetarian, they should all provide at least a few non-carnivorous alternatives.
Lonely Planet
Known for publishing travel guides, Lonely Planet also offers a fantastic website and app where you may research your next vacation spot. Along with these suggestions for an exciting encounter, expect stunning images.
Rick Steves Audio Europe
The app for European vacations created by travel author Rick Steves includes several audio tracks. Others serve as audio guides for exploring major sights, while some provide background knowledge on a certain city or region. While visiting the Sistine Chapel and again while exploring the Roman Colosseum, I listened to some of his stuff about Rome. Consider downloading this free app and listening to some of the portions while making your trip plans to one of the most popular places in Europe, or use it to take a guided walking tour while you’re there.
Yelp
Yelp is helpful when you’re in a new place and need a quick recommendation. Based on customer reviews, it provides information about the caliber of companies and services, from restaurants to mechanics. Yelp at least gives you a feel of what to anticipate as users frequently share photographs, menus, pricing, and other vital details about establishments you might require when traveling, despite the fact that reviews might be biased at times. Yelp’s website and app in some areas now allow you to book reservations for restaurants and other services.
Best Travel Apps for Mapping and Navigation
AllTrails
You can get outside with the aid of the mobile app and website AllTrails. It provides a global collection of hiking and walking routes together with images, maps, and trailhead directions. If you pay $29.99 a year for the Pro version of the service, you can download trail maps offline. When you’re in a strange place, it’s a terrific tool for locating the greatest spots to be outside fast.
Convertr+
Excellent for changing currencies is the free Convertr+ app. You may save several currencies in one display, and the UI is simple. Other conversions that visitors may occasionally require are provided by Convertr+, including Celsius to Fahrenheit, kilometers to miles, liters to ounces, and vice versa.
GasBuddy
GasBuddy assists you in finding gas by location and price while you’re driving, but you should be aware that it may be gathering and selling information about you. Although it operates in real time on your phone, there are privacy concerns there, so we advise utilizing GasBuddy’s website instead, which necessitates a little bit of forethought. Australia, Canada, and the US all have access to it.
iExit
For road journeys across the US, including in Alaska and Hawaii, there is an app called iExit. It details everything that is close to each highway exit, including petrol stations and ATMs. You may add a service or a certain chain of restaurants to your favorites list, and the app will notify you when it is on your path.
Final Words
Travelers of old ad maps, compasses, walking sticks, pack animals and local guides. We have apps. Check them out and take your pick. If you gather at least one of the best travel apps on this list, you should have a much easier time getting around wherever in the world you find yourself. You might even make some amazing new discoveries and have some amazing stories to tell back home.
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