Let’s talk about travel apps! There’s so many apps out there, each serving its own unique purpose. There’s apps for specific airlines, flight deals, ground transportation, experiences, activities, and excursions. There’s apps for solo female travelers, downloadable maps, and so much more!
Here I have compiled a list of my top 5 favorite travel apps that I use when planning a trip and while traveling:
1. Secret Flying:
This travel app provides free alerts of flight deals, both cheap flights and error fares. The flight deals provided are from your departing home city and other main airports around the world. Secret Flying provides airfare prices for either one way tickets and/or roundtrip flights, as well as specific travel dates (usually month-to-month), and the airline(s).
Once I see a flight deal provided by Secret Flying (one that speaks to my travel bucket list), I make my way over to google.com/flights to further search on the flight deal. Most of the flight deals I have purchased is BIG thanks to Secret Flying.
2. Hopper:
This is a flight and hotel app. To be honest, I only use this app for flights. I have not explored the hotel section of the app. You tell Hopper where you want to go and then it shows you a breakdown of the prices for one way flights and/or roundtrip flights.
The prices are color coordinated –
Green: being the most inexpensive option
Yellow: being inexpensive, but still more money than the cheapest option
Orange: being expensive
Red: being the most expensive option
Once you have reached the point where you are seeing all of the different price options for your specific location you can either decide to purchase the flight as is or select “watch this trip”. Hopper predicts whether or not the prices are likely to decrease or increase for your exact travel dates.
3. Airbnb:
This is an accommodation and experiences app. I absolutely love, love, love this app! To be honest, I prefer to stay in a cute, modern, centralized Airbnb accommodation rather than a hotel. Although, some Airbnb accommodation options are in hotels so that’s a plus for travelers who prefer hotels. This app allows travelers to find just the right Airbnb in almost every single destination across the world. When searching for Airbnbs in a specific location this app allows travelers to save their searches. Travelers can create a number of different saved lists for different locations.
What is also great about this app is the different experience options provided for all types of travelers including solo, couples, and groups. Travelers can purchase experiences ranging from tour guides, city walks, bar crawls, salsa lessons, animal encounters, and more!
Even if you decide not to use this travel app to find your accommodation, I would definitely recommend using it for excursions and overall things to do. If you currently do not have an Airbnb account, use this referral link to save up to $55 on your first stay.
4. Maps.Me:
This is a geographic travel app. Maps.Me will literally provide you with a map of anywhere in the world.
Before I depart to start my travel adventures I always search the map of the city I will be staying in and I download it. Downloading the map before arriving to my international destination allows me to access the map without being connected to WiFi/internet. This is useful because it is not guaranteed that I will have access, depending on where I am.
Sometimes I opt in to having the daily $10 international charge, but not always because it can become pricey especially if you are traveling for a long period of time. Maps.Me assists me in getting from point A to point B without getting lost.
5. Mobile Pass:
This is the Mobile Passport app. It allows U.S. citizen and Canadian passport holders to proceed through an expedited entry to submit their passport and declaration information to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent.
Thanks to this app you can put away the pen and paper because you can complete all the necessary information/paperwork online. All in the comfort of your mobile device. I love apps that makes the actual act of traveling from one country to another just a little bit more smooth, especially when you are returning to your home country.
Again, the apps mentioned above are only the top 5 travel apps I personally use frequently. I know there are so many more great apps out there. Travel apps such as Skyscanner, Red Zone, Tourlina, Booking.com, Hostel World (the list goes on) were not included on this list but are still great and super useful.
Jazmin Oniris 