If you are planning to take a trip, make the most of your vacation opportunity by arming yourself with some of the best travel apps around. Increasingly popular, particularly for people visiting a place they do not know, there are some great little programs to help with everything from locating travel information to making travel arrangements, as well as finding and booking a hotel or making a reservation to eat out. Here are a few that are firm favorites with fellow travelers:
Flying High
If you are planning a major long-term break, you may be faced with a confusing array of flights, trains, and other forms of transport to organize and coordinate. Skyscanner is a useful resource if you like to get the best deals on your flights. It covers both domestic and international flights and a search for your chosen destination will call up price comparisons across hundreds of different airlines, helping you to see which offer the most competitive prices and travel times. You can proceed to use the app to book directly, as it provides links to airlines and travel agents. Filtering is also not a problem, as you can choose flight times, cabin class, and check out prices over time, using a weekly or a monthly view. Hopper is another app that is useful for analyzing airfares, particularly if you have flexible travel dates.
It is good to know that apps can help you make savings when traveling; in design terms they are advancing all the time and at Worry Free Labs app development focuses on getting the best possible user experience, making apps more intuitive and responsive, and therefore a real pleasure to use. When you are traveling, you will want to get the best possible experience and many apps now allow you to do just that, filtering out the information you do not need or do not want so you can tailor your program to do exactly what suits you.
Mixing with the Locals
Google Translate has a new feature that is vital if you are an international traveler and need to handle other languages. As well as looking up words or phrases, you can now switch to conversation mode. If you hold the device between two people as they talk, the app will translate their conversation into English for you as they are speaking. Obviously, there has to be an adjustment in terms of conversation flow as there is a time lag, however it is really useful when you need to understand something specific, and a lot less trouble than frantic gestures.
World Customs is a fascinating app that will give you access to information about your destinations, including cultural facts and traditions and how to greet someone in an acceptable way, as far as the locals are concerned. If you are traveling to an unfamiliar country, this is a great way to learn about what might be taboo — particular gestures may be deemed to be insulting, for example, and certain types of clothing may be frowned upon in some locations.
Adaptability is Key
Just as you want your travel apps to be useful in terms of providing information and helping you to organize your itinerary successfully, so you will also want to access your favorite kinds of entertainment when you are actually on the road. Make sure you download all your favorite music before you leave or use Wi-Fi Finder to locate the nearest free and paid hotspots via GPS so you can get online. If writing about your travels is of interest, you want to make sure you have one of TripAdvisor’s offline guides available for a selection of cities. Besides creating self-guided tours to monuments or attractions, you can also use the journal function to create a record of your travels, and then share it.
With the increasing number of functions available online and on devices, business travelers are also getting more adept at managing travel apps and seeking out those that most fit their needs. You can use an app as a currency converter, for example, and there is even an app to recommend the best light and dark schedules to help your body clock adjust when traveling through time zones a lot.
There is an app to help you pack, one to keep you in touch with weather forecasts, one to locate nearby gas stations or restaurants, and one to guide you to where you want to go if you happen to get lost. Once you experience the range and scope of technology available for travel, you will never look back!
