Useful apps for traveling

Useful apps for traveling

With the development of the internet, traveling independently becomes easier and easier. Nowadays, you can find almost any information that interests you. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for information about an Indian visa in Nepal or hitchhiking in Africa, you can easily find it!

And since various useful travel applications have appeared, it has become even simpler (especially if they work offline!). Believe us, we have something to compare it with!

Back in 2011, we went to the USA with just one “smartphone” for the two of us, which didn’t even support their communication format and had no useful applications except for a calculator. To make calls, we used payphones where we had to put quarters (those are 25-cent coins, in case you didn’t know). We traveled across the country from ocean to ocean, and we encountered so many different problems that it’s impossible to count.

Nowadays, they still happen, but thanks to the advancement of technology, dealing with them has become much easier. In this article, we will tell you about the useful travel applications we use constantly. Let’s go!

Maps.me is an offline geographical map of the world and our faithful assistant in searching for various places and planning routes to these destinations.

Recently, we wrote a detailed article about maps.me titled “Best Navigator for Traveling,” in which we discuss the functionality of this application, its pros and cons compared to other maps, and provide a couple of tips for its usage. The article is concise yet informative, so we recommend giving it a read!

We usually look for accommodation on booking.com. It’s very convenient and, most importantly, it shows true prices. And what else can it show you?

Well, if you take, for example, Agoda – it is one of the analogs of Booking, then when you search, they display prices lower than those of Booking. But when you start booking, they add additional fees, and the price is higher. On Booking they immediately write the final price. They also have various bonuses for regular users.

Many people use Airbnb, but we’ve never been lucky with it. In Shanghai, we checked into an apartment. Everything looked beautiful in the pictures, but in reality, it was just awful!

In Seoul, we waited for the host for three hours, and in the end, there was a misunderstanding about the price, and we were placed in a tiny room measuring 2×2 meters with a bed, a table, a shower, and no windows. After that, we completely stopped using Airbnb…

Until recently. We decided to stay in an apartment with a sea view in Batumi, but apparently, it wasn’t meant to be! We waited all day to be shown the apartment, but in the end, we got a response: “It’s better to find another option; I’m not in the city right now.” So, we found a cheaper option through Booking.com.

We believe that this is absolutely the best app for travelers! Without exaggeration! It’s safe to say that our round-the-world journey is largely possible thanks to this website. We have praised it numerous times in our blog, and we will continue to do so just as much!

We even created a Couchsurfing rating for different countries

Thanks to this app, we not only saved probably over a million rubles on accommodation but also found friends all over the world, which, in our opinion, is even more valuable! Couchsurfing is about connecting with local people and fellow travelers from other countries; it’s about sharing knowledge and culture, having fun, and enjoying good company!

Previously, it was possible to use Couchsurfing for free but with limited requests – only ten per week. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Couchsurfing made it a paid service for everyone. For travelers, it’s beneficial because now they can send unlimited requests. However, for hosts, it has become an additional expense. It’s reassuring to see that despite this change, many hosts still continue to use this service!

We search for tickets on Aviasales. Just like with Booking.com and other services, we never use any other platforms.

We always look for tickets either through the Aviasales.ru website or their mobile application. After finding suitable options, we then purchase the tickets directly from the official websites of the airlines.

However, sometimes Aviasales finds the same tickets at more attractive prices on other intermediary websites. In such cases, we always double-check if the flight with that airline on that specific date and time actually exists. We also read reviews about that intermediary website, and only if everything good, we proceed with the purchase.

Indeed, on Aviasales, you can also find information about entry requirements for various countries and other useful details.

We usually use this app during our hiking trips to determine where the sun rises and sets or where the moon will be. It’s amazing when we set up our tent in a way that allows us to peek out in the morning without getting out and observe the sunrise. It’s also helpful to know from which direction the light will fall when planning to take photographs.

XE is a currency conversion app. You can download the required currencies to use it offline. In offline mode, it won’t provide real-time exchange rates, and banks have their own exchange rates and commissions. Therefore, you won’t get an exact figure, but it’s still very convenient to quickly estimate how much you’ll approximately get in the local currency for rubles, especially when there’s no internet connection.

It’s always useful to know the weather forecast for the upcoming days while traveling, especially when you have a hiking trip or a long journey ahead.

We use the standard Weather app installed on the iPhone by default, but in 50% of cases, it’s just for a good laugh. Not only can this app make you wait for prolonged rain for several days, which never actually starts, but the forecast for the current time is almost always the opposite.

It’s completely unclear where they get their data from, but it’s evident they don’t look out of the window!)) Maybe you can recommend a good weather tracking app? Please write in the comments which one you use and how accurate its forecast is?

After “updating” the camera, we immediately installed the Imaging Edge app. It allows us to connect the camera to our smartphone via Wi-Fi at a distance of up to 15-12 meters. It’s not that much, but still, it allows us to take decent shots.

However, there are some downsides to it. We can’t shoot in raw format through the app, it doesn’t have a timelapse feature, and it frequently loses connection with the camera.

The self-timer is limited to only two seconds, which doesn’t give us enough time to put the phone back in our pocket, and it doesn’t provide many settings adjustments. But the app is free – that’s its only advantage. Perhaps we’ll purchase a better app and update this post.

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ЭThis is a must-have app for your journey, especially during independent and long travels, and particularly in countries where English is not commonly spoken. It has a wide range of features:

You can download certain languages, and they will be available for offline translation.

You can use voice input, which greatly facilitates communication when your interlocutor cannot type text. They might be driving or their phone’s keyboard might not have the required language, etc. Besides, communicating through voice is much more engaging and interesting.

And thirdly, for some languages, there is the option of translation by pointing the camera. This is very helpful in supermarkets when you have no idea which price corresponds to which product.

Indeed, Google Translate provides quite accurate and literary translations. We write all our Instagram posts in English and translate them into Russian to save time, and usually, we only need to make a few adjustments. And yes, this app is probably already installed on your device as it is one of the most popular translation apps in the world.

That’s all for now. We hope to add or edit this list in the future. What useful travel apps do you use most often and which ones would you recommend?

Thanks for reading! Until the next post!