Mobile travel apps we don’t go without

Otherwise, you simply can’t do it anymore! Until a while ago, it was unthinkable to go on a long-distance trip without printing out your ticket, or a confirmation of your reservation, or a list of the best attractions in the area…. All this has been changed by our smartphones, internet access and Mobile apps that can come in handy when traveling….

I still remember very well how literally a few years ago before a trip I would get frustrated when the printer refused to work a few hours before departure, and I couldn’t print a booking confirmation from Booking, a car reservation, not to mention online check-in at least with Ryanair or Wizz Air.

Of course, storing tickets or confirmation of accommodation reservations is not the only thing that smartphones make easy for us these days, so in this short text we want to show you the apps that we use both by, while traveling and on a daily basis. These are applications that make our travel easier, saving us a lot of time, money and even carrying said confirmations and printouts.

List of the best travel apps

This is, of course, a very subjective list, as it includes only applications that we know, have used, or still use. In the list below you will also find some that we thought we would use, but they simply turn out to be unnecessary or we simply forget about them while traveling…. but somewhere on our phones they are still saved, and maybe they will be of more use to you (we remain traditionalists in some matters, as we write below) ;-)

Random order :) All apps in the following list are free!

Airline applications

Our further travels, are usually those by air. So we’ll actually start with the airline’s app, whose primary task is to store our ticket. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any cool app to which we could always import tickets of all airlines without any problem. Therefore, each time we simply install the app of the airline in question be it Lufthansa or British Airways or Wizz Air etc….

We used to use the app
PassWallet
but several times we failed to import tickets there, and the process of adding tickets itself was usually not “automatic” and too intuitive. If possible, we add tickets to Wallet on iOS, but nevertheless not all succeed, and also searching for a ticket among many cards and other tickets is time-consuming. Therefore, we simply use the mobile app of the airline in question already every time (as a matter of fact, there are not that many of them).

It may not be the most convenient solution, but usually such apps give us a number of additional options, such as online check-in, seat reservation, or up-to-date information even about gate changes or the start of boarding.

Accommodation, or Booking and Airbnb

One of the most important apps for a traveler, is certainly the one responsible for accommodation :) We usually use Booking.com and Airbnb when looking for accommodation, so we have installed and use mainly these two apps. Using the application in this case is much more convenient than the web version of the website.

You can download them here and here for Android or here and here for iOS

If you are using another provider then they probably also have their own mobile app. Even if you don’t, you probably don’t need to print such a reservation in 99% of cases anyway, as even a simple PDF saved on your phone or an email will suffice. And it is no longer just about ecology, but simply about convenience :)

A minor note! Keep in mind that if you have something saved “on email” be sure that this particular email is saved offline on your phone! Because if you go somewhere where there may be problems with the Internet and it turns out that just this one e-mail did not save, you may have a little stress…. It’s better to save such things off-line right away, just in case ;)

Bonus: if you register at this link on Airbnb then you will get 100 PLN for your first booking! :)

Weather forecast – Meteo.pl

The weather app is also worth mentioning. In Poland, we use Meteo.pl on a daily basis, more specifically
ICM Meteo
for Android and
UM Meteo
for iOS. This weather is short-term, at first glance it may have complicated charts, but in our experience 24 hours ahead it has very accurate data. This allows us to plan what, when and how we visit. If we want to preview the weather forecast for our neighbors it is only possible in the web version.

In contrast, abroad, we usually just use Google‘s weather search engine. Just type “weather” or “weather City”. It shows pretty accurate (hour-by-hour) forecasts for the next few days, including when it comes to sun and rain and wind strength. Anyway, we also only check exchange rates on Google (just type, for example, “200 USD” or “200 PLN is USD”), and eventually with a calculator ;-)

In addition, we always add the cities we’ll be in to Weather on iOS before we leave so we can quickly check the forecast from another source (just in case).

Sometimes, of course, it’s also useful to use local weather information although it’s usually just websites anymore. It is worth looking at them, especially if, for example, you want to go trekking in the mountains or, for example, watch the aurora borealis in Iceland;)

Apps as guides

This is where it gets a little harder. However, I think we like to use the paper guide too much, we are especially attached to Lonely Planet. This one we always have with us and somehow we are not able to convince ourselves of the mobile version. Perhaps it’s because the guide needs to be on hand at all times, and the smartphone, meanwhile, is responsible for a ton of other things?

However, something is sitting there on our smartphones :)

There is, for example, TripAdvisor, although we haven’t used it for a long time, as we are increasingly using simply Google maps when it comes to restaurants, stores and the like.

We can also recommend to you the free app
Guides by Lonely Planet
or
Google Trips
, but we often forget to use them, although you can also find interesting and practical information there.

Usually, however, during any further trip we use the
My Google Maps
, to which we add pins beforehand before the trip (+ possibly the most important, basic information), and already on the spot we plan the journey between specific points.

Navigation, or Sygic, Google Maps and Maps.me

Navigation! Whether for the car or hiking, it is not to be forgotten. The days of traveling with a car map seem to be a thing of the past.

So far, especially abroad, we use Sygic navigation in the paid version, although there is also a free version, which is as sufficient as possible. The plus side of Sygic is the really cool and accurate maps. Personally, for me, the interface itself while driving is more intuitive than the one in Google Maps.

However, the most important advantage of Sygic over Google Maps, is that we can download maps for offline use. This is also possible on Google, but it works quite differently and if we wanted to download, for example, the whole of Poland, it is quite time-consuming.

Virtually the only downside to Google maps is that there is no up-to-date information about traffic jams here (although you can buy an additional option showing such data as well). However, if you are traveling by car abroad, even more so in remote countries like Cuba, Vietnam or the Dominican Republic, you are unlikely to have internet anyway (and if you do, you are unlikely to use it to avoid traffic jams, a waste of transfer). After Poland, we usually use Google Maps automatically.

You can download Sygic here (Android) and here (iOS).

A very cool app for sure is also
MAPS.ME
. It is not suitable for car navigation, but it is great if you are going trekking or moving around the city and looking for specific points or even specific paths. These maps simply map the terrain perfectly, you will find even the smallest paths between buildings or in parks.

Google Pay and Apple Pay

Daily use applications are also worth mentioning. Because we no longer use payment cards on a daily basis, but are just using Google Pay and Apple Pay.

By the same token, it is also great to use such a solution abroad, because why tempt potential pickpockets with our wallet in crowded squares or in ticket lines? And we swipe our phones all the time anyway while taking more selfies and stories on IG ;-)

Of course, it’s always a good idea to have cash or a traditional card, but increasingly, including abroad, contactless payments or just through these apps are as possible.

Netflix and Spotify

You have to think about mundane entertainment too, even high in the clouds ;) That’s why it’s worth remembering, for example, Netlix and Spotify (although we used Tidal until quite recently). You probably have these apps on your phones anyway, but be sure to download offline content before you travel. Internet on the spot may turn out to be “too weak” or it turns out that there are no Polish language versions or even Polish subtitles when you use the “local” Internet (a VPN can also help).

Drone apps

Since we happen to fly a drone, we also have a set of drone apps. So a quick two words about them (leaving aside the drone control app itself, of course).

Thanks to
DroneRadar
we will get to know the zones and places in Poland where we can or cannot fly.
Solar Activity
It will tell us on which day it is better to fly, and on which day we can have problems and interference with the drone. Besides, it is also worth looking for local apps that will help us with the selection of a safe place to fly (in accordance with the regulations :-)).

Practical information, or iPolak and Autem za granicą

iPolak
and Autos Abroad have been on our phones practically since the beginning. They contain practical information for travelers that is always at hand.

You can also install the app
Passenger rights
, which also contains a lot of useful and reliable information that is good to have on hand for special cases. Although it would be good if it never came in handy ;)

Google translator

We have tried various solutions, but Google is second to none in this regard. Google Translator is definitely a useful application for traveling, especially to those countries where it is difficult to get along in a language we know.

The basic translation functions are available offline, without an internet connection, just remember to download the appropriate language versions to your phone beforehand :)

Several times we were also rescued by text translation, to which we take a picture, and Google Translate reads the text and translates it into Polish or English – a very useful feature!

Google images

And finally… Also Google ;) The Google Photos app is automatically integrated with Google Drive. If we agree to compress the photos (rest assured you can do so) then we get unlimited space in the Google cloud. This (if we have it set up) automatically syncs photos from our phone every time we connect to wi-fi. This means that if something were to happen to the phone during the trip, we have automatic copies of the photos in the cloud, as long as we connect to wi-fi every so often during the trip, of course.

What if the equipment fails?

Unfortunately, even the latest smartphones aren’t foolproof, and remember that accidents do happen, so it’s always a good idea to take precautions against data loss and even equipment loss. It happened to us several times that we lost data, applications and in such situations it is worth having a backup or plan B. Remember to back up and upload data to the cloud every now and then.

We also always both have the aforementioned apps installed, and we upload important documents to the cloud before we leave so that we can access them in an emergency.

Your applications…

Be sure to let us know in the comments what apps you guys are using! Maybe it will be useful for others too :)