The Best Travel Apps to Inform Your Travels

Travel accessories are a fact of modern life. They let us in and get our boarding passes for our flights, tell us where our rental cars are parked and wait, and even open the doors to our hotel rooms. But if you search for an app in multiple app stores, there are thousands of them out there. Most major travel companies from airlines to others have some sort of app, and many hotels, resorts, and even resorts have developed their own as well.

The guiding philosophy is to always have a flight device with you. Airlines provide advance flight information through their app, allowing travelers to book and receive vouchers during flight delays, or chat with an agent for assistance. Even frequent flyers can streamline their travel experience by having their company’s app on their phone.

Hotel companies are also becoming increasingly concerned about systems to replace the ineffective and unimproved paperwork that used to be common in hotel rooms. On a lark, I tend to look at a lot of paper when I come across one these days, and it almost always has toll-free numbers for airlines that have been around for decades. In apps from big chains like Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt, you can often check your bill, chat with customer service staff, or check hours of operation for the hotel’s restaurants and other stores.

In addition to apps designed for traveling customers, what are the best apps for travelers who want to keep track of travel information? Read on for tips.

The Best Travel Apps For Airlines

Flight apps are great for controlling your flights, but some of them have their limitations. Flighty lets you add upcoming flights for you and your friends. It will track the flight assigned to the flight and send alerts about delays or seat changes, such as when the flight changes or departs at an airport with delays. It also keeps a record of past flights, so if you’re ever curious to know if you’ve flown on the same plane before, it will tell you.

For the aviation experts among us, the app will display all of your flight statistics, giving you the number of flights in each airline group and aircraft type for every year in your history.

Flighty only tracks the flights you’ve chosen to track, so if you want a high-quality view of air traffic around your area, a better option is Flightradar24, which has a full desktop version. Great for “Ooh, where’s it going?” to watch flights, but also to find out if the airport is closed and if the flights are rerouted due to the weather.

The Best Travel Apps For Cruises

Cruise lines are on the rise. Princess Cruises and Virgin Cruises have both invested heavily in mobile applications and wearable technology. You can call for champagne on Virgin, and order food and drinks from anywhere on board with the Princess Medallion Class.

When you see another cruise ship in the country, Cruise Mapper can identify the ship, providing statistics about the current voyage, upcoming schedule, and deck plans, in case you want to try that ship in the future. There is also a section to check the port schedule for your trip, so you will know when planning your day how many ships are expected in port, and what the expected arrival and departure times are.

For other marine traffic (“Where’s that oil tanker going?”) Marine Traffic is another helpful option.

The Best Travel Apps For International Travel

For bridging language barriers, Google Translate is invaluable. It supports 133 languages, has a camera feature to help translate signs and documents, and can translate spoken word and speak back. The service is based on the web, but there is also an app, and the upcoming “practice” section will help users learn the language on their own.

When I arrived in Athens one afternoon, I hailed an Uber, and hopped into a local cab (in Athens, Uber is basically a local taxi service). Since the fare has already been set, and the driver speaks English at his last, I saw him talking on his phone near the end. I realized he was talking about Google Translate when he picked up the phone and pressed the “speak” button, and the electronic voice thanked me for coming to Greece, and hoped I was well.

For quick currency exchange, the XE tool helps when quick calculations fail, especially if you’re working with a currency you’ve never dealt with before (although it’s important to remember that credit cards and exchange houses often offer slightly lower exchange rates than official bank rates).

US citizens with Global Entry can expedite their entry at US border checkpoints by downloading the Global Entry app. When your plane lands at the airport, take a photo, make announcements, and send. In most airports, you can go to the designated line for a mobile device and present it to an officer for faster processing. For travelers without Global Entry, there is a free Mobile Passport Control app.

Visitors who like to count countries can rely on the Been app, which allows visitors to color in countries and territories, including US states. Users can also register the month, year, and mode of transportation of their visit to keep track of the number of visits to each country and include other information about the purpose of their visit or the main ideas of the visit.

The Takeaway on Travel Apps

There are more travel apps than can be listed here—probably enough to take up all the space on a smartphone. These are just a few that can help you improve and smooth your travels, whether you’re taking a cruise or a quick trip to the neighborhood town.