Thanks to the smartphone, traveling today is much easier than a few years ago and it is possible to carry all kinds of useful information about the country in which you are going: maps, language dictionaries, tourist itineraries, catalog of interesting places, restaurants, bars, hotels. Thanks to the smartphone, then, you can always keep useful tools on the go such as the flashlight, the currency converter, the translator, the compass, the calculator and other accessories that are comfortable on the go and that do not necessarily need an internet connection to be used. As you know, the Internet is the only problem when traveling, because the connection to the mobile roaming network may not be possible everywhere or it can be very expensive. Fortunately, abroad more than in Italy, it is possible connect to free Wi-Fi networks and, above all the hotels but also the restaurants and the main squares of the cities have the free wireless network to be able to connect to the internet.
The mobile smartphone is therefore a fundamental tool when traveling, not only to phone relatives but above all to manage their travel through the several applications that facilitate the search for the best places. If you own a iPhone or Android smartphone you can download and install these among the best travel and vacation apps, excellent for use both in Italy and abroad.
READ ALSO: 15 Apps to use on vacation by the sea, on the beach, on Android and iPhone
Best apps for traveling
We have decided to group all the apps we need to bring with us into various chapters, so as to be sure we always have the right app at the right time. If the apps are numerous, we can also group them in folders, available on both Android and iPhone.
App to find flights
If for our trip we have to take the plane, below we can find the best apps dedicated to flights and airlines.
- SkyScanner is the main gods search engines for air flights, a site that aggregates the best offers, orders them and allows you to choose the cheapest one. SkyScanner has free applications for both iPhone and Android, to search for air flights from your mobile phone.
- Ryanair is the official app for Android and iPhone of the most formidable low cost airline in Europe, the one that always offers the lowest prices for flights, the one that is to be consulted first for every trip to Europe. In addition to booking travel, the Ryanair app is convenient for managing booked air flights and having your boarding pass on your phone, without having to print it on paper.
- EasyJet is another large low-cost airline with many national and international airports at very low prices; the official app can be downloaded for free for Android and iPhone, useful both for finding flights and for obtaining the digital ticket with which to speed up check-in procedures.
- FlightRadar allows to follow aircraft routes in real time on the map, almost all over the world, and has applications for Android and for iPhone, in free version.
- Hopper is an app for Android and iPhone that makes flight price forecasts, displays graphs and sends notifications on the phone in order to book a flight at the lowest possible price.
- Kayak it is the other great search engine for air flights and also for hotels, with a simple and unmistakable website interface. Kayak helps users to choose a flight not only based on the date and cost of the trip, but also considering factors such as the departure time and the length of the flight. With the application it is also possible to compare flight costs, choosing a different airport or changing arrival and departure dates. Kayak can also be downloaded for Android and iPhone or iPad.
App to find ships, buses and trains
After seeing the apps to control air flights, there are the apps designed for ships, ferries, buses and of course trains.
- FlixBus for Android and for iPhone is the best bus booking app in the world, used throughout Europe with lower rates than other operators and buses equipped with everything, even Wi-Fi.
- On iPhone and Android you can also check the routes of ships and ferries with the free Marine Traffic app.
- Omio to know if it costs less to travel by plane, bus or train is a great application to find at any time not only the plane, but also any train or bus, which, at times, is convenient both for the cost and for the time.
- To check the trains there are several applications available including, Train timetable for iPhone and Android train timetable.
App for evaluating restaurants, services and hotels
There is no trip without an overnight stay in the hotel or a lunch outside in the best local restaurant! Let's see together the best apps to find restaurants and hotels with a lot of evaluation of users who have already frequented the place.
- TripAdvisor (better than Yelp which is still a good alternative) is the most important website in the world to find reviews of hotels, restaurants and clubs of various kinds. Having TripAdvisor always in your pocket in your phone allows you to always find the best place to sleep or eat, in any city in the world or, at least, to avoid cheating. TripAdvisor can be installed as an application for almost all mobile models, including Android and iPhone. The official application, Tripadvisor provides guides for more than 300 cities around the world with the interactive map to download and the tours that you can see and follow on your mobile phone using GPS, without the need to activate the internet connection.
- If we want to try Yelp as an alternative to TripAdvisor, just download the app of the same name for Android and iPhone.
- Booking it is the best known and most convenient site for booking hotels in big cities. Booking also has applications for iPhone and Android. As explained in another article, Booking always gets lowest prices to book rooms in hotels I also respect the prices charged by the hoteliers themselves.
- Google Maps, in addition to being a road navigator, it has now become a complete app to find places to eat, to find places to visit, to create itineraries and also find hidden places. Google Maps is the best tool for plan itineraries and guided tours in each city.
App to plan trips and tourist itineraries
If we don't want to rely on a travel agency, we can still get noteworthy tourist itineraries with one of the following apps.
- Sygic Travel, for Android and iPhone is a great alternative to the disappearance of Google Trips, which allows you to plan guided tours in more than 50 million destinations so you always know what to see and to get around a city without getting lost and without walking more than necessary to reach museums , parks, bars, restaurants, hotels, beaches, waterfalls and more. You can easily create a daily itinerary with the exact estimated travel time.
- TripIt is a website and also a mobile application for almost all mobile models, including Android and iPhone that allows you to plan the itinerary of a tourist trip, creating the various stages and designing routes to visit a city in the fastest way , without wasting time.
- Lonely Planet guides are free on iPhone and Android as described a few months ago.
GPS navigation app
If we want to move by car or often risk getting lost in new cities, it is better to have a GPS navigation app at hand, even better if it works offline (i.e. without an Internet connection).
- The most famous app is definitely Google Maps, which as seen in our dedicated guide it also works as an offline browser on iPhone and Android, without the need for internet connection and also allows you to save maps to be able to consult them at any time.
- If we do not have Internet connection problems, it is better to use the app Waze when we are in the car, since it offers real-time updates on traffic, queues and any construction sites or checkpoints; we can download this app for Android and for iPhone.
- Other similar and very advantageous apps are also the Here WeGo satellite navigator for Android and iPhone, free and offline and the app Maps.me, always for iPhone and Android.
Other useful apps for traveling
In addition to the apps seen so far we must absolutely install on our smartphone all the apps below, which can come in handy at any time.
- Translator and dictionary: as a real-time translator you can use it Google Translate for Android and iPhone which also works offline. Google Translate also has the ability to work for instantly translate signs and writings and as a vocal interpreter; as dictionary the app Dictionary.com as english vocabulary even offline.
- The currency converter instead it is the app (iPhone and Android) to convert currencies quickly and easily.
- Google Photos, the app that saves all the photos taken online so you don't have to worry about losing them and never having the problem of full memory on your smartphone.
- Around Me is a travel app to have all the points of interest at your fingertips and know, in every place, what is nearby, for Android and iPhone.
- Wifi Map perhaps it had to be mentioned at the top of this list because it is among the apps that allow you to find out where the free wifi are to connect to the internet in every city in the world, and therefore it is primary to make the others work. Free Wifi apps are available for iPhone and Android.
- WAM The world around me (Android – iPhone) is an app that takes advantage of augmented reality and allows you to use your mobile phone camera to find out what's around, showing the direction as the crow flies of each nearby place such as restaurants, hotels, bars on the screen , shops and various attractions.
- To check the weather forecast, please read our guides the best weather apps for Android with weather forecast is the best weather apps for iPhone and iPad.
- The app to make calls like Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger they are important and they all have them, but they do not allow you to call landlines. It is therefore also worth installing aVOIP application such as Messagenet or Skype which allow you to call any number in the world wherever we are, at local prices.
After installing all these apps, we are finally ready to go!
Conclusions
A trip must be organized in every detail: better not to neglect the apps to take with us on our faithful smartphone, so that we can always use the right app according to our needs and needs, especially when we are abroad.
Always on the theme of travel, we can read our guide on App to organize Travel and Holidays.
If, on the other hand, we do not know how to connect in Wi-Fi when we are abroad or in a hotel, it will be sufficient to deepen the discussion in the guide Connect to the wifi of hotels, bars or public networks without problems of internet access.