The Best Travel Apps To Download Right Now!
In today’s world access to technology has never been easier. We’ve become obsessed with useful apps over the years that add convenience to our lives. Take a look at some of the best travel apps we’ve listed that are sure to prove useful when planning your next trip. Even better? They’re FREE!
BEST TRAVEL APPS IN GENERAL: EVERYTHING GOOGLE
Google Translate
Google Translate is one of our most used travel apps when visiting countries that speak another language than we do. Since Google is behind it, it is constantly updating features to make it more accurate and user-friendly too! We recommend downloading offline languages so you can use it regardless of your wifi situation when traveling.
Key Features of Google Translate
- Translate 109+ languages by typing.
- Translate 37+ languages by photo and use your camera to translate languages instantly.
- Translate 32+ languages by voice in “Conversation Mode” or by speaking into your phone’s microphone.
- Draw characters or letters with your finger.
Cost: FREE
Google Maps
Google Maps is another one of our favorite travel apps because it’s incredibly convenient and like Google Translate, it updates regularly. We have also found it to be the most reliable of the map apps when traveling to other countries too!
Key Features of Google Maps
- Download maps to use offline.
- Get to your destination faster with real-time traffic updates.
- Catch your bus or train with real-time transit updates and gate locations.
- Search for places to eat, visit, and more near your current location.
- Create lists, favorite, or save locations by placing a pin so you can remember the places you visited or the places you want to go.
Cost: FREE
READ MORE: How To Plan Your Next Trip
BEST TRAVEL APPS FOR TRIP PLANNING
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor is one of the travel apps we use when we are looking for top hotels, restaurants, or attractions with traveler reviews. While usually, it gives you the most touristy suggestions it can be helpful for narrowing down the most popular places in an area.
Key Features of TripAdvisor
- Access to millions of traveler reviews of restaurants, attractions, hotels, and more.
- Create lists and itineraries based on the places you are wanting to visit.
- Book hotels, flights, restaurant reservations, and attractions.
- Create a travel timeline to keep track of the places you visited during the day.
Cost: FREE
Pack Point
Key Features of Pack Point
- Tell Pack Point where you going and watch as it practically packs your bags for you.
- Complete your packing list by giving information on the weather of your location and what kind of travel you will be doing.
- Share your packing lists with others and look up packing lists for inspiration.
Cost: FREE
BEST TRAVEL APPS FOR FLIGHTS
Skyscanner
Skyscanner is one of our favorite travel apps to find cheap flights! We especially love their “everywhere” feature which allows you to see where you can go in the world from your home airport for the lowest cost.
Key Features of Skyscanner
- An all-in-one travel app that allows you to search for flights, hotels, and car rentals.
- Explore top deals and search “everywhere” to see where you can go on your budget.
Cost: FREE
SeatGuru
One of the things that can be frustrating about flying, especially long-haul international flights is selecting seats. SeatGuru is a travel app that gives you feedback and reviews from other travelers on specific aircraft and their seats. Weighing out the pros and cons can help you make more confident decisions in selecting your seats.
Key Features of SeatGuru
- Find low-priced airfare through TripAdvisor.
- Pick your ideal seat on your airplane based on reviews
- View traveler photos of the seats.
Cost: FREE
Kayak
Similar to Skyscanner, Kayak is a travel app that allows you to compare flights, hotels, and car rentals. We use this a lot for domestic and international travel – especially when comparing flights and car rental prices.
Key Features of Kayak
- Another all-inclusive travel app that allows you to compare flight costs, hotels, and car rentals.
- It allows you to keep your travel plans organized for easy access.
- Buy with confidence with Kayak’s price forecast.
Cost: FREE
BEST TRAVEL APPS FOR ROAD TRIPS
Gas Buddy
Gas Buddy is a great travel app to have for road trips because it finds the nearest gas stations to your location and compares the gas prices to find the cheapest gas.
Key Features of Gas Buddy
- Save time and money by looking for the cheapest gas near your location.
- Get directions to the specified gas station of your choosing.
Cost: FREE
AAA
Having a AAA membership is important for those who drive a lot for work or for those who road trip short or long distances. We have had a few times where we had to have a car towed, battery jumped, and even a gas tank filled at various times in our lives. AAA gives an extra blanket of security when traveling by car.
With the AAA app, you can upload your membership card so you don’t have to keep it on you at all times and get roadside assistance anywhere you are, even if you aren’t in your vehicle (your membership can work for a pal too!).
Key Features of AAA
- Access to hundreds of useful discounts by uploading your membership.
- Easily get roadside assistance (towing, battery jump, changing a flat tire, etc).
- Look into AAA-approved and diamond-rated hotels, restaurants, and attractions.
Cost: FREE
Purchase a United States AAA Membership based on your location here.
BEST TRAVEL APPS FOR CAR RENTALS AND RIDESHARE
Turo
Turo is the Airbnb of the rental car world. With Turo, you can rent a vehicle from its owner at very low prices for average vehicles. You can also find a number of luxury or specialty vehicles to choose from too!
Key Features of Turo
- Browse unique cars for rent by local owners in the US and Canada (soon extending to other locations).
- Get the car delivered around town or to nearby airports.
- List your car and earn extra money to fuel your adventures.
Cost: FREE
Uber
By now I think everyone knows about rideshare services but they keep getting better and better over time with safety features, cost, and other perks.
Key Features of Uber
- A rideshare app for fast, reliable rides in minutes – day or night.
- Know the estimated cost of the fare before your ride.
- Tap to request a ride and easily pay with a credit card through the app or cash in select cities.
Cost: FREE
Sign up get $ off your first Uber!
Lyft
Like Uber, Lyft is another rideshare service that we use regularly. We typically compare the prices of Lyft and Uber to determine which one we are planning to use.
Key Features of Lyft
- Another rideshare app for a reliable ride.
- Tap to request a ride and pay by credit card
- Rate your driver and see others’ ratings.
Cost: FREE
Sign up and get $ off your first Lyft!
BEST TRAVEL APPS FOR HOTELS AND ACCOMMODATIONS
Airbnb
Airbnb allows you to rent a room, entire apartment, or home anywhere in the world! Sometimes they are cheaper (and more spacious) than a regular hotel room or if not, they have added charm.
Key Features of Airbnb
- Access unique homes and places to stay all over the globe.
- Discover secret spots via your host.
- Message your host safely on the go.
- List your space and start earning money!
Cost: FREE
Couchsurfing
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly way to travel, Couchsurfing is an app that allows you to look for a host locally to where you are and offers you a place to stay for minimal cost. We haven’t personally used Couchsurfing, but have many friends who have recommended it!
Key Features of Couchsurfing
- Browse millions of local hosts offering a place to stay for a minimal cost.
- Stay and meet with locals for an authentic travel experience.
- Find fun nearby events spotted by other couch surfers.
Cost: FREE
Hotel Tonight
If you’re in a pinch to find a hotel last minute Hotel Tonight is a great travel app that searches for low-cost hotel rooms last minute.
Key Features of Hotel Tonight
- Find a last-minute hotel deal on the go.
- Book a hotel up to a week in advance.
- Search by city, attractions, nearby hotels, or a specified map area.
Cost: FREE
BEST TRAVEL APPS FOR DINING
OpenTable
Many restaurants are moving to reservation apps as they become more and more popular. OpenTable is one of the most popular to streamline reservations in one place. On the OpenTable app, you can make or change reservations, add special requests, and get rewards to use towards future outings. Another app similar to OpenTable is Resy so be sure to check that one out as well.
Key Features of OpenTable
- Discover local restaurants wherever you are.
- Book reservations for popular restaurants.
- Get rewarded for dining out and save on future meals.
Cost: FREE
BEST TRAVEL APPS FOR READING AND VIDEO
Kindle
Key Features of Kindle
- Have access to over 4,000,000 books, audiobooks, magazines, and more.
- Download eBooks on the go and read them directly on your smartphone or tablet.
- Share your downloads with others via your family library.
- Switch seamlessly between reading your book and listening.
Cost: FREE
Amazon Prime Video
If you have an Amazon Prime account you should also download the Amazon Prime Video app! It has a ton of movies and TV shows that you can download to watch on the go – some exclusive only to Amazon Prime members.
Key Features of Amazon Prime Video
- Stream and download movies and TV shows to your device and watch on the go!
- Have access to Amazon-exclusive videos and movies.
Cost: FREE (Although you must have an Amazon Prime membership to use)
Netflix
Another app we use for watching movies and TV shows on the go is Netflix! While not everything is able to be downloaded, many of the options are.
Key Features of Netflix
- Much like Amazon Prime Video, you can stream and download movies and TV shows to your device and watch-on-the go!
- Have access to Netflix-exclusive videos and movies.
Cost: FREE (Although you must have a Netflix membership to use)
OTHER BEST TRAVEL APPS
TraffickCam
The last travel app we want to discuss is TraffickCam. TraffickCam is an app that you can use to help combat sex trafficking. Traffickers regularly post photos of their victims in hotel rooms for online advertisements.
When you visit a hotel, you can upload photos of the hotel rooms you stay in so investigators can cross-reference your photos with the photos used by traffickers. If you don’t download any others try out this one, you could be saving someone’s life.
Cost: FREE
Which of these useful apps do you use and already love?
What ones will you be downloading right now?
Here are some other useful travel apps!
Comments & Reviews
Pete says
Oh boy! Some great apps there. Google Translate is magic – just turn it on, set the languages you want to translate to and from, and just point the camera at a sign or a newspaper or whatever, and it actually changes the text on the screen in real time. This is awesome.
Google Maps is fabulous. I’d be lost without it.
AirBnB and Uber: heavy users of those. I love AirBnB; I get a whole apartment for the cost of a hotel room. That includes kitchen and laundry, so massive savings in time, money, and convenience.
Traffickcam is something I’ve had loaded up for a while now. Heartily endorse.
kallsypage says
Thank you Pete! We love these apps too and swear by all things Google as far as apps go. We’ve started using AirBnB more lately and love it too!
Lauren West says
These are all so great! we rely on so many google ones. And we must start using Traffickcam!
kallsypage says
We rely heavily on google as well. Traffikcam is a new favorite, such a great concept and cause.
Carly says
I pinned for later! Some of these I had heard of, but some look super amazing!! I can’t believe how helpful some of them are, even offline!
Bhushavali says
Awesome list! I totally agree on the Google Translate. When I was in France, I used it to talk to the locals. I’ll type in what I wanted to ask and ask them to type back the answer in French!!! It was crazy but totally saved the day!!! And Google Maps??? I can’t imagine any travel without it!!
Fox says
I’m going to have to try out Google Translate! For some reason I’ve always just traveled with a crappy old phone that can just text and used my nice on airplane mode. It’s nice to tune out – but it’s also nice to be able to have the phone for maps and what not – which, STILL WORKS in airplane mode. I was in NZ and had my phone off of data and you couldn’t search anything, but if you loaded the app before you turned the phone to airplane mode you could use the map and a dot would show up to indicate where you were. Wild stuff!
Ginger says
I’ve already downloaded some of this app and I will look at some others especially for the dining and restaurants… we just usually go to the places on our way and try our luck if we’ll like the food. Thanks for this!
Lydia says
What a great list! I guess I have a lot of catching up to do as far as apps are concerned! I don’t usually use them but I’m going to check out the Google translation app. I’m curious to know if it translates properly. Any feedback?
rhiydwi says
I have a grand total of 2 of these on my phone, but with every single one of them I found myself nodding away and mentally making note to download later on! Except Google Translate. Not because it’s not great because, well, it is! But because I’m a translator by profession and so it just feels wrong to download a robot to do my job haha. Pack Point in particular sounds like an absolutely genius concept! Too often I’ve packed for the completely wrong season.
kallsypage says
Hope you enjoy it! I can definitely be a handy way to make lists of what to pack for specific places.