Apps for Breezy Travels
India Outbound
September-October 2017
In a digitised world, travelling is made easier, more convenient and effective with the help of mobile applications that can be accessed anytime, anywhere. There is an app for everything, from predicting weather to helping with translating a foreign language all aiming to make a journey less worrisome and more enjoyable.
The following mobile apps are free, compatible with smart phones and tablets, and increasingly user-friendly. Here are India Outbound’s top picks of apps that will make travelling a lot less stressful:
Google Translate
Travelling to new countries but don’t know the language? With Google Translate, language will be no barrier. This multilingual app can translate some 103 languages by typing. It can also translate up to 52 languages without a stable internet connection. This free app developed by Google, can also translate speech, images, sites, or real-time video from one language into another. The Google Translate app is free for iOS and Android users and caters to over 200 million people daily.
Tripit
This app is the perfect organising app that takes care of your travel itinerary without any hassle. Once the booking is done by the user, one needs to simply forward confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and TripIt will instantly create a master itinerary for each of the trips. The user can then access their plans anytime, anywhere and for free. The app also allows you to opt for automatically importing travel plans from your Gmail, Google Apps, Outlook.com or Yahoo! mail inbox, so you don’t have to forward confirmation emails.
Citymapper – Transit Navigation
This free app is a transit app making it more user-friendly than its counterparts. This app enables users to check nearby public transport departures in real-time and to find the fastest route combining bus, subway, train, ferry, taxi, car share, bike and by foot. The most used feature of the app is the step-by-step directions to guide the user to the desired destination by even tracking subway exits to reach platforms.
Airbnb
Airbnb believes in making their clientele ‘feel at home’ no matter where they go. With the Airbnb travel app one can choose from over 2.5 million homes in over 191 countries. Users can book homes, search for last-minute accommodations or long-term rentals, add experiences and events to the travel itinerary and even track the best bars, restaurants and secret spots near the visiting area. The app gives search results based on price, neighbourhood and amenities, among other criteria.
Skyscanner
The perfect app to set travel goals is Skyscanner as it lets you in on the best deals for flights. It searches the best options suited to your needs and generates flight results starting from the lowest price. It even shows details like flight stops and duration that will further equip one for a forthcoming trip. Skyscanner also has a feature wherein flights can be filtered by airline, cabin class, price or take-off and landing times, with weekly or monthly chart views to check out prices over time.
XE Currency
Have troubles with conversions while travelling abroad? XE Currency is the go-to app for all your world currency related problems. With over 20 million downloads since its launch, this app comes equipped with myriad businessoriented features, such as rates for precious metals, historic currency charts and most importantly for the traveller, world currency conversion rates and charts. The app also works in a no-internet zone by saving the last updated rates offline.
PackPoint
Confused about what to pack? PackPoint is an app that helps customise your packing list based on your destination. One has to simply put in the location and days of stay and the app takes all things into consideration from the destination, number of days of stay, type of travel, weather and even access to launderettes, to come up with a packing list. One can even connect it to TripIt and autocreate packing lists.
