Some things may have changed since your last excursion if you haven’t traveled in forever. You might even run into sticker shock regarding airfare and hotel accommodations. Tap or click here for the best budgeting apps to help get your finances in order.
One way to have the best experience is to incorporate travel apps when planning your next adventure. They can help you find the perfect destination and even give you money-saving tips.
But which travel apps are the best? Don’t worry. We’ve done the work for you. Here are the 10 best travel apps to plan fun adventures.
Kayak is for you if you are sick of searching for your destination in multiple apps or on websites. Search flights, hotels, and rentals across all the major booking sites to ensure you get the best price every time.
Best for: Comparing travel prices across multiple travel websites.
Cost: Free.
My ears are always perked for life hacks or time-saving tricks. I like to try them out so you can know whether or not they work. I’m sad to report that a new way to reserve an Uber comes with a $20 fee you may not know about.
Travel often? Stop tearing apart the house for chargers before every single trip. Grab an inexpensive tech bag and buy duplicates of all your most-used chargers (or find them in a drawer). Before you leave, think, “Phone, watch, headphones,” and just grab and go.
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Check before you travel: A Florida man was hit with a whopping $143,442.74 phone bill from T-Mobile for roaming costs when traveling in Switzerland. He thought he was covered. Nope. They reversed the charges. Pro tip: There’s a $50-per-month T-Mobile travel plan to prevent stuff like this. Most providers have something similar.
Passed through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 2023. ATL is the busiest airport in the world. Dubai International Airport came in second, with 87 million passengers. You know the old saying: “When you die, whether you’re going to heaven or hell, you’ll connect through Atlanta.”
Don’t wait for them to call or text. There are better ways, friend!
When you get in the car for a trip, work meeting, or run an errand, it’s never as simple as traveling from Point A to Point B. Sometimes, there are also points C, D, E, F, and G. To make matters more complicated, the route you take could mean a massive difference in time and money.
Polyglots don’t have this problem, but many of us yearn for the day that we can pop a device into our ears and instantly translate foreign languages. The Babel fish translator from Douglas Adams’ excellent The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy comes to mind.
When your suitcase is jam-packed: Fancy credit card lounges (paywall link) loaded with workspaces, restaurants and more are popping up at U.S. airports. New perks include Peloton bikes, caviar and nap pods. I saw an ad for a new Singapore Airlines flight that has a full workout area in the first-class cabin. That’s something!
✈️ Heads up, jet-setters: If you book a trip with Google Flights’ price guarantee badge and the fare drops, you could get refunded the difference. The drop must be over $5, there’s a $500 cap per year, and you must be signed in with the region as the U.S. (with prices in dollars). You’ll also need Google Pay to claim your cash back.
Starting Oct. 1 for customs-expediting programs Global Entry, NEXUS and SENTRI. Global Entry (U.S. airports) application fees will go from $100 to $120, NEXUS (U.S. land borders from Canada) fees will rise from $50 to $120, and SENTRI (U.S. land borders from Mexico) fees will cost ya $120. Mark the deadline to save some bucks. Yup, I’m air-mazing to pass this along.
Many of us have never even considered switching our navigation app from the default pick, Google Maps. Or if you’re on an Apple device, Apple Maps. However, this is a change worth considering because another popular navigation app just got a huge update, making it better and more competitive than ever.
iOS devices and Google Maps haven’t always had the happiest marriage. When Apple launched its own Maps tool, it began to distance itself from Google Maps, which was now a competitor. As a result, Google Maps hasn’t been available on Apple Watch or been able to be set as the default navigation app for Apple CarPlay, but all of that has changed.
Gone are the days of simple videos. There are countless apps and filters you can use to make your clips pop. You can even record in 4K with your iPhone. Just tap or click here to learn how.
But while higher video quality continues to impress, intentionally lower quality videos can also make an otherwise average clip shine.
Roadtrips can be long, tiring affairs — especially when the kids remind you of how bored they are every 15 minutes. But road trips don’t have to be awful. You can spice things up with a fun app and make dead stares through the window a thing of the past.
When you take a trip, you know the only way to find the best places in the city is to ask a local for recommendations. But what if you run into a language barrier or you’re not sure about someone’s recommendation? This is where a travel app would come in handy.
Do you travel a lot for business or pleasure? Navigating a busy airport is a nightmare, but it doesn’t always have to be.
Even if you arrive early, there are still lots of unexpected changes to deal with. Sometimes your plane switches gates at the last minute or there’s an extra-long line at the security check. Tap or click here to learn how to skip the security line at airports. The bottom line is flying isn’t always simple.
If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that technology has come a long way and there are no signs of it slowing down.
This latest tech update shows us just how useful technology has become in the last decade. The next time you want to have a conversation with someone who speaks a different language, you’ll be able to communicate clearly with help from your smart speaker, phone or tablet.
Let’s be honest, Google Earth has opened our eyes. From satellite images to street view panoramas, Google Earth is a great way to see the world without having to take one step outside our homes. Tap or click here to see some amazing Google Earth discoveries.
Most people expect to get the best deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but are those really the best days? Well, it depends on what you’re looking to buy.
When it comes to travel, your best bet might be to exercise a little patience and hold out for Travel Deal Tuesday, which may be shaping up to be the Black Friday of airfares. Tap or click for quick and efficient packing hacks for travelers.
