8 Must Have Travel Abroad Smart Phone Apps

Are you one of those people who are glued to their smartphone?  Yeah, join the crowd, and just admit it!  The truth is (as sad as it might be) smartphones have become an integral part of our daily lives, including when we travel.  For example, traveling without music? I can’t even imagine the day … or not being able to instagram your meal the second it arrives?  How could one live? So, take a deep breath because I’m going to tell you how to continue to justify your habit while you travel with these incredible, must have, tech-geek approved apps!

Organizing Your Travel Itineraries

Tripcase keeps you from scrambling for those annoying confirmation numbers, flight numbers or hotel addresses that can slow you down from capturing a potential epic photo on your way to the airport or texting your friends about how crazy your cabbie is.  Keep everything regarding your trip details in one place and stay in the know about your trip with updates on flight alerts… pretty handy. You can also store as many future trips as you want, so you don’t even have to think about reminding yourself the next time you travel so long as you input the information, duhhh.

At the airport

GateGuru is the only app that provides all the info you need to manage your entire day of travel from your mobile devices. Not only does it have everything you need, but you can show- off your high flyer status and rank against others in a community with ‘Your Travel Stats’ within the app.  “Like, I’m so much cooler than you because I’ve checked into 41 airports, lol.”

App in the air Have a long layover? This savvy app features useful tools to find the best food in the airport, where to connect to free Wi-Fi and the best ways to spend free time; you can also share your flight status to keep your VIP friends updated. Talk about a life saver!

Location Based Services

GuidiGO allows you to explore a new destination like never before (but only if you are cool enough to have an iPhone 3GS or higher).  Basically, this app allows you to follow the steps of storytellers wherever you may be through an interactive guided tour, great for exploring new cities and museums. Wine tour and tasting in Paris anyone?

Wikitude is just as cool as it sounds, and is a tech/travel geek hybrid’s dream.  It has been voted “Best Augmented Reality Browser” by the AR community 4 years in a row. Wow, what does THAT mean? Simply, Wikitude allows you to see what’s around you by using your camera from restaurants to people and activities. Exploration is great, but if you’re looking to narrow down your search to a single interest this app has all the bells and whistles. Got a taste for Thai tonight? Use Wikitude to not only find Thai restaurants near you, but narrow in on user reviews and opinions. Depending on your search and the content provider, you can dig much deeper into additionally provided information.

Abroad Friendly

OANDA Currency Converter alleviates the headache of converting currencies in your head.  What makes OANDA unique to other currency converter apps?  Not only is it super sleek, but it has the intuitive ability to factor the typical ATM rate or credit card rate into the conversion.  Can we say cool beans?

Google Translate is always handy if you happened to be daydreaming in your foreign language class.  This app saves the day in a pinch and can rapidly translate whole paragraphs of text or even spoken word if you’re lazy. Google translate will repeat your words in the foreign language of your choice… Use this app for picking up foreigners at the bar at your own expense…

MySafe Travel (for iPhone only) might raise your paranoia level, but will provide you with updates on country-specific security threats and safety issues, give advice if you are traveling alone and for the first time traveler provides ‘cultural travel tips’ for each continent.  If you think you’re James Bond, pay a little extra fee to opt in for SMS alerts providing you with 24/7 updates on risks in over 200 countries in real-time. 

Of course, this is a small sample of the travel apps currently available for iPhone and Android, and these are just a few of my personal recommendations.  If you use an app for travel that is not listed above, please share in the comments section below!