10 Most Useful Travel Apps for Smartphones

You probably chose to travel with Natural Habitat Adventures to get closer to nature and escape the stresses of everyday life like email, voicemail and Facebook.  But now that smartphones are so prevalent, we wanted to highlight some of the travel Apps that can actually make your trip go smoother and help eliminate as much stress as possible, so you can focus on what’s important to you during your trip.  We scoured the internet and the App store to make our list of the Ten Most Useful Travel Apps, whether it’s for a Galapagos Islands family trip, an African photo safari, or simply your next business trip.  It was difficult to narrow it down to just 10 Apps, so stay tuned for later installments of other cool travel Apps!  What are YOUR favorite travel Apps for smartphones?  Comment below, we’d love to hear!

10. TripIt
If you have not heard of TripIt, go download it! Gone are the days of sorting through your inbox to print out multiple travel confirmation emails. This App keeps your flight, rental car, hotel details, and more conveniently all in one place.  Just forward your booking confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and they magically transcribe all the details into your TripIt App.  Our favorite features: it syncs to your phone’s calendar automatically, it tells you the departure and arrival gates of your flights, and it can even read your e-mails and identify and organize the ones with travel confirmations if you want it to.

• Free for iPhone and Android.

9. International Business Etiquette
International Business Etiquette dispenses international dos and don’ts, to help you avoid embarrassing cultural faux-pas.  Even though it says it’s for business travelers, the info is relevant to any traveler.  It teaches you cultural norms such as how to dress appropriately, which hand gestures not to use, and other little things you can do to show respect in other countries.  A must if you are traveling to an unfamiliar country.

• Free for iPhone. Note: Our first choice was the “World Customs and Cultures” App, but the App store says it is not currently available in the US for some reason.

8. iFly Pro
The best all-in-one App to track flight delays and find the best food and shops hundreds of airports worldwide. A little pricey but worth it.

• $6.99 for iPhone and Android.

7. Packing Pro
If you’re anything like me, packing is the least fun part about traveling.  Do you dread packing and always leave it until the last minute? Become a packing guru with Packing Pro.  It creates personalized packing lists for you based on destination location, number of adults and children, number of days, temperature, and even laundry preferences.  If you like making your own packing list, you can use the App to create, edit and check off customized packing lists.

• $2.99 for iPhone and Android.

6. The Weather Channel
We also like AccuWeather, but The Weather Channel’s seemed to win with more critics for its customization capabilities and the option to check out weather in multiple locations at one glance.

• Free for iPhone and Android.

5. Sit Or Squat
Imagine this scene: the spicy beans and rice dish you ate from a street vendor tasted great 30 minutes ago, but it’s not sitting so well now.  You still have an hour of free time before you meet back up with your group, and you have no idea where the closest clean public bathroom is. SitOrSquat is an interactive GPS map that leads you to safety at over 100,000 bathrooms worldwide.  It even has user-uploaded photos of the toilets…maybe a little TMI?

• Free for iPhone and Android.

4. Google Translate
Even if you haven’t taken language lessons for the country you’re visiting, communicate easily no matter where you are with Google Translate. It has more than 60 languages, and for 17 of the most common languages, you can translate text by speaking rather than typing.  The best part is it’s free!

• Free for iPhone and Android.

3. Free Wi-Fi Finder
Wi-Fi is your smartphone’s best friend while abroad.  Avoid racking up international data and roaming charges with the Free Wi-Fi Finder app, which locates Wi-Fi hotspots in your vicinity around the globe.  It maps out free Wi-Fi hotspots and also provides you directions to the hotspot.

• Free for iPhone and Android.

2. Globe Tipping
Tipping is tricky in other countries, and heck it’s usually tricky in your own country! This App outlines customary tipping amounts in 200 countries, from Afghanistan to Zambia.  GlobeTipping is a comprehensive global tip calculator, and it shows you what to tip for different activities and can factor in tips by percentage and divide the overall bill by number of diners.

• $0.99 for iPhone, but Tipping Bird is a very similar free App for Android.

You’ll also want to download a free currency exchange App such as XE or The Currency, both available for free for iPhone and Android.

1. Postagram
Say goodbye to buying corny faded postcards, searching for postage and hand writing a note to someone far away (or if you’re like me, never forget to send your mom a postcard again)! Simply select one of your awesome trip photos from your phone, crop it, type a personalized message and let Postagram handle the postage and addressing.  This is not an e-card folks, Postagram sends a real live snail-mail postcard with your travel photo printed on it. Postagram stores your favorite addresses so you don’t have to re-type mom and dad’s address more than once.

• Free for iPhone and Android, then $0.99/postcard.