The Travel Apps I Can’t Live Without

I’m not a massive tech-y person but I bloody love a good phone app, and good travel apps even more so.

It’s rare that an app manages to actually improve my life but when it does, it’s a glorious affair. I tell everyone at work, I hold a ‘latest brilliant app’ session at my regular brunch catch ups with friends (I know, who wouldn’t want to brunch with me right?!!), I tell anyone who’ll listen. This now includes you ☺️

I wrote a post a while back on my favourite London apps but given I’ve got some pretty awesome finds of late, it was time for an update. With a travel twist.

NB: I haven’t been paid by any of these apps, im just really, really enthusiastic. 

The apps that make my travels easier, cheaper, happier or more organised, in no particular order are:

Monzo

I’m telling everyone about this new budgeting app because it’s brilliant. Sign up and they’ll send you a debit card that you can use instead of your normal bank one.

But why, you ask? No international fees (the best thing for travel since ever), you get instant notifications on your phone every time you spend money, and every pound spent is categorised into buckets like ‘Holidays’, ‘Bills’, ‘Eating out’ or ‘Transport’ to make sure you’re sticking to your budget (or lack of). Plus a bunch of other cool things. Check it out for yourself here.

I used mine internationally for the first time the other weekend in Stockholm and it was brilliant. It told me right away how much each transaction cost in pounds (with a great exchange rate), I wasn’t charged any fees and when I got back home, it gave me a neat little enormous summary of how much money I’d spent in total while I was away. ?

SkyScanner

This has been my staple in the travel apps category since the beginning of time. Or a few years, at least. It has seriously improved over the years too so it’s the easiest app to use for searching flights, period. You can search for any flights around the world, filter by times/airlines, order by cheapest to most expensive and set price alerts so you get notified of price changes for the ones you’re watching. If you need some travel inspo, you can put in your travel dates and it’ll show the cheapest options too. If you don’t already use it and you love to travel… Download. It. Right. Now.  … Here.

Netflix

Now that Netflix let you download episodes and films to your device, I download all the best stuff to my iPad in bulk before a trip. This way I never run out of entertainment on flights, trains or long airport waits. Netflix is pretty cheap (like, realllllly cheap, from £6 p/month) and if you live with someone you can split the cost with, then it’s even cheaper.  Check it out here. 

Flightradar24

This one has snuck its way into my ‘travel apps’ theme because a) it is very literally travel-themed; but mostly because b) it’s one of my all-time favourite apps ever. Yes, I paid for the upgrade. FlightRadar24 is basically a live map of the world tracking every single aircraft currently flying through the air at any given moment. Mind blowing.

I’m always taken aback by the amount of planes in the sky at any one time in London. Now I can be a mega creep and open up my “travel app” which shows me what the plane is, where it’s going, where it’s come from, what time it’s scheduled to land, probably what they’re eating for lunch if I really wanted to know.

Beyond just being really great if you’re as nosy as me when it comes to aviation, it’s also genuinely useful when tracking your friends’/family’s journeys. Especially if you’ve been coerced into doing an airport pick up and need to check for delays. And potentially wave as they fly by! ?

Check it out on iOS here or Android here.

My Cycles

I’ve made all my girlfriends download this one. It tracks your periods and ovulation cycles, and notifies you a few days before your due date so I’m never caught off guard. It also tracks your symptoms and maps out a calendar of when you can expect every period to begin/end until eternity. I know you’re thinking “great Kamila, what the hell does this have to do with travel apps?’. Well, whenever I’m finding the right dates to go on holiday, I open up MyCycle and try to plan holiday dates around my periods. Because obviously, if it can be helped, holidays are better tampon-free. Tell your sister, your BFF, boss, girlfriend, landlady, tell everyone. It’s a winner.

Download on iOS here, or Android here.

Do you have a favourite or must-have app that I should download? Tell me everything. The more the merrier.

Kamila x