Whether you’re sprinting through the airport McCallister family-style or stuck on a never-ending layover in a foreign city, these are the apps expert travelers wish they’d known about sooner.
App in The Air
If getting your crew anywhere on time is a harried ordeal reminiscent of Home Alone, meet your personal flight assistant. App in The Air breaks air travel down into four stages — Check-in, Boarding, Take-off and Landing — so you always know what’s going on with your flight. Each stage is monitored on a timeline feature, giving you an exact update of how much time you have to catch your plane (or break for lunch). Even better, for trips with connecting flights, real-time updates monitor gate changes and delays, and airport maps navigate you through unfamiliar terrain so you always get where you need to go.
PackPoint
While intended to simplify the lives of travelers everywhere, I’m pretty sure the launch of this app was met with collective cries of joy from parents in all corners of the world. PackPoint is the easiest way to guarantee nothing gets left behind (which for youngsters and first-time packers, we all know, is a major crisis). Simply download the app, enter your destination, dates of travel and what activities you plan to do (night on the town, snorkeling, day hike, etc.), then rejoice as a personalized packing list is generated for you. Next, get to packing and bask in your peace of mind that everything is in its place.
HotelTonight
HotelTonight may not be new, but the deals and convenience of using it are real. If you ever find yourself with an unexpected overnight stay somewhere, the HotelTonight app searches local hotels for available rooms, then passes them along to you at a discounted rate. Plus, the more you use the app, the more discounts you unlock.
HappyCow
Visiting a new place should never interfere with your dieting preferences. Enter HappyCow — an app that shows vegan and vegetarian dining options near you. Updated and monitored by vegan ambassadors around the world, you’ll never have to settle for a sad fast-food side salad again.
Dayuse
So you drew the travel-verse short straw and are now suffering through an 11-hour layover, slowly losing your mind under the florescent lights as you contemplate your jetlag, your cranky toddler, and how badly you need a shower. Dayuse is your layover lifeline. The app allows users to book hotel rooms for daytime use at up to 75% off their usual rate. Spend a couple hours watching a movie with room service, freshening up or grabbing a nap before heading back to the airport to catch your flight fully recharged. Genius!
iTranslate
Make learning a new language fun with iTranslate. With access to over 100 languages, you can translate foreign websites, text or start up a conversation with a local — simply speak into your phone and out comes a perfectly conjugated sentence. Whether you use it for navigating a new city or practicing your Italiano from the comfort of your bed, you’ll love how easy it is to communicate.