Must-Have Travel Apps

by Katja Kaven

There are probably hundreds of apps related to traveling and I often download specific ones for different countries or even cities I go to. But I have three travel apps that I use wherever I go and that have helped me out a lot already during my past four months of backpacking. Today, I’m sharing with you my must-have travel apps.

Disclaimer: This blog post is in no way or form sponsored (I wish haha), I’m just sharing my honest opinion.

Tip: Follow me on Instagram here to keep up with my life after traveling.

1. Maps.Me

Now I’m not gonna bore you with how you can download maps and use them offline with maps.me. Sure, this feature comes in handy when you’re traveling and might not have a SIM card. But a lot of apps allow you to download maps, so moving on.

The reason why I discovered maps.me is because when planning my ten days of traveling Bali I was looking for an app where I could mark all the places I wanted to go to. That way, I could get an overview of what areas I’d be covering. Maps.me made it so much easier to plan my itinerary which is why it is one of the best travel apps.

Perfect for planning your itinerary, therefore, one of the must-have travel apps
Planning on where to travel to in Bali

Every time I get to a new place now, I download the city’s map and start saving all the places I go to. I usually research those in advance or write down any time someone recommends a place to go. That way, even when I am just strolling through the streets, I can check whether there are any places close to me I should go check out.

Below, you see the places I marked in Canggu, Bali. Most of them are restaurants (find my vegan food guide for Canggu here), which was quite useful when I spent my day out and about in Canggu and got hungry – I just checked for the closest restaurant/cafe I still wanted to try out.

Save all the places you want to check out - one of the must-have travel apps
I’ve talked about most of these restaurants in my vegan food guide to Canggu

Being able to mark my places to go makes maps.me a must-have travel app for me!
Download for iPhone
Download for Android

For travel itineraries check out  Ten days of traveling BaliMust-See places around Tasmania, 3-week in the Philippines and 3-week Myanmar itinerary

2. Trail Wallet – one of the must-have travel apps for budget travelers

If you are like me and you want to keep an overview over what exactly you’re spending or you are on a tight budget, Trail Wallet is the app for you. The free version only includes 25 items but for just 4.99€ you can upgrade to premium. I’d say the money is worth it, especially considering Trail Wallet might save you from mindlessly spending money.

So, how does it work? You just add a trip and set a daily budget or a budget for the whole trip (both works). Whenever you pay for anything, just take out your phone and add it to your trip with the Quick Add feature. You can also check how much money from your daily budget you have left.

Track your expenses in this must-have travel app
You can see whether you stayed under budget

Want to know where all of your money goes? Just click on the pie chart in the bottom left corner. You’ll see an overview of what you’ve spent so far, split up into different categories. On this trip, for example, I spent a lot of money on awesome activities. In addition, I spent more money on food than the average backpacker would in order to give you an in-depth guide on how to eat vegan all over New Zealand. The transport costs include my Kiwi Experience pass. By the way, did you know that you can use my discount code “kiwiexperience5” to get 5% discount on all passes even the ones on sale? I don’t make any money from this, it’s solely to save you some money!

See what you've spent your money on in this must-have travel app
I knew I would want to do a lot of activities in New Zealand, that’s why I put aside a looot of money for that. With Trail Wallet, I could keep track that I wasn’t overspending.

Trail Wallet is definitely a must-have travel app for me! Download it for iPhone here.

For budget travel, check out my blog post on how to travel Alicante on a budget.

3. XE Currency

Now, there is not a lot I can tell you about XE Currency. It offers live proprietary exchange rates which comes in handy when you just arrived somewhere and haven’t gotten used to the exchange rate yet (or you’re just too lazy to calculate in your head).

Simply tap the currency you want to convert, type in the amount and you’ll find the converted amount in all currencies you’ve added to the app.

Always know how much something is in your currency - with this must-have travel app
Here, I converted $4.50 AUD into multiple other currencies

Helping you out with exchange rates? XE Currency is deservedly one of my must-have travel apps.
Download for iPhone
Download for Android

What are your must-have travel apps? Do you use any of the ones I’ve mentioned? Did I miss any?

Tip: If you’d like to follow along with my life after traveling, follow me on Instagram here.

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1 comment

Danica January 8, 2019 - 13:49

Maps.me is my favorite too! Since we discovered that app, we don’t do itineraries anymore and instead, just pin the places we want to visit in this app. So much easier!

Reply

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