YAY! You’re all ready, and it’s finally time to actually leave home (for a while)! Perhaps there are some apps for travel that would help?
Of course there are 😁
Depending on where you’re going, what you’re planning to do, some may be more useful than others.
Note: Remember that ideally you want all these apps downloaded, setup and ready before you leave. Don’t wait until you arrive at the airport or the hotel.
With everything on your smartphone, making sure that it’s powered is key. Here’s a quick video tip on my YouTube Channel to help: Turn on Flight Mode for Faster Charging
Airport Apps
I don’t personally use an airport app, but if you are travelling through a specific airport a lot, then the app could be useful.
Thought I’d do a little research on this. I started in the most obvious place – my app store.
First, don’t search for the word ‘airport’, you’ll get a bunch of games 😁 as I discovered.
Instead, search for the specific airport(s) you’re going to be using.
I was surprised that a number of airports that I ‘looked up’ didn’t have an app.
So I went ‘googling’ and discovered that these airport specific apps aren’t that popular. (surprising)
Because they aren’t popular or that useful, it appears that they are being removed from the app stores.
However, there are still a few available, and it could be worthwhile downloading it…
I found London Heathrow and London Gatwick are still available. These are the two main London airports, though you’ll find that there are at least 3 more airports called ‘London’. Curious as some of them aren’t actually in London 🤣.
Now why would you want an app for the airport?
It can give you useful information about:
- A map of the airport
- Security queue times
- Pre-order food and drink
- Plan your flight connections (if needed)
It’s likely that the airport that you’re travelling through won’t have an app. One option that I did find in my research was FLIO.
It’s an app that includes a number of airports all together in a single app. This can be more useful if you travel through a lot of places, instead of having to download one for each location.
The reviews are a bit mixed, take a look and see if it would be useful for you.
Airline Apps
One type app that you will want to download if you’re flying is the one for the specific airline that you’re flying with.
There are a number of advantages:
Planning your flight
The most obvious use for these types of apps is well before you travel, to search for flights. Not the best option if you want to shop around as they are only going to show you results with the specific airline. But it you have a preferred company, or you’ve got their loyalty card can be good.
Before the flight
It’s 24-48 hours before your flight and time to check in.
The app is a great way to quickly and easily do that.
Note: If you’ve booked your flight with another company, check that your booking is showing up on the airline app well before the check-in time. Just in case…
Once you’ve checked in, they often give you a digital boarding card. That can be saved in the app, but also consider taking a picture or adding it to your digital wallet.
You want it to be available whether you’ve got an internet connection or not.
This is especially useful for your flight home (yes, I know you don’t want to think about it now). It takes out the stress and hassle of waiting to check-in – it’s on your phone.
Boarding and Flight
If you’ve got the airline app, they often show you the boarding gate number before it appears on the screen at the airport.
So far, it’s been correct, as I’ve waited for it to appear on the screens – just in case 😉
Additionally any changes or updates will also appear ‘first’ on the app, before an announcement or information is updated.
The biggest reason to get the app, is that many airlines, especially on shorter flights, want you to use their app for in-flight entertainment. If they don’t have the screens at each seat, then they are offering everything through their app.
As I mostly fly international, I haven’t personally used this yet. For my shorter flights I tend to read on my Kindle.
Even without taking the ‘entertainment’ into account, the other reasons (above) are good enough for me to always download the app for the specific airline onto my phone.
eSim
One of the things that I don’t want to be caught out with is a massive bill of data charges when I travel to a different country.
A few travel experts say get a local sim card for your phone. You are then paying a local (country) rate, instead of international.
For me, the idea of having to buy a new sim card for each different county and swapping it out to get a better data/call deal seemed like too much. Instead I’ve just made sure (as much as possible) that I only use WIFI.
During one of my video binges (Nora Dunn – International Cell Phone Travel Tips | Save MEGA $$$ on Roaming!), I learnt about eSims.
As you can guess form the name, it’s an electronic sim, rather than a physical one. No swapping sims!
Instead it’s installed through your phone settings and allows your phone to use the local data services.
Additionally you get to keep your regular phone number, and don’t need to carry or mess around with sim cards.
To the best of my knowledge (and I’m pretty new at this), you will need to download an app, and purchase either data, or a data plan.
On my last trip to the USA, where I knew I was going to be reliant on data for travel (Uber anyone?), I wanted to make sure that I didn’t have to reply 100% on having a WIFI connection.
Using an eSim
After a bit of research, I chose Airalo.
It was easy to download the app (of course), and purchase the data.
I set it up at home, and as I got the cheapest one – for a week, only enabled it the day of my flight.
While I barely used it – I had WIFI in more places than I expected – it was reassuring to know that it was there and it worked exactly as expected.
On my next trip (no idea when that will be), I would definitely think about buying a data plan for an eSim again.
There are a number of companies that offer eSims, at different deals and rates. As with anything like this, please do your own research to find out the right offer for you.
Maps
I’m including this in the list, even though you probably won’t be actually downloading a map app. Let’s be honest, most phones come with one already installed.
However, you might want to think about saving the map(s) for the locations that you might need when travelling.
As with everything else in this post, consider making offline copies before you travel – although with a connection you can download the specific area that you need, or just use the online map.
Next Steps
I’m sure that there are a lot of other apps that you might find useful when you travel.
Hopefully, this post has given you some thoughts and ides that you didn’t know before.
What apps do you find useful while you’re travelling, share in the comments.
Other Travel Tech Posts
Travel Tech: What’s the best device for travel?
Remember your travel tech accessories
Useful apps to help with your travel prep
Make your travel easier with these mobile apps (current post)
Great packing and travel tips from my fav YouTube Channels
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