5 Apps Every Traveler Must Have

It has often been said that computers and the internet have made the world a much smaller place. Now that the computers have shrunk to the size of mobile handsets, and still carry all of the power of the internet (and even more great tools), they have become the essential travel tool.

If you regularly wander around the world, or even just outside your neighborhood, your smartphone can serve as a great navigation tool, restaurant, hotel and bar finder, translator, scheduler, schedule checker and so much more.

Here are a few examples of great apps to make your trip, or just your evening out a lot easier and more hassle-free.

1. National Rail Enquiries – If you spend any time on the trains of the UK, this app is a must. It gives you the ability to buy tickets, plan routes, and even get the platform number of your waiting train.
   This app is directly connected to the rail network’s live data, so up-to-the-second data is available not just on an estimated arrival time, but the actual location of your train. With the app, you even get the information before patrons watching the boards at the station.

2. GPS Navigation – The name pretty much says it all. Don’t let the lack of creativity in the name throw you. This is a very innovative and useful navigation tool that will definitely out-perform any out-of-the box map apps.
   Using their own map data, full turn-by-turn directions are given in a real time to travelers of any speed. Speed warnings, voice metrics and isometric views are all available, and a network connection isn’t required for it to work.

3. Zomato- If you’re visiting a strange new city or just looking for a good new place to eat, Zomato is the app for you. You can scroll through multitudes of personal reviews of tons of restaurants, as well as finding recommendations shaped to your tastes or search criteria.
   The app can learn your tastes and pair them with other users’ reviews to predict places you may like, and allows you to build a database of places you’ve visited.

4. CAMRA Good Beer Guide – After dinner (or not) you may want to find a nice pub in the area. When travelling around the UK, you may be required to stop by some of the local pubs, or face dire consequences.
   CAMRA is the perfect solution to finding those hard-to-find neighborhood pubs, and even offers a vast database of different beers, wine and ales, complete with reviews; so you can make the most of your trip to your new found watering holes.

5. Translator with Speech – Don’t be the ugly tourist that thinks every foreigner should understand English, especially if you speak it slowly and loudly enough. If you don’t know the language in the land you are visiting, the locals will appreciate any attempt to communicate with them in their own tongue.
   This app is a nice solution to show you are putting forth an effort, and it takes a majority of the work off your hands. Offering translation services for 72 languages, all you have to do is type in what you want to say, and pick the language.
   In addition to the text display, voice translation is being integrated into a number of different languages, including general pronunciation help. You can also keep a history of phrases you have previously translated for easy reference in the app’s history database.