Remember when you used to book travel by picking up an actual telephone to call a travel agent or airline?<\/p>\n
It really wasn\u2019t that long ago when travel booking was mostly done by actually talking to people. Hotel reservations were made by phone. Tickets were purchased on site. Maps were hard copies of the big picture rather than a voice giving turn-by-turn directions and traffic conditions.<\/p>\n
While we may miss our paper maps, overall advancements in technology, specifically in apps, have made traveling a breeze. By now, you probably feel \u201ctoo cool\u201d\u2014and no longer a klutz\u2014when you slap your phone against the airport kiosk as your boarding pass.<\/p>\n
With the release of Google Trips, Google\u2019s newest app that organizes any and all aspects of a trip, traveling apps are getting even better.\nTo help plan any trip, whether it\u2019s overseas or in your own country, here is a list of seven apps guaranteed to make your trip that much easier.<\/p>\n
For the adventurous traveler who wants an authentic, overseas experience, Airbnb<\/a>\u2019s free, downloadable app is the perfect solution to hotel living. Airbnb offers a person-to-person homestay network that lets travelers rent other\u2019s homes. With new features such as Neighborhoods that lets guests pick out their ideal neighborhood to stay in, and through a series of categories such as Transit, Nightlife, Peace and Quiet, Touristy, and Shopping, Airbnb is perfect for travelers looking for an authentic experience.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a reason TIME magazine called CityMaps2Go<\/a>\u00a0\u201can essential app for travelers.\u201d Perfect for the well-organized traveler, CityMaps2Go offers detailed maps of your destination, ensuring that you\u2019ll never be lost overseas. It also lets users plan each aspect of their trips from streets, to nightlife, and everything in between.<\/p>\n Additionally, the app offers recommendations for the best hotels and restaurants, along with a list of the most popular tourist attractions in the city. With maps, planners, and recommendations, there is no aspect of travel that CityMaps2Go doesn\u2019t let you plan. Best of all, the app doesn’t use any data, which means that there\u2019s no additional cost when using the app overseas.<\/p>\n The hardest part of traveling is not knowing the language. After all, not everyone knows English, and Google Translate can only get you so far. Thankfully, Duolingo<\/a>\u00a0is here to help.<\/p>\n This app teaches not only the basics of several languages, such as Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Polish, Greek, and many more, but offers several courses in order to improve your language skills. Each lesson is broken into several categories\u2014such as art, family, or food\u2014and resembles a game, so users never grow bored of acquiring a new language.<\/p>\n Google recently unveiled their newest app Google Trips<\/a>\u00a0to raving reviews. According to sites like The Verge and The Independent, Google Trips is the ultimate app for any traveler. Google Trips manages tickets, books hotels, and has to over 200 cities. Best of all, Google Trips offers recommendations for entertainment, restaurants, and more\u2014all based on your Google history!<\/p>\n Once you log in with your Google account, you can access the many features that Trips has to offer. The Need to Know section contains helpful information about the city\u2014like emergency centers, currency, and how long it takes to get from the airport to any destination.\nHowever, the most notable feature is the Things to Do page, which plans for you depending on how long you plan to stay in town. It selects a bit of everything from nightlife, to restaurants, museums, and more!<\/p>\n Additionally, Google Trips has an offline feature that lets you save time, data, and money by downloading your personalized trip onto your phone.<\/p>\n TripIt <\/a>\u00a0is the travel app for the organized individual. Tripit connects with your emails accounts to find and organize any and all trip-related emails. Then, it inputs all of your departure and arrival times into a well-organized schedule, so you have easy access to all of your flight and booking information.<\/p>\n Additionally, Tripit is familiar with booking sites, airlines, as well as hotels and organizes each detail of your trip. As an added bonus, the Tripit website offers maps for numerous traveling destinations.<\/p>\n App in the Air<\/a>\u00a0is useful for any frequent flier. This app keeps track of any flight you might board and sends you constant updates, so you know in advanced if a flight is delayed or canceled. The app is broken down into four stages: check in, boarding, take off, and landing time. While the name might make you roll your eyes, App in the Air is fresh, exciting, and beautifully simple to use.<\/p>\n Unlike most of the apps on this list, App in the Air is not free. However, it does offer adjustable pricing. For notifications on your first five flights, the app is a mere $4.99. For information on 12 months of flights, you can pay $3.99, which is more than reasonable for any frequent flier. Finally, for anyone who can\u2019t bear to live without this app, the lifetime version costs $29.99.<\/p>\n App in the Air does have one more notable feature. TripIt and App in the Air can be used together, and all of your flight information will be available in both apps.<\/p>\nCityMaps2Go<\/h4>\n
Duolingo<\/h4>\n
Google Trips<\/h4>\n
TripIt<\/h4>\n
App in the Air<\/h4>\n
Livetrekker<\/h4>\n