To travel smart, is to travel well. And helping you achieve this goal is our pick of apps that you can pocket along with your phone, when you set off on your travels this holiday season.
PackPoint
Avoid those ‘oops, we forgot to pack it’ moments with the PackPoint Packing List Travel Companion, available for iOS and Android. It claims to be an “intelligent packing app and packing list builder for serious travellers” — all you have to do is add in the destination, departure date and trip duration. The app will come back with suggestions on what you need to take along “based on length of travel, weather at your destination, and any activities planned during your trip”. Also, if you are travelling in a group, you can share lists and optimise on who’s packing in what. A $3 pro version lets you sync data across devices, using Evernote. And oh, the app will also tell you if you need to take along an umbrella. Though don’t blame PackPoint if the weather remains sunny throughout – blame that on the met department, instead.
XE Currency
It claims to “convert every world currency”. XE Currency is also one of those rare apps that acknowledge there are mobile platforms other than the usual suspects of iOS and Android. Available for almost every smartphone out there, the app tracks over 180 currencies, delivers exchange rates refreshed every minute, along with 30,000+ currency charts for historic rates. A neat feature is that the app caches the latest data, so that it can still work even if when are in some exotic locale with no data connection. The free version lets you follow 10 currencies simultaneously, while the pro $2 version removes ads and ramps up the currency count to 20. Incidentally, if you have the swanky new Apple Watch, XE Currency will let you view and refresh currency rates on it.
FlightTrack 5
Mobiata, the developers of FlightTrack 5, insist “travel can be chaotic enough” and its app “tries to maintain some order” by keeping you updated on the flight status — whether you are the one travelling or are receiving someone at the airport. You can also do a group share, and keep track of multiple flights — great for that reunion where people are coming in to town from all over the world. And if you are unfamiliar with an airport terminal, you can tap into a detailed map that will guide you to the right gate, as also notify you if there have been cancellations, and help you find alternative flights “when you're in a pinch”. FlightTrack 5 is available for $5, on iTunes and the Play Store.
Kayak
For many travellers, a key goal is getting the best bang for your bucks — on everything from flights to hotels to local travel. Kayak is a “smart travel search engine” that trawls hundreds of travel sites to bring you the best deals and to make your “travel problems solvable”. The app, available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, has data for over 30 countries, and is available in 18 languages. It has also integrated Uber, and you can hail a ride from within the app. The latest iOS version lets you view updates on an Apple Watch. It also brings a new feature called Private Deals, which is available only when you log in — apparently, these deals are so good, that Kayak can’t “show them to the general public”!
Google Maps
Not so long ago, you had multiple options for a maps app, including Mapquest and Apple Maps. But currently, nothing comes close to the sheer data depth and features that Google Maps offers, whether on Android devices or iPhones and iPads. It claims to make “navigating your world faster and easier”, and has “comprehensive and accurate” maps for 220 countries. You can also tap into transit directions for over 15,000 cities and towns, get live traffic updates, incident reports and automatic rerouting. Google claims the Maps database has “detailed information” on over 100 million places, while Street View and indoor imagery is available for some of those. The latest version for iOS brings spoken traffic alerts and summaries.
Google Translate
“Quelle est la spécialité locale ici que je peux manger jusqu'à ce que je tombe?” That, according to Google Translate, is French for “What is the local delicacy here that I can eat till I drop?” The app understands 90 languages, while you can do “two-way automatic speech translation” in 40 of those. You can also use your camera to capture and translate text “instantly” in 26 languages. And for places where connectivity is going to be spotty or expensive, you can download the language packs for offline use. Translations too can be saved for future reference. Meanwhile, the latest version adds instant camera translation from German and English to Arabic. And apart from the Play Store, Google Translate is also available on iTunes.
