iPhone 6-6s running on iOS9 – Image courtesy of Apple Inc.
Traveling with a smartphone is essential, in my opinion, to make emergency and other important calls while in transit, if for no other reason than that pay phones, once ubiquitous in much of the world, are often impossible to find these days when you need one.
In cities and towns, pay phones have been removed by phone companies because they weren’t being used and were expensive to maintain. In the U.S., there were more than 2.6 million pay phones in the mid-1990s, but currently, according to Randy Nichols of the American Public Communications Council, there are no more than 200,000 left, a 92 percent reduction.
There are thousands of travel apps for smartphones, some great and some worthless. I constantly test new travel apps and updates of old ones. Each app must serve a useful purpose and fulfill it well. I look for stability and usability in each one.
Here are my top ten smartphone travel apps for 2016.
10. Honk (iOS – $0.99, not yet available for Android or Windows)
When driving in a city or town, you often have to pay for street parking and have a time limit. Honk helps ensure you won’t get a parking ticket. With a swipe of the app’s meter you can set your parking time limit, then press the map button to set your location in the app. When it’s time to return to your car, Honk will show you where your car’s located and give you directions to get back to it.
9. Google Translate (iOS, Android, Windows – Free)
Google Translate is as amazing as ever. It can translate text from more than 80 languages. You can take a photo of text you wish to translate, type or even dictate it into the app. You can save translations for offline retrieval, too.
8. GateGuru (iOS , Android, Windows – Free)
GateGuru is a personal airport assistant. It has maps of the terminals at most of the world’s major airports. It has lists of the restaurants and other services available in each terminal, as well as reviews. It will also tell you where in the airport stores and services are located.
7. Mobile Passport (iOS, Android – Free, not yet available for Windows)
Mobile Passport permits U.S. and Canadian citizens to shorten their wait time at passport control when entering the U.S. After installing the app you create a profile. Upon arrival in the U.S., you complete the “New Trip” section and wirelessly submit your customs declaration. You’ll receive an electronic receipt with a QR code. You can then skip the often long, regular passport lines and go to a special passport control officer with your passport and smartphone showing the QR code receipt. The app is currently usable at only six airports in the U.S.
6. AccuWeather (iOS, Android, Windows – Free) This is the best overall weather app I’ve found for smartphones. Its data is accurate, and its forecasts are as good as or better than from other weather apps. You can save your favorite locations for quick referrals.
5. Genius Scan+ (iOS, Android – $6.99, Windows version is not recommended)
Genius Scan+ converts your smartphone to a scanner via the phone’s camera. The app can save your scan as a jpeg or pdf file. Use it to scan travel documents and receipts while on the go to ensure you return with them preserved. The scans can be exported to many popular cloud services or emailed. (The Windows version has a reduced feature set and doesn’t work as well at this time.)
4. Open Table (iOS, Android, Windows – Free)
Open Table helps you find restaurants, plus make and manage reservations at the ones of your choice. You can use the app to view menus and see reviews. You earn reward points with each use of the app, for use at Open Table restaurants. You can make reservations across the U.S. and in 20 international locations with the app.
3. XE Currency Pro (iOS, Android – $1.99, Windows – Free (not pro version))
This is the best currency converter app I’ve found for international travel. The app gives you real-time currency rates via your phone’s Internet connection, shows the conversion rates, calculates the exact value of a purchase in other currencies, and can monitor 20 currencies simultaneously. The free Windows version can only monitor 10 currencies simultaneously and is ad supported.
2. Google Maps (iOS, Android – Free, Windows version is not recommended )
This is the best map/navigation app for iOS and Android available at this time. Google Maps provides quality comprehensive maps for more than 200 countries. It has voice-guided GPS navigation, live traffic, and detailed information on more than 100 million places throughout the world. It permits you to download maps to your phone for offline use, which is especially helpful internationally when data costs are high.
1. TripIt (iOS, Android, Windows – Free)
This has been my top travel app for several years. It lets you create and share travel itineraries and sync them with your calendar. You can manually insert your reservations or import many automatically by emailing your airline, hotel, car rental, and other reservations to TripIt. If you upgrade to TripIt Pro ($49/year) as I have, you can also get real-time flight alerts, a seat tracker, refund notifications, a point tracker, etc.
For travelers with smartphones, these apps offer the opportunity to enhance your journeys by making travel easier, providing helpful information at the touch of a button and permitting you to manage reservations while you’re on the go.
After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a Public Health Engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a well known corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned travels the world writing about travel and photography, as well as running photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s Photography Blog and Galleries.
