In the life of a modern person, a smartphone is a thing without which it’s very difficult to do. It allows you to contact the right person, find the necessary information, as well as simply have fun.
For a traveler, smartphone is even more important device. For example, you are going to a road trip in the USA and you need a car. In order to reserve it, you need to take your smartphone, launch a browser, follow rental car for under 21 and choose the best offer according to your requirements. However, this is not all. With the help of special applications such as Google Maps or Route4Me, smartphone makes it possible to simplify many tasks associated with planning a trip, navigating through unfamiliar territory and also searching for free Wi-Fi points and other places of interest. Here’re some useful options:
1. TripAdvisor
Today, TripAdvisor is one of the most popular mobile travel apps. This is a kind of social network for travelers providing great opportunities to find interesting places and sights.
The biggest value on TripAdvisor is the huge user community. People leave their objective ratings and reviews about cafes, hotels, restaurants, while on the forum they give tips and tricks to newcomers. The number of reviews on various places on the planet has already exceeded 100 million.
It’s interesting that the owners of establishments are also interested in the development of TripAdvisor. For example, if any European restaurant posted an application banner, this can be regarded as a kind of quality mark. So the owner reports that users left the establishment a high rating.
2. Wikitude
One of the most unique guide applications is the Wikitude augmented reality browser. The application has repeatedly become the winner of various competitions.
For proper working, it needs the Internet and a stable GPS signal. Wikitude determines the user's location and his current geo-position, and then directly on the screen, on top of the camera image, displays information about surrounding objects.
For example, after looking through a smartphone at an old building in the center of Milan, the user won’t only be able to find out the history of this building, but will also see information about the surrounding sights and events. Such events include sales, cinema shows, performances and much more that may interest the traveler.
3. Find WC
When going on a trip to the cultural and historical centers of the planet, a person usually draws up a route and collects information about the places he intends to visit.
What nobody plans is finding the toilet. In order to prevent you from spoiling the travel experience, Find WC app was developed. It allows a person to quickly find the nearest public toilet in an unfamiliar city. A big plus of the system is the ability to edit information. Each user has the opportunity to add new information about the available toilet, or to correct an error in an existing one.
4. Free Wi-Fi Map
This is another very popular application among the fans of urban traveling. Free Wi-Fi Map allows you to quickly find a free Wi-Fi hotspot if the traveler suddenly needs fast internet. Users independently add and edit information about available access points.
Given that the audience of the application reaches almost 100 thousand people, you can always count on a quick and correct update of the data. Perhaps the main drawback of Free Wi-Fi Map is the lack of offline mode. That is, to find information about an available Wi-Fi point, you need to connect to mobile Internet. In roaming conditions this can be very expensive. Therefore, it’s recommended that you familiarize yourself with the location of free points in advance as soon as possible.
5. Google Translate
Google Translate doesn’t need to be introduced. Today it’s one of the most powerful and flexible translation systems for different languages. Now this system can also work in a mobile device. It’s recommended that everyone take a translator on a trip, even those who believe that they are fluent in the language of the country where they are going.
It may be very useful to be able to translate offline. However, in order for the system to work without an Internet connection, you will have to download a sufficiently large language packs first. Another extremely useful feature of the Google Translate app is the ability to recognize photographed captions. In this case, the application works on the principle of augmented reality and replaces the text directly on the image. At the moment, the system supports 90 of the world's largest languages.
6. Waze
Even the best maps don’t always display information in real time. In order to avoid congestion caused by accidents or repairs, you can use Waze - one of the world's largest applications for road navigation.
Its trick is that the driver who installs the application becomes a source of information about the traffic situation. He can send reports on accidents, dangers, police and other events, as well as receive this information from others.
Also, it’s possible to share data on current prices at gas stations. Accordingly, the application won’t only change the route based on the degree of congestion, but will also help you find the cheapest gas station. Waze remembers your usual destinations, travel times and preferred routes. You can also bind maps to calendar events. The application works on Android and iOS platforms.
Modern smartphone apps are a great way to make travel easier. We examined only a few excellent programs, but in fact there are thousands of them. This means you can always choose those applications that will satisfy your needs.
