6 fantastic must-have apps for travellers

Space on your smart phone is valuable so it’s important to chose the most useful apps around. We have put together a round-up of apps that could make life easier and even save you money when you travel.

XE Currency

Robust and practical, this currency converter is constantly updated to offer up-to-the-minute exchange rates for 180 currencies. It can also store the most recent rates so you can access them when offline.

Google PlayiTunes

HotelsCombined

There are plenty of hotel search sites and each will have its own deals. You could go to each one to find a deal or you could download HotelsCombined which will do that for you. It has a useful alert system that will let you know if the price of the hotel you have your eye on drops by more than 10 percent. Search partners include Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, Agoda, Venere and LateRooms. HotelsCombined say that if you find a cheaper deal after you’ve booked with a site listed on their app “we’ll refund you the difference”.

Google PlayiTunes

Mobile Passport

This one is useful for those travelling to the US and is authorised by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and it lets you skip the regular queue to enter the country. Download this app and add your passport information — you can do this quickly by scanning it with your phone’s camera. Mobile Passport is accepted at one cruise port and 21 US airports – including Miami, San Francisco and Denver, so check if the airport you are heading to supports this app.

Google PlayiTunes

Triposo

Triposo smart phone travel app

Guide books are useful but heavy. You can ditch it in favour of the free Triposo app which collates information about sights, hotels, restaurants and bars from various sources including Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, World66 and Facebook. The information is displayed in an easy-to-use guide. You can download your destination before you go. Enable GPS and you will be able to use its free offline maps to see recommendations near you.

Google PlayiTunes

Hotel Tonight

When you find yourself in need of a last-minute hotel room the free Hotel Tonight app can help. They have partnered with hotels who offer discounts on empty rooms and aim to find you a room in under 10 seconds and near to your current location. The app allows you to book several days at a time which means you don’t have to hotel hop.

Google PlayiTunes

Google maps abroad

You could hire a pricey car-hire sat-nav or you could download the free Google Maps area for you destination before you go. See goo.gl/PRPNcB for instructions on how to do this and you will find it includes driving directions and works totally offline so yo won’t have to pay for expensive mobile data. However you can only download one area at a time.

Disclaimer: this article was written in partnership with HotelsCombined