Despite wanting to switch off from technology when travelling around America, I found lots of apps really useful. Here are which travel apps I found most useful.
Oh yes, I’m still talking about America! I’m still not over it, clearly. When I spent two weeks travelling around America’s West Coast, I just wanted to just ‘switch off’ from social media and technology. I wanted to just enjoy the holiday for what it was.
For the most part, I did – mostly because roaming charges are ridiculous over there! But there were times I relied on my phone. During those times there were a few apps which I found really useful!
Roadtrippers
Off course, Roadtrippers was one of our most used apps. Especially when it came towards the end of the trip and we spent three days driving along Route 1. I used this app in place of Google Maps because not only does it provide navigation but also really cool things to do along the way of your trip. You can choose what type of attractions you want to visit. This includes photo ops, quirky things to do, classic roadside attractions etc. It’s the ultimate American road trip buddy – I’d have been lost without it.
AllTrails
Because I’m a hiker now, don’t you know 😉 Well, a beginner hiker, thanks to Joshua Tree. This app is perfect for beginner and intermediate hikers alike. You can search for hikes based on difficulty, what the hike is good for (bird watching, kid-friendly etc). I found this really useful. Although my friend and I can obviously follow signs, it was good to have in my pocket just in case. We definitely used it on the few hikes we went on and to find others to take.
Polarsteps
Polarsteps is kind of like a little online scrapbook/diary to help keep track of what you get up to while you’re away. Obviously, I used social media, but I made a note to try and use this as much as possible to keep track of the little things. It tracks your actual steps, which is so cool. So you can add entries from your first arrival on your trip to all the stops in between bigger places. It’s all marked up on a cool map and even prompts you if you forget something.
This was perfect on the go because I knew I wanted to make a note of nearly everything to look over when I got home, but, unfortunately, for the last few days, I fell behind and have now left it too long to remember all the little bits like what photo was taken exactly where. I will take the time to go through my other apps and link it all up properly – because your trip can later be made into a book – but it’s a great way to journal on the road (so to speak) with photos, check-ins and a map.
Trip It
Because we moved about so much on our trip, we needed somewhere to keep all our bookings. Everything booked got forwarded Tripit, (simply by email!) and our entire trip was laid out for us; from the coach to the airport for my outbound flight to the buses/coaches between states, hotel bookings and other pre-booked activities. It even gave me prompts when hotels were missing for certain nights. Of course we had all this information booked up in our emails, but searching through emails is always a faffabout, especially on the road, so having it all in one place with all the necessary information was so useful.
Starling
Usually, Monzo is my go-to travel card, but unfortunately, I’m too far into my overdraft to use that at the moment! At first, I thought ahead and put 50% of my trip savings onto a lastminute.com card – because a) the card was cute and pink and b) it included a money-off voucher (which I still need to look into). But silly me stored it somewhere safe as soon as it arrived months before the trip then when it came to packing for the trip..of course I couldn’t find the card anywhere.
Annoyingly, the money couldn’t be moved back to my bank account and my only option was to close my account and have the money returned via cheque. Not great for an emergency! Luckily, I’d started saving the other half of my cash on my Starling card, so relied on that for the remainder of the trip. Starling does exactly what it says on the tin and was the perfect travel card to use when away.
As much as I’d love to say we threw caution to the wind, technology and the above apps were a huge help during our trip – as well as in the run-up to it when we were planning!
Do you have any must-have apps you use when travelling? Let me know!
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