What to take on vacation – useful applications for your phone
The phone will not replace a passport (yet?), insurance (we can buy it from the application, so basically…) and common sense (nothing will probably ever change here). However, a few well-chosen applications can make life while traveling much easier. However, I do not mean the obvious things like Google Maps, Uber or Airbnb, which everyone knows. I thought it was worth collecting in one place applications and solutions that are not always an obvious choice, live somewhere outside the mainstream or are not widely known in Poland.
The ones I chose will help, among others: find transport between smaller towns, share costs with friends, find a free toilet, find an ATM with a lower commission, buy cheaper food, reduce jet lag or use passenger transport in places where Uber does not operate. Some of them will be useful to almost everyone, some only for a specific type of trip. You don’t have to install all of them right away, but it’s worth knowing what your options are.
Rome2Rio – the real journey begins after the plane lands
Rome2Rio is useful when the journey does not end with the flight. The app compares different ways to get from point A to point B: plane, train, bus, ferry, car, and sometimes also walking or less obvious means of transport. This is especially useful on routes such as airport – small town, city – island, resort – national park or when traveling around the country where you do not know the local carriers. Rome2Rio is not where I buy tickets, but it’s a good choice to see what transportation options are available in a country I’m not familiar with. After finding a reasonable option, it is worth visiting the website of a specific carrier and only there checking the current schedule, price and conditions.
GetYourGuide – you don’t have to plan everything yourself
I have a thing where I would prefer to plan all elements of the trip myself. However, it is impossible to cheat the PESEL number and more and more often I don’t want to do it – I prefer to come ready and not worry about what goes where and whether it’s really good. That’s when GetYourGuide comes to the rescue – an application for booking attractions, entrance tickets, tours, cruises, guided walks, one-day trips and other local activities. This solution also makes a lot of sense wherever tickets sell out quickly or where you don’t want to waste time looking for a local operator.
Flush – public toilets on the map
Flush Toilet Finder & Map shows public toilets on a map and allows you to quickly navigate to the one closest to you. The database includes over 200,000. toilets, with information on, among others, fees, accessibility for people with disabilities and the need to use a key. The tool may be particularly useful when traveling with children, trips with the elderly or in case of health problems. A visit to a cafe or gas station is not always an option, and there are countries where well-kept public toilets are a natural element of urban landscapes.
Splitwise – convenient sharing of expenses
Splitwise is not a typical travel application, but when traveling with friends it can be one of the most practical. You create a group, enter your expenses, and the application shows who should pay how much to whom. Costs can be divided equally, as a percentage or by excluding selected participants of the trip. Splitwise will work well when paying for hotels, fuel, shopping, dinners and tickets. Unfortunately, the free version has a daily limit on adding expenses, and some of the features that make life easier (including automatic currency conversion, no ads and unlimited entries) require purchasing a Pro subscription. However, I have never paid for Splitwise myself, so I can attest that with the free version you can also settle expenses efficiently.
ATM Fee Saver – when you need cash
In many countries, you can pay by card almost everywhere, but cash is still useful: at the market, in small establishments, for tips, in local transport or outside large cities. ATM Fee Saver helps you find ATMs with low fees or those that, according to the application database, may not charge a local fee. Of course, I wouldn’t count on free cash withdrawals. Fees may be added not only by a local company, but also by our bank, card operator or currency conversion system. Before leaving, it is worth checking how much ATM withdrawals abroad cost at your bank, what your limits are and whether it is more profitable to withdraw larger amounts less frequently or smaller amounts more often. ATM Fee Saver simply means a greater chance of paying slightly less.
eSIM without Airalo
If you use Revolut abroad anyway, you don’t need to install additional applications to buy internet. After being stuck on Airalo support twice, without internet and without maps, I started looking for alternatives. It turned out that the eSIM package in Revolut is often available cheaper, and I have never had a problem with this service.
Before purchasing, make sure you can install an eSIM card in your smartphone. It is also worth checking whether the country you are going to is on the list and whether the cost of the package is actually comparable to what competing applications offer.
Too Good To Go – cheaper food and less waste
Too Good To Go is a good solution for people who visit the capitals of large countries and travel on a budget. The app shows restaurants, bakeries, cafes and stores that have a surplus of unsold food at the end of the day and sell it cheaper. These are often products with a short shelf life that would be a shame to throw away, or surprise packages.
Timeshifter – when you fly through several time zones
Timeshifter is an application to fight jet lag. It creates a personalized plan based on your route, sleep hours, your chronotype and your itinerary, and then tells you when to look for light, when to avoid it, when to sleep and when to be careful with caffeine. We probably won’t need it when flying to Rome or Paris, but when we fly to the USA, Japan, Korea, it’s worth testing it out.
AllTrails or Komoot – hiking outside the city
If you are planning mountains, cycling, running or longer walks outside the city center, it is worth installing something more than Google Maps on your phone. AllTrails and Komoot are two popular outdoor trail apps you can consider.
AllTrails will be a good option if you want to find pre-made trails and popular hiking routes in the area. Komoot is better suited to people who plan their own cycling, hiking or off-road route. In both cases, however, you need to pay attention to offline functions. AllTrails provides offline maps on paid plans, while Komoot requires specific routes or regions to be downloaded in advance.
Alternatives to Uber – Grab, Bolt, Careem, DiDi and Yandex Go
If we are looking for an alternative to taxis, the first thing that comes to our mind is usually Uber or Bolt. However, there are better options in many places around the world.
In Southeast Asia, the basic application is sometimes Hornbeamoperating, among others, in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia and Myanmar (Burma). On Middle East and in part North Africa appears often Careem. It is an important player in China and some international markets DiDiand in the countries of the former USSR, the Caucasus and Central Asia can be found Yandex Go.
Prepare in advance
Do the most important things before you leave: create accounts, add a card, download offline maps and routes, check if your phone supports eSIM, and make sure ride apps work in the country you’re flying to. There is no point in adding to the stress when we land in a completely unknown place in the middle of the night, so it is good to plan some things in advance.
