Killer travel apps.
July 24, 2016
[A one minute read]
Apps make travel a lot easier, more efficient and fun. I discovered a few great ones during my South American adventure and thought I would share.
1. Splitwise.
For trips where multiple people and sharing and splitting costs. Track expenses in Splitwise and it will calculate who owes who. Works across multiple currencies and intuitively categorises expenses so you can see totals for hotels, taxis, meals etc.
2. Google Translate.
Google Translate saved me in Colombia, a country where most people don’t speak English. There is an awesome feature where you hover the camera over text (e.g. a menu) and it live translates into English. Super handy and sometimes fun when it doesn’t quite work. Before I left, I learnt the basics with Duolingo.
3. Sworkit Pro.
It’s easy to let exercise lapse when travelling, particularly when it is too hot to run outside or the hotel gym has equipment that hasn’t been cleaned since the 80s.
But a few minutes per day will help digest stodgy travel food, give you extra energy and help you sleep.
Enter a workout type into Sworkit (strength, cardio, yoga or stretching) and length (I usually do 15 minutes) and it creates a workout that doesn’t require equipment and can be one in a small space. Each exercise is done for 30 seconds and it gives you a few water breaks too.
4. Pocket.
Pocket allows you to easily save webpages for offline browsing. Saves data when abroad and enables you to read the Wikitravel pages on the plane before you land.
Special mention to a few other faves.
XE.com for converting currencies, Google Drive for collating trip documents, Yelp for finding great places to eat, Uber, Airbnb, Momondo (travel search engine), Whatsapp and Skype.
