Travel apps are now the essential accessory for the globetrotter. Whether for a short or long stay, in France or abroad, here is our selection of apps for a successful holiday.
Going on vacation and not sure how to go about it? Why not rely on your smartphone to help you through every step of your journey? Here’s our list of the best travel apps.
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The travel manager
The first application to install is an all-in-one travel manager, which will group your plane tickets, hotel reservations and suggest activities (museums, restaurants, etc.) based on the time, weather and your location.
For starters, a good note-taking app will ensure you don’t forget anything. Do not hesitate to consult our guide dedicated to the best applications dedicated to this theme.
When it comes to travel planning, the application that crushes all competition is TripIt. With its automatic addition of information on your trip, it has all the features required for this type of application (flight, hotel, car reservations, etc.). The app also offers itineraries for your trips and even guides you through the airport in search of a kiosk or a café.
Before leaving, the checklist is essential to be sure not to forget anything. There is PackKing (quite basic), PackPoint (more settings) or PackTeo, the most complete and original. It allows you to quickly list the things to do before leaving. You can create lists from suggestions (suitcase, sea, desert, mountain, abroad, with children, hiking, etc.), whether for things to remember, your activities requiring special organization or according to future situations.
Find the ticket at the best price
Traveling in Europe
To get to your destination, you can take different means of transport. If you’re crossing Europe, Omio is the perfect service to compare plane, train and bus to 35 countries and more to come. The app also offers airport transfers and ferry rides. She then keeps your tickets close at hand and sends you notifications in case of change.
Train tickets
To book a train ticket, there is naturally Oui.SNCF, the SNCF travel agency, essential and rather well done. You can book there for the train, the bus, but also carpooling in France and Europe.
We also and above all think of Trainline, which sells the same train tickets at the same prices, but with an interface often cited as a model of ergonomics, all sectors combined.
Take the plane
To go further, the only option is by plane. But it is the most competitive means of transport, and therefore the most difficult to tame: prices fluctuate constantly. In this context, the Hopper application not only suggests that you buy the cheapest ticket at the moment T, but predicts the best time to buy it according to your criteria. You can also receive recommendations based on your previous trips.
Essential on computer, Google Flight is also accessible from smartphone under the name of Take a Plane to find the ticket at the best price.
If you’re flying, there are some nice flight tracking apps out there, but the safest bet is your airline’s app. For example, we simply think of the Air France application.
Let’s also mention EasyJet, which has a clear and efficient interface, allows you to manage your reservations and accompanies you throughout the trip with boarding reminder notifications.
As a general rule, these applications allow you to register (check-in), present your electronic ticket and be alerted in the event of a delay or change of boarding gate.
If you want to be sure that you have chosen the right seat, do not hesitate to use the Seat Guru site. You will have all the information on the distribution of the best seats in a plane, their equipment and services, indicating the flight number. All the companies in the world are referenced and users can add photos as information.
GPS in car
To travel by car, you certainly need a GPS navigation application, and a traffic info service on the job. Waze is the benchmark, but it requires an internet connection. If you are traveling to France or Europe, this is no longer a problem, now that roaming (roaming) is included.
If you travel internationally or if you want to save your internet volume for other uses, you can use the Google Maps offline mode, or turn to a 100% offline navigation application, such as HERE WeGo.
Then don’t forget to turn off your mobile data, or check our guide to the best offline GPS apps. Let’s also mention the excellent MAPS.ME, a reference in the field.
The Coyote app offers one of the best GPS tools for finding your route, being alerted to traffic difficulties and dangers on the road. Years of know-how available in an app that relies on information shared by its large community of members for real-time information.
To travel by public transport
To get around on site, if you don’t have your own car, the two universal solutions are public transport, taxi… or VTC. Uber is a controversial service, but it has the advantage of operating in several cities around the world.
To navigate by metro, bus or tram, Citymapper and Google Maps make it easy to find the line to take. Apple’s Maps app has come a long way and now offers transit information in many major cities.
Book a hotel, B&B or hostel
For accommodation, there is plenty to choose from: you can find a hotel room with a service like Booking.com.
If you appreciate the comfort of an apartment or a house, you can also turn to Abritel, which offers a wide variety of decors.
Should we mention Airbnb, the benchmark of its kind when looking for a place to spend the night in a less formal setting than a hotel?
Outdoor enthusiasts and campers can take advantage of HomeCamper to find a place to pitch their tent.
Find restaurants, bars and cafes
The publisher Lonely Planet declines its famous tourist guides in the form of a successful application, powered by local guides.
There is also TripAdvisor, whose reliability of reviews is sometimes questioned, but which has the merit of covering the whole world for free. The application has also been modernized and now allows you to pin your best addresses, for you or on a map to share.
Finally, TheFork allows you to find a restaurant in the area and book at advantageous rates. The service is only available in France and a handful of foreign countries.
Internationally, Yelp will be a great help in finding bars and restaurants. It can also be useful for finding shops, places of leisure or parks to rest.
speak foreign languages
Still abroad, you may need a translator to understand or make yourself understood. This is precisely the purpose of Google Translate, which translates text, voice and even signs in augmented reality. The application can work without an internet connection if you have downloaded the appropriate language packs.
To translate posters, signs and other restaurant menus, Google Lens easily recognizes characters from all language systems and offers to link directly to Google Translate to understand the meaning. In addition, Google Lens can identify certain objects, although the functionality is not very precise at the moment.
You can also simply learn a foreign language and we offer you a selection of the best apps for taking lessons.
Exchange currencies and pay
Outside the eurozone, a currency converter app will help you avoid overspending. We recommend XE.
Converting currencies is one thing, paying for them is another. FinTechs now allow you to pay a minimum of fees: N26 offers you to open a real current account for your expenses abroad.
Curve uses another way. The app provides you with a MasterCard debiting one of your existing accounts.
Revolut goes one step further and provides you with a bank card to top up. A small revolution.
To do his accounts
Do not wait until the end of the holidays to do the accounts, rather use an application to manage your expenses with family or friends with Tricount for example. You will then know who owes what and to whom.
Split is also a good solution, with a cleaner interface. It is a little slower to learn, but is practical and effective once adopted.
You can also opt for Le Pot Commun and create a common kitty. For more details, do not hesitate to consult our complete selection of applications to manage your budget.
Note that more and more banks, especially online, offer services for sharing costs between friends. This is the case with Money Friends on the Banque Populaire side or We Partage at Ma French Bank.
Now that you’ve been able to settle your accounts with your friends or family, it’s time to pay your dues. For this, the giant PayPal is perfectly suited.
In recent years, good alternatives that are very practical to use have emerged, such as the French Lydia, which allows you to exchange small sums without going through the traditional transfer.
And also…
To find a WIFI connection around you, you can resort to Wifi Finder. For added security and peace of mind, you can also a VPN. And we have a guide to help you choose.
We do not fully measure the interest of such an application before needing it: Where are the toilets? lists more than 150,000 places around you, especially in France. Internationally, you can opt for Flush Toilet Finder, which lists 200,000 addresses (France included).
And finally, an app that can always be useful: that of the Red Cross. It presents life-saving gestures in video, training in the main medical emergencies with clear and detailed explanations. You can also test your knowledge, practice preparing to deal with natural disasters. Emergency numbers are listed.
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