The world's 50 best travel apps

All great travel apps have one thing in common: they all solve a problem you didn’t even realise you had. That said, with app stores bulging at the virtual seams with software claiming to make your life easier, being simply useful is no longer enough for app developers aspiring to greatness. Whether they’re cutting down journey times, pointing you in the direction of authentic local nosh or simply showing you how to ask after a toilet in Swahili, each and every one of our 50 best travel apps has earned its place in this list by virtue of being innovative, quirky or – in a few cases – downright space-age. So browse well, take your pick and get globe-trotting – because with a few of these in your pocket, you may never look at the world in the same way again.

Plan

FlightTrack

Follow the path of thousands of international flights on slick, zoomable maps, with detailed information on departure gates, delays and (heaven forbid) cancellations. Great for those anticipating the arrival of loved ones, or particularly nerdy train-spotters looking to up their game.
Available on iPhone (£2.99), iPad (£2.99), Android (£2.99) and Windows Phone (£3.99)

WeatherPro

An intuitive app offering weather reports for well over two million geographical locations, feeding in everything from cloud formations and atmospheric pressure to wind speed and humidity, all in enough detail to leave Michael Fish clammy-palmed with excitement. It’s also accurate to the point of clairvoyance, so if you’re travelling to Berlin and it predicts rain, pack your best umbrella.
Available on iPhone (£2.49), Android (£1.99) and Windows Phone (£2.29)

JetLag Genie

There are plenty of theories floating about concerning the best methods for beating jetlag, very few of which come backed up with any serious scientific clout. Still, it’s generally agreed that gradually altering your sleeping habits before a trip is beneficial, and this clever app will help you do just that. Input your travel dates, destination and usual sleeping times and it’ll come back with personalised alarm clocks to soften the blow when you wake up on Tuesday afternoon convinced it’s still Monday morning.

Available on iPhone (£1.99)

M25 Cams

Sadly, for London’s motorists, embracing the great English countryside usually involves grappling with the terrifying Tarmac gauntlet of the M25. Make life easier with this – a searchable selection of 150 live video feeds of the notoriously troublesome motorway. Certainly not the most thrilling app you’ll ever download, but you’ll feel more than slightly smug when you spot trouble in advance and shave an hour off your journey.
Available on Android (£0.99)

XE Currency

Don’t bother paying up for one of the many currency conversion apps out there in the digital hinterland – this freebie is slick, easy to use, and – best of all, since it uses live currency rates – completely accurate. It’s been downloaded more than five million times to date, so don’t even think about hopping on a plane without it.
Available on iPhone (free), iPad (free), Android (free) and Windows Phone (free)

Packing Pro

Anyone who says there’s no exact science to packing has obviously never tried to cram a pair of Jimmy Choo stilettos into the same suitcase as a giant inflatable beach ball. Thank the lord, then, for this. Tell it where you’re going, how long for and who with and it’ll spit out a suggested list of what you might need, split up into essentials (passport, currency), clothes, gadgets and more, with separate lists for additional family members.
Available on iPhone (£1.99)

Sunscreen

Until the bashful lobster look finds its way into the style zeitgeist, this is a crucial piece of kit for those venturing to sunny climes. Having detected the UVI rating of your current location, this nifty little app sets a countdown timer to alert you when you’re due your next slathering of sunblock. All you have to do is input your skin type and the SPF of your lotion, then kick back and soak up some worry-free rays.
Available on iPhone (free)

Tipulator

Leave 10% on the table after a meal in Tokyo and your generosity will cause offence; do the same in New York and you’ll be called a skinflint. Thankfully, wherever you go, there’s this – a nifty tip calculator to help the mathematically challenged split bills and tips while neatly sidestepping social embarrassment.
Available on iPhone (£0.69)

Air Sharing

In the cut-throat world of business, time is money, making a seven-hour trans-Atlantic flight a lot of wonga indeed. Thankfully, just because your laptop’s packed away, doesn’t mean you can’t keep your eyes on the prize. Essentially, this (admittedly pricey) app turns your iPhone into a wireless hard drive, allowing you to quickly and easily load it up with documents at the airport, then browse and amend on the move throughout your trip.
Available on iPhone (£6.99) and iPad (£6.99)

EHU

Not the most thrilling addition to your tech arsenal, this one, but essential all the same. Designed for campers and caravanners, the app provides a simple and effective way to keep track of the electrical output of your various travel gadgets, meaning you’re less likely to burn your pride and joy to the ground by overloading the circuit. Requires a little bit of preparation before you set off, but the resulting peace of mind makes up for it.
Available on iPhone (£0.69)

Onavo

Anyone who’s ever accidentally downloaded a large email while on holiday will attest to the ridiculousness of data roaming charges, and though there’s no indication from the networks that they’re working on putting things right, there are measures you can take to avoid an end-of-month sting. Once installed, this app drastically reduces the amount of data required to perform everyday tasks, such as retrieving email and posting to Facebook. We’re not entirely sure how it manages such a feat – we just know that it works and we’re not about to complain.
Available on iPhone (free) and Android (free)

Perfect World Clock

Does pretty much what it says on the tin, this one, providing easy access to the time in hundreds of cities and therefore averting arithmetic-induced stress your jetlagged brain could really do without. Nothing revolutionary, but still an essential download, especially considering the rather nifty option of adding several clocks as home-screen widgets.
Available on Android (free)

TravelSafe Pro

A potentially life-saving database of emergency service numbers for just about every country you’d ever care to visit, plus plenty for those that you wouldn’t. There’s also embassy details should passports go missing and – for the truly paranoid – the option to pin certain services to your home screen as widgets, for one-touch access to police, ambulances and fire engines.
Available on Android (£0.99)

The Snow Report

As much as we hate stating the obvious, it’s a simple fact of physics that you won’t have much of a skiing holiday without snow. Keep this on your home screen and you’ll never be more than a chilly-fingered prod away from the latest ski reports for your local pistes, and there’s even detailed trail maps to guide you back to the lodge should you snowplough-turn your way into trouble.
Available on iPhone (free) and Windows Phone (free)

Tidealist

Okay, so smartphones don’t particularly complement the gnarly surfer aesthetic (can you imagine Keanu whipping out an iPhone in Point Break? Because we can’t) but still – it’s good to be prepared. Though it could admittedly do with feeding in data from a few more wave stations, the current version still provides comprehensive information on tides and weather conditions for plenty of the world’s biggest surf spots.
Available on Windows Phone (free)

Book

Skyscanner

While flight-booking apps are fairly plentiful on other mobile platforms, Windows Phone marketplace boasts a meagre handful. Thankfully, this clean-looking solution does everything you’d ever need it to, aggregating fares from airlines and the big travel sites to bag you the best deal. For those really keeping an eye on the purse-strings, there’s also the option to pin your search to your start screen and keep an eye on price fluctuations. Neat.
Available on iPhone (free), iPad (free), Android (free) and Windows Phone (free)

Hostelworld

Not everyone who rocks a smartphone can afford to stay at The Savoy every night, so thank heavens for this – a geo-tagged directory of 25,000 listings for budget hotels, right at your travel-weary fingertips. The app also provides access to over 3.5million user reviews, minimalising the likelihood of you signing up to a night in a flea-infested hell-pit.
Available on iPhone (free) and Android (free)

WorldMate

The closest thing most of us will ever have to a personal assistant, albeit a hell of a lot cheaper. All you have to do is forward your various confirmation emails for flights/hotels/hire cars/restaurant bookings etc. to trips@worldmate.com and the app instantly generates an itemised itinerary covering your entire trip. Better still, upgrade to the premium version and the app will keep you in the loop in real time, generating alerts to let you know when flights are delayed or gates change.
Available on iPhone (free) and Android (free)

BlackBerry Travel

Much like WorldMate on iPhone and Android, this indispensible tool scans your various travel documents to piece together a personal travel itinerary, which it follows up with alerts and updates when disruption rears its ugly head. Like its rivals, it’ll also give you the chance to fill in any gaps by booking hotels and transfers on the fly.  
Available on BlackBerry (free)

iCampsites

A great value guide to more than 8,000 campsites in the UK and Europe, backed up with user reviews, pictures and inch-perfect GPS coordinates. Looking for a little more than just somewhere to bed down for the night? Simply filter local results by facilities and you’ll soon be en route to a patch that’s right for you.
Available on Android (£1.99)

Navigate

AA Parking

There are stacks of apps out there that’ll show you a map of nearby car parks, but none that do such in as much detail as this market-leading marvel. As well as tracking down spaces in their vicinity, users can also see at a glance how much they’ll have to pay to stay per hour and, for some car parks, the exact number of spaces available. Bank Holiday road trips just got slightly less stressful.
Available on iPhone (£1.99), iPad (£1.99) and Android (£1.99)

Hailo

Of course, before you go gallivanting around the globe, first you’ll need to get to the airport and with cumbersome bags to deal with, schlepping through the capital’s streets to find a Hackney carriage isn’t really an option. This neat piece of software uses your phone’s GPS to make the cabs come to you – simply tap the big ‘pick me up’ button and one of the little cab icons on the map will start heading towards you. And if the wonders of modern technology don’t get your cabbie chatting, nothing will.
Available on iPhone (free) and Android (free)

Waze

GPS navigation meets social networking, with surprisingly effective results. Tap in your destination (there’s also speech recognition if you’ve got your hands on the wheel) and user-submitted traffic reports make sure you’re offered the quickest route for the current road conditions. Even if you’re not digging the whole sharing and caring vibe, it’s still a good £39.99 cheaper than TomTom’s sat-nav app. 

Available on iPhone (free), iPad (free) and Android (free)

New York Subway

As with our very own Tube, there are hundreds of apps that promise to make your journey on New York’s subway system less stressful, but none as highly rated or widely used as this slick and intuitive piece of software. As well as the usual maps and route planners, there’s also a natty augmented reality mode that uses your camera to overlay nearby stations onto your view of the city. Pretty neat, even by a hardened Noo Yoiker’s standards.
Available on iPhone (£0.69) and Windows Phone (£0.79)

AlpineQuest GPS Hiking

Go up a mountain without the right kit in your backpack and we’d be mighty surprised if you ever came back. And while sturdy shoes and some sort of stick (for fending off bears, naturally) are a given, GPS tracking software is another potential lifesaver. On this comprehensive orienteering app, maps come complete with contour lines, so you know what you’re getting into. They can also be stored on your SD card, meaning you won’t be left in the lurch should your mobile signal drop out. And if you’re doing some proper hiking, it definitely will.
Available on Android (£3.99)

Marine: Europe

Richly detailed, downloadable charts for the continent’s lakes and coastlines, powered by the seafaring stalwarts at Navionics. As well as plotting you a hassle-free course for your aquatic adventuring, the app will also keep you abreast of potentially dangerous changes in weather and water conditions, all the while feeding in tide predictions, data on currents and much more.
Available on iPhone (£17.49), iPad (£44.99) and Android (£16.99)

Banksy Bristol Tour

While recent years have seen street art’s enigmatic pioneer take his daubings global, you don’t know squat about Banksy till you’ve been to Bristol. This geo-tagged map guides you to the sitex of his early works – including the iconic bomb-hugging girl and the masked gorilla – with detailed notes on their history and suggested interpretations. Pack your camera and get spotting.
Available on iPhone (£1.99) and Android (£1.99)

HopStop

Public transport information covering 68 (and counting) of the world’s biggest, busiest metropolitan hubs. So whether you need to pick your way across downtown Denver or catch a bus out of Norfolk, you should never be more than a few taps away from a neatly displayed, stop-by-stop itinerary.
Available on iPhone (free), iPad (free), Android (free) and Windows Phone (free)

PinPin ATM finder

Nothing quite matches the sheer, sobering terror of suddenly realising you’re in a moody part of a strange town with no money for a cab ride back to the safety of your hotel. Not to worry though – chances are a cash machine is just around the corner, and with this in your pocket, you’ll always be able to find one with minimal fuss. Over 220 countries are listed, meaning you ought to be covered for even the most exotic of jaunts.
Available on Windows Phone (free)

Explore

Pin Drop

There are two schools of thought when it comes to exploring a new city – you either sit down with a stack of guidebooks the week before setting off and research your socks off, or you take a leap of faith and enjoy a weekend of spontaneity. This app caters to the latter, allowing you to drop GPS pins onto a map when you stumble across something interesting, or browse user-made lists recommending the best sights, sounds and flavours in town. Available on iPhone (free)

Schemer

Currently in a phase of invite-only beta (have a sniff around forums for a free invite) this is Google’s experimental take on a massive, crowd-sourced travel guide. As tech mash-ups go, it’s fairly straightforward: users leave recommendations for things to do in their city, which visitors can then add to a to-do list and check off as they go. Given the app’s youth, content is fairly sparse outside of the US at the moment, but should you find yourself on a business trip to Chicago with a couple of hours to kill, it’s a reliable alternative to coughing up for some out-of-date paperback companion.
Available on Android (free)

Foodspotting

While apps that aggregate crowd-sourced restaurant reviews may be ten-a-penny, those that focus in on specific dishes are a far rarer species. Luckily, this one works a treat, responding to your every gastronomic whim with user-generated recommendations from your local area. In downtown Madrid with a penchant for paella? Prod around a bit and within seconds you’ll be en route to the best in the city.
Available on iPhone (free), Android (free) and Windows Phone (free)

Museums Mobile

A pocket-sized database of thousands of the world’s biggest museums, brimming with information on permanent and current collections. But this is more than just a comprehensive companion to your favourite halls of history; using your GPS location, it’ll also point you in the direction of museums in your area, so don’t be surprised if your Sunday morning culture stroll turns into a full-on city-wide knowledge crawl.
Available on Windows Phone (free)

Google Goggles

Stumbled across an important looking building? Want to know more but fear striking up conversation with the locals? Fire up this bad boy, direct your phone’s camera lens at the source of your befuddlement and – as long as what you’re pointing at is famous enough – it’ll return relevant Wikipedia articles filling you in with everything you need to know. After a slow start, recent updates have seen the app’s recognition mechanic and database become really rather impressive, meaning that if it draws a blank, it’s probably just a nice-looking car park.
Available on iPhone (free) and Android (free)

FourSquare

Though it shot to fame as a social networking tool, this location-based app has become a godsend for curious travellers. The way it works is simple – fire up the app when you arrive at any given place (everything from restaurants to churches are listed) and you’ll see a list of tips from those who’ve been before you (‘try the cheeseburger’, ‘arrive by 9am for a good pew’, etc.). Check in regularly enough and you’ll claim virtual mayorship of that particular venue, with some venues even offering perks (a free pint, discounts, and so on) when you claim the crown.
Available on iPhone (free), Android (free) and Windows Phone (free)

Heritage App

A comprehensive guide to over 400 English Heritage sites and National Trust conservation areas, featuring facts, figures and directions from your current location. So the next time a bank holiday rolls around, ditch the Sky+ marathon, pack some sarnies and go revel in the underappreciated brilliance of good old England.
Available on iPhone (£0.69) and iPad (£0.69)

Wi-Fi Finder

With data roaming charges still laughably high, knowing where to find a decent wi-fi hotspot is essential if you’re to keep the twitterati up to date with details of your latest sojourn. No need to charge through the city waving your handset around like a fly-swatter, though – simply fire up this handy app and follow directions to your nearest source of wireless internet. Best of all, the offline mode means you can download maps before you go, thereby dodging a massive bill.
Available on iPhone (free), iPad (free) and Android (free)

TripAdvisor

Stripping away the glossy magnificence ladled on by just about every online travel agency out there, this is the place to find brutally honest reviews of hotels, restaurants, attractions and more. The user-base is notoriously hard to please, so be warned that you’ll most likely find exclamation mark strewn rants next to your favourite spots. Still, on the flip side, touch down in a strange city with nowhere to stay and you’ll only ever be a few prods away from the warts-and-all opinions of travellers just like you.
Available on iPhone (free), iPad (free), Android (free) and Windows Phone (free)

HearPlanet

Handy though they may be, the trouble with guidebooks – and indeed their digital equivalents – is that digging through them to find the information you’re after invariably means less time appreciating the thing you actually came to see. This innovative bit of software solves the problem by reading the information (farmed from Wikipedia and its own database) directly into your ears. It’s a bit like one of those audio guides they hand out at museums, then, only better for your street cred.
Available on iPhone (£2.49) and Android (£2)

Localipedia

A tasty mash-up of your handset’s native maps app and millions of Wikipedia articles, meaning you’re rarely more than a scroll and a click away from stacks of useful information about your surroundings. A fairly academic way to explore the world around you, but with a flask of something hot and an afternoon to kill, we very much doubt you’ll be inclined to complain.
Available on BlackBerry (free)

Time Out city guides

Our apologies for the somewhat self-important trumpet-blowing, but we just couldn’t let you go without a little cheeky reminder about our own fleet of painstakingly researched, expertly written travel apps. There are editions for more than 20 of the world’s biggest cities, each stuffed with comprehensive insights into the finest restaurants, bars, shows and exhibitions on Earth. Best of all, each and every one of these indispensible digital marvels is absolutely free. What can we say – we’ve got big hearts.
Available on iPhone (free) and Android (free)

Communicate

Word Lens

Now this is real sci-fi stuff – an app that instantly translates foreign text via your phone’s camera. Though the download itself costs nothing and comes bundled with a couple of demo settings, you’ll need to shell out £6.99 (via in-app purchase) for one of the language packs, with English and French currently on offer. A tad pricey, but worth it purely for the expressions of awe you’ll draw from bystanders.
Available on iPhone (free) and iPad (free)

Better Translator Pro

The best-rated translation app on Android, and for good reason. More than 50 languages are supported in text-to-text mode, while an impressive 11 work with the app’s voice recognition function. As for accuracy, it’s plugged in to both Google and Bing’s translation services, meaning results are very rarely nonsensical. Don’t expect to be bantering the night away with the natives or anything, but it ought to at least mean the end of ineptly miming ‘ou est la gare?’
Available on Android (£1.95)

WhatsApp Messenger

A cross-platform messaging system that’s slowly but surely rendering the text message obsolete. Data (that’s pictures, videos, sound clips and GPS tags as well as text) are sent using either wi-fi or your phone’s web package, so even if you’re sending a message to someone on the other side of the globe, there’s nothing to pay. Absolutely essential for keeping in touch with overseas chums, and, providing you can find some wi-fi, great for sending off-the-cuff holiday snaps back home.

Available on iPhone (£0.69), Android (free) and Windows Phone (free)

Touchnote

Remember postcards? Those rectangular, papery things you used to scrawl down tales of your far-flung travels on back before the world went digital? This app-cum-print-service allows you to hark back to the analogue era by creating and sending physical cards bearing your own travel snaps and text to anywhere in the world, for a thoroughly reasonable £1.49 a pop.
Available on iPhone (free), iPad (free) and Android (free)

Lost in Translation

There are plenty of translation apps knocking around for Windows handsets, but this well-put-together freebie is – until voice recognition comes along, at least – the only one you need. There are 36 languages currently supported, plus a useful function that allows you to quickly and easily forward translations as texts or emails.
Available on Windows Phone (free)

Swearport

Ever wanted to call an Ethiopian a maniac, or approach someone on the streets of Helsinki and suggest they do something improper with themselves? Well now, thanks to this neatly indexed catalogue of international expletives, you can. Just remember to wipe it from your phone before the cops show up.
Available on Android (£1)

Document

PhotoSynth

While your phone’s on-board camera may be just the job for immortalising otherwise hazy memories from a night on the town, it simply wasn’t designed to do justice to the likes of the Grand Canyon or Mount Fuji. Thankfully, with this ingenious app bolted on, awe-inspiring panoramic shots can be created in an instant – just choose your scene, press the magic button and it’ll handle the rest. Naturally, it’s fully integrated with Facebook, so get snapping and watch those ‘likes’ rack up.
Available on iPhone (free)

Trip Journal

If you’re the sort to never bother organising your holiday snaps and souvenirs into something tangible to be whipped out at dinner parties, download this one on the double. But this is more than just a virtual travel scrapbook – as long as you’ve got your GPS switched on, it’ll also create maps of your various explorations, geo-tagged with pictures, videos and notes. 21st Century traveloguing at its finest.
Available on iPhone (£1.99) and Android (£2.99)

iMovie

18 months on since its iOS release, Apple’s movie-studio-in-your-pocket is still the best option for itchy-footed techies looking to shoot and send tantalising snippets of paradise back home. Especially impressive is the pared-down editing suite, where soundtracks and shot transitions can be dragged and dropped to create moving postcards with serious production values.
Available on iPhone (£2.99) and iPad (£2.99)

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