25 of the best travel apps to upgrade your globetrotting

Time was, travelling meant bumbling around with a map in hand, gesticulating at cab drivers and paying too much for food. Nowadays you can live like a local within minutes of touching down at the airport: sling the right apps onto your trusty smartphone and everything from booking hotels to getting downtown will be just a touch away. We’ve rifled through our app drawer to find the 25 travel apps we swear by on any far-flung trip.

SKYSCANNER

You’ve decided you need a break? Hooray! Now you have to trawl through tens of airline websites, desperately in search of the cheapest flights landing at an airport vaguely near where you want to go. Boo. Enter Skyscanner: stick in your dates, pick your location and – voila! – it’ll serve up a host of results sorted by price, with the option to filter by direct routes and layover time.

KAYAK

There’s nothing worse than booking your big flights, only to find that they’ve halved in price two days later. Thankfully, Kayak serves up a nifty guesstimator that’ll tell you whether to buy or wait, based on previous trends and data. Like SkyScanner, it’s also decent at checking hundreds of airlines for the best combinations and deals to get you where you want to go.

HOPPER

Like cooking eggs and designing smartphones, there are many, many ways to book flights – and, after the two above, Hopper serves up a third approach. It’s all about playing the waiting game: key in your flight details and Hopper will tell you whether to buy now or wait, based on data including literally trillions of historic fares.

HIPMUNK

Hipmunk can take care of everything from flights to accommodation to activities, with useful calendar integration and the ability to email it for personalised recommendations. Using a pinch of AI, it’s as easy as dropping it a note – such as “What are the best dates to fly from London to Barcelona in August for a week?” – and it’ll come back with helpful suggestions and booking options.

HOLIDAYPIRATES

HolidayPirates serves up travel deals, including flights, rooms and car rentals, with the option to set up alerts based on destination, dates and budget. You can do the traditional search thing, too, through a host of daily deals which can be booked right in the app.

AIRBNB

Want to stay somewhere with more character than a hotel, that’ll cost you a lot less? Look no further than AirBnb. What started as a spare-room rental service has become the go-to platform for finding astounding accommodation in cities across the world. Filter by location, price and a whole lot of other factors, contact hosts and prepare to be surprised.

HOSTELWORLD

A firm favourite of backpackers the world over, Hostelworld puts thousands of budget hostels in the palm of your hand. Customer reviews take the guesswork out of booking, while instant confirmation and always-available customer service should give you peace of mind while you’re on the road.

BOOKING.COM

If you do want a hotel, Booking.com is a decent place to head for a pick of the best local accommodation. Its price guarantee generally means you can be assured that you’re getting a good deal, while a broad range of filter options and reviews should serve up just what you’re looking for.

HOTELTONIGHT

Spur-of-the-moment sort? You’ll want to download HotelTonight: it exists to deliver the best last-minute hotel deals around, that can be booked up to a week in advance. Better still, the actual booking process is a cinch, while discounts based on location and concierge support give the app a hint of premium.

TRIVAGO

With more than a million hotels on its books, it’s hard to argue with the viability of Trivago when it comes to assessing your accommodation options. It scans booking options and costs from more than 200 hotel websites – including the likes of Booking.com and Expedia – to find you the best price for your dates and destination, including last-minute deals.

CITYMAPPER

Limited to certain cities, including London, Lisbon and Los Angeles, Citymapper is constantly expanding its coverage – and that’s a good thing, because it’s perhaps the best dedicated urban transport app around. Stick in your destination, choose your method of moving and it’ll offer up a clutch of options to make getting from A to B a cinch.

UBER

Uber puts the power of door-to-door transport in your pocket. Drop a pin on where you want to go, hit request and a car will rock up outside your door in a few minutes. Prices can surge if things are busy, but features such as driver reviews, fare splitting and the ability to share your real-time ETA with friends make it an attractive alternative to hailing a cab in the street.

MYTAXI

Popular across Europe, mytaxi enables you to request a licensed taxi in more than 50 cities across the Continent, with options to review drivers, share journey details and leave tips. Fares are generally similar to Uber, though it can vary both ways depending on your location.

TURO

Turo is a car-rental app that gives you the run of local owners’ vehicles when they don’t need them. Currently operating in the USA, Canada and UK, Turo serves up a selection of cars available locally – from hatchbacks to supercars – before letting you book in a trip.

GOOGLE MAPS

Yes, it’s the obvious choice, but Google Maps remains the best do-it-all mapping service available – and it’s absolutely free. Save and label locations, create lists, get instant reviews and recommendations for nearby things to do, as well as directions, Street View and more – all in a single app.

TRIPADVISOR

Hated by some, favoured by many, TripAdvisor was arguably the first platform to harness the power of the user review – and, as it’s grown, it’s only become more of a force for consumer feedback. Yes, top hits tend to stick it out at the top, but delve down the lists for reviews on restaurants, bars, activities and more – or, you know, do something new.

VOUCHERCLOUD

Eating out is a surefire way to rapidly sap your travel budget. Zap Vouchercloud onto your smartphone and you should be able to save a few pennies without staying in. Covering all kinds of chains and eats places, there’s almost always somewhere nearby with a discount available.

OPENTABLE

Want to book a table but can’t speak the local lingo? Or just afraid of picking up the phone? OpenTable is the app you need, with a host of eateries and bars on its books. Pick a time slot, select your group size and – hey presto! – you’ll have a booking in your name in a jiffy.

TASTEFUL

Call yourself a health nut? Grab Tasteful and you’ll be able to filter nearby eateries based on the quality of their food – and whether they fit with your dietary requirements. With a range of restaurants rated by the ‘Nutrition Team’ you can trust in Tasteful’s, err, tasteful recommendations.

UBEREATS

Even when you’re far, far away sometimes a night in with a takeaway is all you really want. Fire up the UberEats app, search through proximate options, give it a wee while and, before long, you’ll have hot food without the hassle – or the language barrier.

CIRCA WORLD TIME FOR TRAVELERS

There’s no cure for jet-lag, yet, but Circa will at least show you why your body clock is confused. Designed to help international working teams, it displays time periods around a circle, simply illustrating the points at which the various slots overlap – and you’ll all be awake.

GOOGLE TRANSLATE

Another Google number, this one makes the whole foreign language thing a cinch. Translate can adeptly, well, translate words, images and sound and, here’s the kicker, it’ll even do it offline if you download the right language files beforehand.

TRIPIT

Nearby grown-ups will probably tell you that it’s only right to be organised before you head abroad. Thankfully, TripIt handles that for you. Simply forward on your booking confirmations and it’ll cleverly process the info into an all-in-one schedule for your adventure. You can add and edit info, too, in case it misses something.

EXPENSIFY

Theoretically intended for business travellers, Expensify is a nifty solution for scanning and processing your trip receipts and keeping track of your holiday spending. Its smart scanner generally does a good job of processing data, while reports can be helpfully emailed over to an address of your choosing.

PACKPOINT

Even pro packers can’t just trust their memory to ensure they’ve got all the essentials. That’s where Packpoint steps in: input the length of your trip, the weather, the destination and any activities you’ve planned, and it’ll list everything you need to stick in your case.