Travel apps are now the globetrotter’s essential accessory. Whether for a short or long stay, in France or abroad, here is our selection of apps for a successful vacation.
Are you going on vacation and you’re not sure how to go about it? Why not rely on your smartphone to help you during all stages of your trip? Here is 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 together your plane tickets, your hotel reservations and suggest activities (museums, restaurants, etc.) based on the time and weather. and your location.
To begin with, a good note-taking application 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 app that crushes all competition is TripIt. With its automatic addition of information about your trip, it has all the functionalities required for this type of application (plane, hotel, car reservations, etc.). The app also offers directions for your travels and even directs you around the airport in search of a kiosk or café.
Before leaving, a checklist is essential to make sure you don’t forget anything. There is PackKing (fairly basic), PackPoint (more settings) or PackTeo, the most complete and original. It allows you to quickly list things to do before leaving. You can create lists from suggestions (suitcase, sea, desert, mountain, abroad, with children, hiking, etc.), whether for things not to forget, your activities requiring particular organization or depending on 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 traveling across Europe, Omio is the perfect service to compare flights, trains and buses to 35 countries with more to come. The app also offers airport transfers and ferry rides. It then keeps your tickets close at hand and sends you notifications in case of changes.
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 constantly fluctuate. In this context, the Hopper application not only offers you the opportunity to buy the cheapest ticket at the moment, but predicts the best time to buy it according to your criteria. You can also receive recommendations based on your previous trips.
Essential on a computer, Google Flight is also accessible from a smartphone under the name Take a Plane to find the ticket at the best price.
If you’re flying, there are some nice flight tracking apps, 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 supports you throughout the trip with boarding reminder notifications.
Generally, 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 website (in English). You will have all the information on the distribution of the best seats on a plane, their equipment and services, indicating the flight number. All the companies in the world are referenced and users can add photos as well as information.
GPS in car
To travel by car, you certainly need a GPS navigation application and a dedicated traffic information service. Waze is the benchmark, but it requires an Internet connection. If you are traveling in France or Europe, this is no longer a problem, now that roaming (roaming) is included.
If you’re traveling internationally or want to save your internet usage for other uses, you can use Google Maps offline mode, or turn to a 100% offline navigation app, 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 us also mention the excellent MAPS.ME, a reference in the field.
The Coyote application offers one of the best GPS tools for finding your route, being alerted of traffic difficulties and dangers on the road. Years of know-how available in an app which is based on information shared by its large community of members for real-time information.
Coyote
To get around by transport
To get around, 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 even tram, Citymapper and Google Maps make it easy to find the line to take. Apple’s Maps app has made huge strides and now offers transit information in many major cities.
Book a hotel, guest room or hostel
When it comes to accommodation, you are spoiled for choice: 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 reference of the genre 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 the location to pitch their tent.
Find restaurants, bars and cafes
The publisher Lonely Planet offers its famous tourist guides in the form of a successful application, powered by local guides.
There is also TripAdvisor, whose reliability of opinions is sometimes questioned, but which has the merit of covering the entire 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, LaFourchette allows you to find a restaurant nearby 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.
Speaking foreign languages
Even abroad, you may need a translator to understand or make yourself understood. This is precisely the goal 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 a direct link to Google Translate to understand their 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 euro zone, a currency conversion application will help you avoid spending lavishly. We recommend XE.
Converting currencies is one thing, paying for them is another. FinTech now allows you to pay a minimum of fees: N26 offers you the opportunity 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 a step further and provides you with a bank card to recharge. A small revolution.
To do his accounts
Don’t wait until the end of the holidays to do the accounts, instead 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.
Split: group expenses manager
This app is no longer available
You can also opt for Le Pot Commun and create a common pot. For more details, do not hesitate to consult our complete selection of applications for managing your budget.
Note that more and more banks, particularly online, are offering fee-sharing services between friends. This is the case of Money Friends on the Banque Populaire side or of We Partage at Ma French Bank.
Now that you have been able to settle accounts with your friends or family, it is 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 amounts without using a traditional transfer.
And also…
To find a WIFI connection around you, you can use Wifi Finder. For greater security and peace of mind, you can also a VPN. And we have a guide to help you choose.
We don’t fully appreciate the benefit of such an application before we need it: Where are the toilets? lists more than 150,000 places around you, particularly in France. Internationally, you can opt for Flush Toilet Finder, which lists 200,000 addresses (including France).
And finally, an app that can always prove useful: that of the Red Cross. It presents life-saving actions in video, training for the main medical emergencies with clear and detailed explanations. You can also test your knowledge, practice preparing to face natural disasters. Emergency numbers are listed.
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