These days, your phone isn't just for taking photos for Instagram. It's your digital passport, your wallet, your tour guide and your compass.
The difference between looking like a professional traveller or a completely clueless tourist in the middle of Bangkok comes down to the apps you've got installed. If you still have three pages full of useless games, it's time for a clean-up.
Martin has prepared the ultimate "digital survival kit". Install these 7 apps before you board the plane and thank me later.
1. Splitwise (The Friendship Saver) 💸
Travelling with friends is amazing, until the dinner bill arrives. "Yeah, but I only had the salad and you drank two beers". Nobody has the patience to do mental maths with foreign currency.
With Splitwise (or Tricount), each person enters what they paid and the app does all the maths on its own. At the end of the trip, it tells you exactly who owes whom. Avoids arguments and people skipping out on their share.
2. Google Maps (in Offline Mode) 🗺️
"Yeah, but I already have Google Maps". Right, but do you use it in offline mode? If you travel outside Europe, turning on mobile data can cost you €10 per megabyte.
Before leaving the hotel (with Wi-Fi), search for the city on Google Maps and click "Download offline map". From that moment on, your phone's GPS will guide you through the streets of Marrakech or New York without spending a single cent on roaming.
3. Google Translate (with the Camera) 📸
Trying to decipher a menu written in Japanese, Hungarian or Russian isn't an adventure, it's playing Russian roulette with your stomach.
The Google Translate app has a magical feature: you open the camera, point it at the menu (or a road sign) and it translates the strange letters to English in real time on the screen. It looks like sorcery, but it's just technology saving you from accidentally ordering pork tripe.
4. Revolut or Wise (The End of Exchange Fees) 💳
Using your traditional bank card in a country with another currency is throwing money away. Banks charge you absurd exchange fees and commissions every time you withdraw cash from a foreign ATM.
Open a free account with Revolut or Wise. You load the card in euros, and the app converts the money to the local currency (Dollars, Pounds, Bahts) at the real market exchange rate, with no hidden fees.
5. Rome2Rio (How to Get from A to B) 🚆
You're in London and you want to go to a small town in the Scottish Highlands. By train? By bus? Take a domestic flight?
The Rome2Rio app is brilliant. You enter the start and end points, and it tells you every transport option available worldwide, with estimated travel times and approximate prices.
6. Flightradar24 (The Sky Detective) ✈️
Don't blindly trust the airport screens. Often, the airline knows the flight is delayed, but only puts the warning on the panel at the last minute to avoid panic.
With Flightradar24, you enter your flight number and you can see exactly where the plane that's coming to pick you up is. If it's still flying over Germany and your boarding is in 10 minutes in Lisbon, you know you can go grab another beer.
7. The Airline App (The End of Paper) 🎫
Printing boarding passes is so 2010. Install the app of the airline you're flying with. You check in in 30 seconds, your QR code stays on your phone and you get instant notifications on screen if there's a gate change.
The One Thing You Don't Need an App to Solve 🚗
Your phone is fully equipped to take on the world. You've got the map, the translation, the money and the boarding pass. You're ready.
But you know what you don't need an app to solve under last-minute stress? The trip to the airport.
Instead of fiddling with parking-meter apps or constantly hitting refresh to see if Uber surge pricing drops at 4 in the morning, simplify your life.
Open the Multipark website, book your Valet Parking and grab your own car. You drive comfortably to the terminal door, hand us the key, and your car stays in a secure car park while you explore the world with your 7 new apps.
Travel smart, park smart. [Get a quote and reserve your spot] before you take off!
