Top 5 Travel Apps Of 2018!

For this weeks Appy Friday, we’re giving you the top 5 apps you need if you’re going away this year or travel regularly. This list contains a range of different apps that can help you find cheap flights or last minute hotels so there’s something on here to help you no matter where you’re going.

Skyscanner
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: FREE
This app is great for searching for cheap flights if you fly regularly. It allows you to compare what the cheapest days and months are to fly with their colour coded calendar charts. A great thing about this app is that there are no extra fees as they don’t charge any booking fees, so there are no hidden costs. If you do travel regularly then you can build frequent flyer miles by booking through the app.

Airbnb
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: FREE
Airbnb is great for finding places to stay, organising day trips and experiences. The app has over 4 million holiday home rentals across 191+ countries. You can sort through these with filters of price, neighbourhood, amenities and more so you can find the perfect place for you to stay. Within the app, you can book the rentals for just a few nights or months depending on your needs, so if you’re going travelling for a long period of time this app is great. Through the app, you can also try out new local experiences by native experts.

Hotel Tonight
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: FREE
This app is great for last minute bookings or long term bookings. You can book hotels for tonight, tomorrow, next week or months in advance. The Hotel Tonight app is great for those spontaneous trips and visits that you can sometimes struggle to get hotels booked in time. This app helps to avoid those difficulties. There is also a range of different filters to help you find the best possible hotel for you.

Packpoint
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: FREE
This app tries to stop you forgetting something when you go away, as it builds a customised packing list depending on what you’ll be doing, and where you are travelling to. As you are packing you can then tick off the things on the list, ensuring you have all the things you’ll need for your trip.

XE Currency
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: FREE
If you travel regularly this app is great for you. It shows the latest exchange rates, and stores them from when you last had Wi-Fi, so you can view them even when you don’t have any internet. The app can monitor up to 10 currencies all at once, along with the live rates being refreshed each minute for every world currency.

So, there’s this week's Appy Friday. My favourite of these is a tie between the Packpoint app and Airbnb as the Packpoint app helps me make sure I don’t forget anything and the Airbnb app is just so handy for finding alternative places to stay. Let us know if you use any of these apps!

Best Travel Accessories For 2018!

For Appy Friday this week, we’re giving you a list of the best travel accessories for your tech when you’re travelling this year. There’s a range of things on this list to get you through your travels, from portable chargers to socket adapters for all countries.

Cable Organiser Bag
There’s nothing worse than opening your bag and all your wires are in one big knot, so this bag helps to avoid that. There are lots of different varieties of this bag available on Amazon that range in price massively, however, the Defway Travel Cable Organiser is great on price and look as it is only £13.99 and the bag comes in 2 different sizes depending on how much tech you carry with you.

Noise Cancelling Headphones
Noise cancelling headphones are essential when travelling. Whether it's via plane, train or bus it’s ideal to have noise cancelling headphones so that you can block out whatever is going on around you. These headphones can set you back a few hundred pounds. If you don’t use them regularly, then this can seem like an unnecessary purchase. Regardless of this, Sony have a pair of more affordable noise cancelling headphones, the Sony MDR-ZX770BN that cost £89.99. So if you’re travelling a lot this year, it might be a good idea to pick some of these up.

Tripod For Smartphone
A Tripod for your phone is ideal for taking on holiday with you when you’re wanting to photograph your surroundings and get steady images. Having a tripod also allows you to take great time lapses and panoramas of everywhere you are. There are a lot of tripods available for a range of prices, this Joby GripTight GorrilaPod Stand is great as its affordable and has bendy arms so that you can attach it to anything you want.

Portable Power Bank
When travelling you spend a lot of time on your phone, tablet or laptop and there’s nothing worse than that battery running out and having nothing to do for hours on end. So, it’s important that you’ve got a good power bank with you to keep all your devices charged up. A great one is the Zendure A2 Power Bank that costs £29.99 and gives you plenty of charge to keep your devices topped up.

4-in-1 Travel Adapter
No matter what country you’re travelling to, it’s likely that you’ll be needing an adapter for your plugs. So it’s handy to have one that can suit 4 different types of sockets. There is this Flight 001 4 in 1 Worldwide Travel Plug Adapter for £22.00 which is great if you travel regularly to different countries.

So, there are our best travel accessories to try in 2018. The one thing I can’t travel without is a portable charger, and the Zendure A2 is a great one. Let us know what your travel essentials are and if you use any of the things on this list!

Apps As A Travel Companion

If you have a smart phone or tablet then you now have someone new to take on holiday with you, a new travel companion to help you choose where to go, what to see and how to get there. Your new travel companion is called "Apps". You can get some really great Apps to help you book and plan your holiday, here we look into some of the Apps on offer;

Planning Your Holiday
When planning your holiday it is often hard to decide which country and city to go to and when that is decided you then have to think about the best hotel, hostel, B and B or campsite to stay out. This is where your Apps can help. You can pop onto Skyscanner, Tripadvisor or similar and look for real peoples reviews of countries, cities and accommodation and even book it in the same place too at value for money prices.

What To Do
Maybe you like to plan in advance what to do, or perhaps you would prefer to get there and see what is around. Either way it is highly recommended to download a city guide App, this will tell you the best places to go and you will be able to see what people thought of them and how far they are away from where you will be staying. City Guide Apps are a really good way of getting out and about on your holiday and seeing what the area has to offer.

How To Get Around
So now you’re on holiday and you know where you want to go but how are you going to get there? There are some fantastic apps on the market that offer maps and navigation so you can see which way to go to get to the attraction you want to see or you could even check tram routes, train routes or even see if it is better to get a taxi. Having a navigational app gives you the freedom to go wherever you want. See one of our previous blogs about an App called Waze.

However, it is very important to check with your internet supplier what your data roaming charges are and if the charges are high then you need to ensure you do not use your smartphone or tablet abroad as this could become expensive. It may be wise to see if you can purchase a data roaming package in advance as this can cost around £3 a day.

Taking your new travel companion "Apps" on holiday can make such a difference to your holiday and it will help you make sure you don’t miss out on a thing.