Travelling today is essentially a routine affair, and for most people, it is more of personalized. Travelers today are more aware of travel trends and enjoy being  updated with the latest options available to them, to make their journey much easier and cost-effective. With mobile technologies an travel apps in hand, the journey can be customized effectively to suit our requirements. This post discusses some useful mobile travel apps on Android platform that can help you to improve your travel experiences.

Travel Planner

 When it comes to planning your travel, it can be often an overwhelming experience. Especially, when it comes to managing all the documentation relating to your travel such as itineraries, tickets, confirmations, trip calendars, maps , hotel and airline contact information and the list is endless. And when all things are not organized at one place, it only adds to your frustration.

Tripit, a travel organizer app helps you to store all your travel plans at one place. Simply mail your travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and this app automatically creates an itinerary for your trip. Accessible both online and offline, the free version comes with handy maps, directions, weather information, Google Calendar sync tools on Outlook and sharing on social media platforms.The frequent travelers can use the pro version to get real-time updates of flights, seat trackers, refund notifications, flight information and more.

Survival Apps

This is for all the adventure lovers. Trust me on this. You may not consider downloading one until you get into a crisis situation. So, keep one on your device when it can come handy for you while you travel. For me, traveling is not only about the journey and the experience itself, but also to make it a positive and enjoyable one. While not everything goes as we plan all the time, a little preparation can prevent you from panic. So, if you are an adventure traveller and planning your next adventure trip, a survival plan is must. A survival app should have some or all of these: Survival medicine, navigation methods, jungle craft, fire handling, emergency resuscitation etc. Well, you may not like to land yourself into a situation like the one Bear Grylls of the famous Man Vs. Wild lands himself into, but you can always learn the basic navigation skills to protect yourself from that unexpected situation. The bonus is, not only is it fun and easy to learn, but also extremely simple and easy to learn.

The Preppers Survival Kit is one such app that gets it altogether. Advised by some of the leading experts in Survival and Preparedness and embedded with built in manuals, this app gives you the references you will need in case of an emergency situation. Some great takeaways of this app are:

• Survival and junglecraft.
• Prepping
• Survival Medicine
• Edible and Medicinal Plants

 Travel Information

Though you may collect much information before you plan your journey, but more often than not, they are not organized or rather cumbersome to carry. Also, collecting offline information may not provide you with the real time update of the place, and might often lead to old information about your destination. A travel app with real time updates such as maps, routes, sight-seeing locations, best hangout and nightlife places etc. can often save your time.

World Tourism Android 18G app is one such solution for your travel needs; another great app that lets you check the best of sight-seeing places at your city of visit. Available in both online and offline modes, this app gives you access to information of more than 151 Countries across the world. Also get basic information about time zones, languages spoken, currencies used etc.

Airfares Comparison

Jetradar is one of the best travel apps I discovered online to save money on your airfares and hotels. Get quotes from more than 700 different airliners,5 booking systems, and 35 travel agencies offering discounted airfares for your chosen travel destinations.

The website is a single platform that combines thousands of travel websites such as Expedia, OneTravel, Vayama and dozens more across the globe to offer you the best available quotes. Worth a try if you are looking for saving some extra bucks on that next trip.

Hotels and Accommodation

Without second thoughts, the Booking.com app. Not only does it have a gigantic list of hotels (more than 550,000), to choose from, such as hotels, villas, hostels B&Bs, but also there are a variety of ways you can choose to book your hotel. Whether it’s a hotel close to your favourite historic site or landmark, or your city of travel, or you wish to choose hotels as per your budget, this app has it all. Highly flexible and user-friendly and allows greater control over your choice of hotels.

The app is available in 42 languages and 53 currency options for checking prices. The search engine allows detailed filters to narrow your search such as price range, city, districts, facilities provided by the hotel, etc. A map mode allows the user to browse all the hotels available in the vicinity of a particular area. Some of the hotels also offer only booking (not charged on your credit card) using your credit card information and payments on arrival. If the user is not satisfied with the hotel on arrival, he can simply cancel the booking without any payments made and questions asked.

Cruises

All set for that dream voyage? Wait a minute!! Do you have a cruise planner yet? Well, if you do not have one, then you should consider trying out this app. Cruise tours are generally short trips of 15 days or longer voyages of over a month. It can cost you a fortune if you do not plan properly.

Cruise Ship Mate app helps you to plan your next dream voyage in a realistic manner. Get insider information of more than 300 different cruise lines. Access, deck plans, ship information, cruise port information with history and maps and check out the excursions. If that’s not all, a cruise countdown clock keeps your breath ticking in anticipation as you await to step into that voyage. Make friends on board with the easy to use roll call feature and cruise chat box options. Cruising tips can help you to pack your luggage to come prepared with the essentials during that journey. Overall, a must have app for any novice or a pro- cruise traveler.

Saving Money

Currency exchange rate is a matter of concern especially when you are traveling in a country whose currency in appreciated in value than that of yours, and often, it leads to an unbalance of your travel budgets. What if there is an application which can give us real time updates about the currency and exchange rates online so that the currency can be exchanged at the moment when the best bargain is available?

Travel Calculator is one such app which can help you in getting real- time currency exchange rates, when you require it the most. Its powerful features allow currency exchange rates of more than 100 different countries. The app can also be used on your phone while you carry it abroad as it is enabled with offline use feature. An application put across in the simplest manner. As it is rightly said, ‘Simple is the best’..

Shopping App

And this is for all the ladies!! And yes, there is an app for that shopping too while you are up and roaming in your destination. But how do you prefer to look around for the shopping areas. Carrying a travel guide might give you updates based on the edition of the book, but often by the time you reach the location, the shops might have changed.

The Point Inside Shopping and Travel app lets you browse, search, pinpoint shopping options in malls, airports, theme parks, museums, restrooms, ATM’s all stored at one place. Listed with millions of local and national retailers, this app provides coupons, offers and deals that can be used online for your shopping experience. Now, the question comes, if I have to shop online, I can sit at home instead and get a home delivery. But what if you can order your stuff, and just go and pick it from that store? Just search the local map, find the shopping destination, use the coupons, buy your stuff and collect it on the go. Simple…

Language

Worried about communicating in a new country? How about an app which can translate text to speech or voice-translate your language into that of the destination language? Communication will be easier right. The Voice Translator App does that for you easily.

Simply select the language you are looking for translation, type the sentence in your own language and translate. And it comes with a social sharing mode where you can share the message with your friends. The translator can work for more than 90 languages which include Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish.

Audio Guide

And finally, tired of long reading and you want someone to keep telling you as you move, then this app is just for you. The Pocket Guide audio app helps you to listen and move around in the city of your travel. It gives tour information by voice, giving you insider stories, hangout places, must see sights, in more than 150 major cities and tourist destinations. The app determines your location and a recording of your personal tour guide describes your current position- no need to touch your phone or read from the screen. The tours have been developed by local tour experts who know their cities inside out.

The GPS activated voice tours can be utilized for free in the online mode, and in offline mode after downloading them on your phone by paying for the downloads.

The Party Finder

You are on a tour and do not witness the nightlife? That’s criminal. But how to know where to party. You wish your phone could tell you. And so, its here. This pretty cool app lets you find the party and events happening in your locality.

Search for food & restaurants, bars & club around you and decide where to eat based on popular ratings. Get the latest plays, movie show timings, and information about new movie releases. Find the most happening events in your city and plan with friends. The TimesCity app is your complete weekend planner and informs you what’s trending in your city.