There’s an endless abyss of travel apps out there, some more useful than others. I’ve found a few game changers that I swear by and have rounded up my top 10 here. Aaaand tacked on 3 bad ones at the end of this post for a healthy balance.
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An overview of my favourite travel apps
Here are my favourite travel apps in a neat little list if you just want a quick answer. For more details, read on below!
- Travel Spend: Easy budgeting, visually pleasing, works offline.
- Get Your Guide: Helps you find awesome local activities.
- XE Currency Converter: See live currency exchange rates instantly.
- Wise/Revolut: Make international transfers.
- DiscoverCars: Compare rental companies to find the best deal.
- Airalo: International eSIM to give you data without a physical chip.
- Priority Pass/Dragon Pass: Get airport lounge access.
- ClassPass: Drop in to fitness classes in cities all over the world.
- Splitwise: Share the cost of a trip easily with friends.
Details about my favourite travel apps
Here are some travel apps to download before your next trip! I’m not going to bother with things like Skyscanner, Airbnb, Google Translate, All Trails, and other stuff you’ve already heard of. These are the hidden gems that I love and feel like I need to tell you about.
TravelSpend
TravelSpend is right up here at the top because it’s my favourite of all the favourites. There are so many fun features I’ll lay them out neatly in a bulleted list:
- It has fun colour-coding and icons to help you keep categories straight.
- The app works offline so you can keep up with your entries whenever and wherever.
- It automatically converts any currency you enter into your chosen home currency, so it’s easier to see what you’re spending.
- It has pie charts and percentages.
- You can create separate entries for each destination you go to.
- If your friends have the app too, you can manage your expenses in a shared trip.
- You can connect it to Apple Pay (TBH I didn’t do this because by the time they implemented it, I’d already gotten used to inputting everything manually and I like it that way.)
Don’t judge my spending too quickly! This is for 2 of us.
It was honestly such a dream and I used it every day in 2023. I reached out to tell them how much I love it, and they set me up so I can offer my readers (that’s you!) 50% off a yearly plan.
So use the code RUNAWAYWITHME when upgrading through the app.
I know it’s a bit counterintuitive to spend money on a money-saving app. So fortunately, the free version is pretty great if you’re strapped for cash or just want to test it out. But I really really like having the paid features, like being able to record more than one trip at a time. And it’s only like $25 bucks for an annual membership, or $60 for lifetime access. (Half if you use the discount!)
K phew, this one was long. The others will be shorter, I promise.
Get Your Guide
Browsing through Get Your Guide helps you find activities you may never have known about otherwise! It has come in handy several times and they often have deals on activities. Whether you’re just looking for something to do for a few hours, entrance to a local attraction, or a multi-day tour, it’s all on Get Your Guide. I’m sure you see the ads a lot because they’re doing a hefty marketing push — but it’s genuinely useful!
I used it a bunch in Romania and it was actually the only way we could get to Lake Bovilla in Albania at the time. So it’s definitely worth having on your phone no matter where you are in the world.
XE currency converter
XE is one of the best travel apps because you can use it for a very quick live exchange rate. (You can also use it to transfer money overseas, but I use Wise for that. More on this below.) I’m Canadian, live in New Zealand, and get paid in US dollars, so I literally use this app even when I’m not traveling to figure out how tf much money I’m making or what something costs.
It’s essential in a place like Argentina, where the currency isn’t very stable and the exchange rate changes drastically from one day to the next. And it’s helpful to all my non-mathy people traveling in countries like Indonesia where the lowest currency notes are in the tens of thousands.
You can have a bunch of currencies on the screen at once and don’t need an account to login. In fact, you don’t even need to sign in to see the exchange rates they just pop up when you open the app. Soooo helpful.
Wise or Revolut
Continuing on the topic of money: there’s Wise and Revolut. They’re similar, and you don’t really need both travel apps. They let you send and receive money in different currencies with good exchange rates, and offer a physical multi-currency travel card with no overseas transaction fees.
I use Wise all the time to transfer between my Canadian and New Zealand bank accounts without losing a crazy amount to random fees and unreasonable exchange rates. It kind of acts like you have a local bank account. If you want to try it out, you can send up to £500 with no fees for your first transaction. I’ve never used Revolut, but friends have raved about it. Forbes has a more informed and in-depth comparison between the two here.
I’d be open to trying the multi-currency cards in the future. But for now I love my credit card points and the other perks Wise and Revolut cards don’t offer!
DiscoverCars
DiscoverCars is kind of like the Skyscanner of car rentals. It compares all the local providers and lists your options so you can choose the best ride for your needs, whether that be a bougie BMW convertible or the cheapest little Toyota Yaris you can find. They do free cancellation and I’ve found some wildly cheap last-minute rental prices.
That said, I am a true millennial and see booking a car rental a bit like booking a plane ticket: It’s a big screen activity. So I usually make the final booking on my computer, but I’ll browse through the DiscoverCars app until I’m ready to buy.
Airalo
Ok so I genuinely DO think Airalo is worth trying, but I don’t consider it a reliable long-term solution.
I go into more detail about it in the blog linked below. However, to summarize, I think this is a great app to download before you get to a new country so you can land and get data immediately. There are lots of quick and easy 3-day plans. It’ll make it easier to navigate to your hotel with live maps or contact your Airbnb. And it’s just generally safer.
Airalo worked a treat for a 3-day stopover in Qatar, but not so well when I tried it for an extended trip. If you’re staying somewhere for more than a few weeks, I’d recommend getting an old-fashioned SIM. One of the many benefits is that it’ll likely come with some local calling minutes, and you never know when you might need those!
All of that aside, if you give Airalo a shot on your next trip, you MUST do these two things:
- Download the app and choose/pay for your eSIM in advance. This is essential because it’ll allow you to connect as soon as you land.
- Use my referral link when signing up so we both get $3 off
Read more: Is an Airalo eSIM Worth It? My Honest Review
Priority Pass or Dragon Pass Travel Apps
These travel apps give you that sweet, sweet lounge access. A lifesaver when you’re spending hours at the airport. They also have some other small perks like discounts at some restaurants or stores in the airport. You can get a membership for free through your credit card. For example, my Canadian Scotiabank Passport Visa came with a Priority Pass membership with 6 lounge visits per year. My New Zealand Amex came with 2 through Dragon Pass.
Otherwise you can pay for membership, but it’s not exactly cheap! $329 for 10 annual visits with Priority Pass, and $259 for 8 visits with Dragon Pass. But hey, it’s cheaper than paying for a business class ticket.
ClassPass
If you travel frequently, it’s impossible to commit to a year-long gym membership. Hell, I can’t even commit to a gym membership when I’m in once place for a year. ClassPass is a monthly membership that gives you access to all the gyms. And it works internationally.
You pay month-to-month and get “credits” that you can put towards different fitness classes or spa treatments. They roll over into the next month if you don’t use them all.
So, for example: I pay $75 NZD ($45 USD) for a monthly membership here in Auckland. If I go home to visit Toronto, or on a trip to Stockholme, Santiago, Sydney, or Singapore, I’ll be able to join a yoga class (or get a massage!) in those cities using my existing credits. Here’s a list of all their locations around the world.
Highly recommend. A much better way to stay fit when you’re travelling than carrying around some 5 kg weights in your backpack like one girl I met in a hostel lol.
You already know I’m all about those referrals, so use my link to sign up and you’ll get 20 free credits to test out ClassPass. (One class is usually like 4-10 credits.)
Splitwise
If you’re on a trip with a group, this is the best! No more paying for gas and your friend saying they’ll get coffees to balance it out. You’ll never have to keep receipts and manually count up what you owe each other ever again.
You just pay for what you pay for, put it in the app, and it does all the math for you at the end of the trip. It also simplifies things so even if there’s 8 of you, it’ll combine payments so you only pay one or two people to settle up.
You can split things between everyone or select specific people, use different currencies, add photos, and lots more. You can also have multiple groups on the go. The app is completely free except for a few little features you can get with an upgrade (but totally not necessary in my opinion).
Travel apps I do not rate
Here are some travel apps I’ve tried that I thought were pretty meh. Not all travel apps are created equal.
Booking.com
Use the app to browse your options but book direct whenever you can. 0 support.
With 1.9 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot, I’m not alone in hating Booking.com. Even the vendors who list their hotels on the site complain about it. However, somehow, it’s one of the largest libraries of accommodations all over the world. So what I do is browse through the app and then book directly with the property whenever possible.
Coliving
I had a weird experience with Coliving.com. We used it to book a month at this adorable place in Grottole, Italy. Firstly, it wasn’t a coliving facility — it was just a normal two-room house. (We didn’t care, we loved living in Grottole, but it was definitely not at all what we expected.)
Secondly, Coliving took a 500€ deposit and said I’d get it back in cash from the host when I left. When I brought this up with the host, he had no idea what I was talking about and wouldn’t give me the money. At first I thought he was being shady, but after a several-week back and forth with the Coliving support team, they finally refunded my money.
We also stayed at another Coliving in Bucharest, Romania (no deposit this time) and learned it’s better for the hosts if you book directly as well. So just like Booking.com, it’s totally worth having the Coliving app on your phone, but then contact the property directly.
Read more: What Coliving in Bucharest, Romania Is Like
Hopper — one of the worst travel apps
I booked a flight through Hopper with a crappy budget airline in Canada. Long story — and I mean LONG story — short, they moved my flight 9 hours early and didn’t tell me. So I obviously missed my flight. Several months of trying to get a refund ensued.
It’s unclear whether booking through Hopper is the reason I never got that update. But I can say with 120% certainty that having to do some of the communicating/refunding through a third-party made the whole thing more of a nightmare.
Lesson learned, always book directly with the airline.
Hopper also makes you pay to speak to a support person. So when I was panicking and trying to figure out how and why my flight had already left the country, I was hit with a paywall. It’s tacky as hell.