Most downloaded travel apps

You can make restaurant reservations, save your favorite spots and write reviews. For obvious reasons, the app works best when your GPS is turned on. WhatsApp is a great messaging service for travelers abroad as it uses an internet connection to avoid SMS fees. It works like most other messaging apps: You start by creating an account, then add your friends and family members to contact, and voila! Plus, you can download WhatsApp on your Windows or Mac computer. Traveling is about more than just getting from point A to point B.

Meetup is an app designed for interacting with locals and other travelers who have mutual interests or shared hobbies. The app shows you groups that are formed around particular interests in your city, including yoga, photography, cooking, wine tasting, hiking, cinema and much more. You might even be able to join a coworking group. TheFork is one of the most useful resources for making restaurant reservations in Europe.

Similar to OpenTable or Resy, you can browse different restaurants by category and make reservations. TheFork is available in over 4, cities within 11 countries — most in Europe but also Brazil and Australia — and it seems to be expanding rapidly.

Foodie travelers should also consider downloading these apps , too. The app allows you to filter by not only vegan and vegetarian but also gluten-free and cuisine type. You can also read reviews and get recipes on the app as well. Smart Traveler is a free service that offers tips and information specifically for U. Register your trip on the app, which gives your information to local embassies and consulates in your destination.

Another app dedicated to keeping you safe, TripWhistle maps your location and allows you to easily text or send your GPS coordinates or location. It also provides emergency numbers for firefighters, medical personnel and police in nearly countries.

After all, is only for U. Terms Apply. Disclaimer: The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser.

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Skip to content. Advertiser Disclosure. Lori Zaino. Researching and booking trips In addition to the apps for the airlines you fly most frequently and hotels you stay with regularly, these apps can help you save money on flights and accommodations.

Hopper Screenshot courtesy of iTunes Hopper has changed in recent years from just offering a price prediction tool for flights to being a true OTA. Kiwi Screenshot courtesy of iTunes Kiwi is used mainly to book flights, but it will also take care of all your basic travel bookings: flight, hotel, car rental, even activities and tours.

Not sure where to look first? We've found a list of the best travel apps for when you're ready to hit the road again after sticking close to home for more than a year.

Before you hit the road, make sure you've got MyTSA on your smartphone. The official app of the Transportation Security Administration isn't going to win any beauty contests, but it will let you check wait times at security checkpoints at major airpots.

And that can help you plan on how much travel time you need to allow. The app includes historical wait-time data while also giving you the option of checking crowd-sourced reports of how long security lines are at that moment. The ability to search what you can bring on a plane, get live assistance and find out info on the TSA PreCheck program make this a good app for travelers to keep handy on their smartphone.

If you're a frequent traveller, you need a good all-in-one travel app, and Expedia is a tried-and-true option. You can book every aspect of your trip through Expedia, including hotels, flights and rental cars. The app also lets you bundle deals on travel and lodging, look for cruises, and research things to do when you arrive at your destination.

If you're looking to stretch your travel budget even farther, Expedia promises exclusive deals for mobile users, with members of Expedia's rewards program enjoying additional perks. Download Expedia: Android , iOS. There are flight trackers, and then there's Flighty, an iOS app for people who really want to know the location and arrival time of their plane. Flighty also claims to be able to predict flight delays by monitoring inbound planes for 25 hours and monitoring FAA-mandated delays.

You can check out the portions of the paid app for free during a day trial. Download Flighty: iOS. Another app bringing big data and predictive algorithms to the world of air travel is Hopper It uses a massive database of airline prices and historical trends to predict when prices to a destination are likely to be lowest, when they're likely to change, and the best time to buy a ticket for a particular date and destination.

You can watch flights on specific dates or destinations, and the app will advise you whether it's worth it to buy now or to wait, tell you the dates when it's likely cheapest to fly, estimate changes in price, and notify you of price drops or rises.

You can also save your payment details within the app for quick booking. Download Hopper: Android , iOS. If your travel plans involve a lot of driving, iExit works as a handy freeway exit guide, listing nearby highway exits, as well as the kind of businesses and amenities there are nearby.

Need to gas up or find some good food or a place to stay for the night? Download iExit: Android , iOS. App users in the US seem to rely more on apps like Expedia or Kayak to search for flights. Also if we combine both datasets, Booking. With 1. Nevertheless, Airbnb managed to rise to this second rank in only a few years and is not giving up the challenge to beat Booking.

If their expansion to experiences will become a success, their application will become a more important piece in our trip planning process. Google Trips is ranking as the 6 most downloaded travel booking app in Europe, but only claims the 9 rank in the US. The app has enormous opportunities to rise to the top 3. You can search for flight tickets, hotel bookings , search for activities and even choose from popular day plans.

As Google collects data from millions of users, they can easily track which destinations and activities are most popular per demographic. If they use this data to give its users personal travel advice, it could become a very important app in our trip planning arsenal. Thanks to Airbnb we can now experience our destinations like a local. Experiences range from family dinners to surf classes and are one of the best ways to immerse in the local culture.

GeckoRoutes view is that travellers choose a destination because of the things to do at the destination. We are convinced they can do the same for experiences. And that is also the main reason why we think Airbnb will become the most popular travel brand.

Ctrip rose from the 24th rank in to the 7th rank in The giant e-commerce company Alibaba, serves the Chinese traveller with its subsidiary Fliggy. And the start-up Meituan-Dianping, which started with food-delivery, is now the market leader in travel in the Chinese travel market.

These companies have big aspirations. Booking Holdings, the mother company of booking. There is no way to stop these companies from growing. Chinese travellers prefer to use a travel company that uses the same language and understands the customer. One of the main reasons we all use Google is because they are great in what they do.

The search-engine helps us to find information quickly and re-directs us to the best sources. Online travel companies like Booking. But times are changing. The travel market is the second largest industry in the world and Google seizes this opportunity. A few years back, the company launched the app Google Trips. Most features were only available in the app, but slowly we see them appearing in the search results as well.

Examples are Google Flight, Google Hotel search and recommendations of places to visit. By analyzing the data from Google maps, your search history and booking confirmations on Gmail, the company will be able to give you the best recommendations and answer your questions in no-time. We are not there yet. The standard sort has a lot of properties that pay to be at the top. This effects the smaller hostels big time. Always sort by rating and then read the reviews.

Also keep in mind that all negative reviews are not equal. Most airlines now have mobile boarding passes that you can store on your phone , like in Apple Wallet. Also, if you allow for notifications, most airline apps will notify you of gate changes and when they are boarding. FlightView tracks all your flight information and presents it in an easy to understand format.

You get tons of up-to-date information, including departure and arrival terminals and gates, flight duration, weather, and what aircraft you will be flying on.

WhatsApp offers free messaging and calls over your network or Wi-Fi, and all your data is encrypted. Everyone in the world uses WhatsApp to communicate. In fact, I use it every day to talk to my friends I met while traveling. I check mine every day before going out just to make sure there are not any fraudulent charges on my accounts. If you go out with a group of people and only one person has cash to pay, you can easily pay them back via PayPal.

Splitwise is a cool app that allows you to evenly split expenses between people and settle payments. At the end of the trip the app will tabulate how much each person owes to each other and even links to Venmo and PayPal for easy payments. One feature that I really love is the camera feature.

You just line up your camera to the text, and it will translate from the written language to your preferred language right on the screen! A good VPN will hide your IP address, let you browse anonymously, and generally blocks your device from unwanted snooping and interference.

That means you can be in Los Angeles and your device will have networks say you are in Amsterdam, for instance. This is perfect for watching movies from your streaming networks when they say you can only stream from your country Amazon Prime Video and HBO. Sign up today with ExpressVPN and get 30 days free! Global Entry costs money, and not everyone is willing to pay for it though I really do love it.

Mobile Passport users have their own dedicated lines off to the side and they are always empty. It took me 2 minutes to wait in line and clear customs. Hardly anyone uses this FREE service and app, and it is totally worth downloading.