With this handy app on your phone, you’ll save yourself the burden of lugging several volumes of travel books for all the places you want to visit. The great thing about the Triposo guides is that you can download the World Guide or select a guide by city. The app works offline and includes maps, recommends places of interest you may want to visit, and the best thing about it is that it is totally free.
Download the app to your mobile device, then forward your confirmation mails from the airlines and hotels, and the app will automatically generate a digital diary on your mobile device. Use ttie app to plan your day-to-day activities for a very well-organized vacation. You can download the app for free (with ads) or purchase it for an ad-free experience.
Exchanging money while traveling can be daunting; you’re never sure where you can get the most favorable exchange rates. If you know what the prevailing exchange rate is, you have the choice of converting your money to the local currency at the airport, hotel or at a money changer elsewhere. The good thing about this app is that it retains the most recent rate, so you can still make your currency conversions even when you don’t have an internet connection.
Document your trip, add photos and videos, geo-tag them then write blog entries about each leg of your trip, then export to Facebook and share with your friends. (PHP 145.46 for iOS; PHP 160.83 for Android).
Having your important files on hand while you are on the road is a great advantage. With Dropbox installed on your mobile device, you don’t need to bring back-up copies of your files. The app is free to download, and you get 2GB storage for free, but you can add more storage by purchasing more space or get rewarded with free space when friends you invite to Dropboxcreate an account.
Knowing the weather conditions at your destination can help you prepare for any eventuality. There are a lot of weather apps available but I still like AccuWeather. It is simple to use, and allows for multiple locations so you can track the weather from your starting location to any destination.
This is a great app not only for business travelers. Use Expensify to keep track of your purchases and transactions by using the Smartscan feature of the app and you immediately have a digital back-up of your expense receipts. The app can also pull details of the transaction and keep track of your expenses. Add the mileage of your odometer and it automatically adds your spending on gas. At the end of your journey, you can select which transactions to include in your expense report and voila!-a no-sweat PDF travel expense report emailed to you.
For an investment of PHP 145.46, you can minimize the jetlag with the help of this app. All you need to do is enter your flight information departure location, date and time; destination and time of arrival and sleep patterns-what time you usually go to bed and wake up, and if you want to take melatonin during your flight and it will make recommendations on what you should do before, during and after your long flight, so you can enjoy your vacation and come back ready to jump back to work without feeling the lethargic and out of sync.
It’s not always easy to figure out how much tip to leave when you’re in a foreign country. Not only can the tipping custom be different, there’s the added currency exchange factor. With the Tipping Bird app, all you need to do is select a country and it will recommend how much to tip for typical situations. You can also convert the amount to your own currency so you know how much you are spending for tips.
This is another app you must always have in your mobile device. It does not always translate what you say perfectly but it will help you make yourself be understood when you are in a foreign country. It sure beats frantically looking for words in a phrase book. Plus the voice recognition feature of this app is enough reason for you to install it in your phone. In situations where you have difficulty making yourself understood, just speak your phrase to the app and it will say the translation in the language you choose.
First published in Gadgets Magazine, May 2013
Compiled by Presy Alba