12 Travel Apps You Must Have – Family Vacation Critic

♦ April 28, 2012

12 Travel Apps You Must Have – Family Vacation Critic.

The advantages of owning a smart phone are the many apps available to help make your life run much smoother.  If you’re a traveler, there’s an app to help make your travel experience easier.  Take a look at this article from family vacation critic.

Everyone has a smart phone these days (don’t you?), and when it comes to making travel easier, there’s an app for that! You don’t need to spend a fortune to have help at your fingertips with the fantastic travel apps we love:

GateGuru
This free (yes, free!) app is a lifesaver when traveling because it shows you what’s happening at the airports. When you know what gate you’ll be arriving at on a connecting flight, this app will show you where you’ll be and how to get through the airport to where you need to go. It also shows you restaurants, stores and playgrounds for the kids. (User ratings help review restaurants so you know which ones are a hit and which ones are a miss.) The app also provides security line wait times, so you can see if you need to get to the airport earlier or have a few minutes to spare. (Free)

TripIt
As frequent travelers, we adore TripIt’s ability to keep all of our travel information in one place. Confirmation numbers, itineraries, calendars and more can be stored on TripIt, which even uses your confirmation emails and self-entered data to create one master schedule for you. The app is free or you can purchase an annual membership for an upgraded version that also shows you available seats on flights, alternative flight options should you get bumped, and delays and cancellations. (Free)

MyTSA
This is the Transportation Security Administration’s official app that can not only answer your questions about what you can and cannot bring through security (when in doubt, don’t!), but can tell you how long the security lines are at various airports. The wait times are mainly a result of fellow passengers reporting their time through the app, so when you get through, be sure to share your time for the others using the same app. (Free)

Taxi Magic
Need a taxi, but don’t know who to call? Taxi Magix is a taxi booking app that will locate a taxi company based on where you are and book it, track it’s arrival, and even charge the ride to your credit card and provide you with an e-receipt (the later for a $1.50 fee). This app is tops on our must-have lists! (Free)

Take Me to My Car
Is there anything worse than traveling for a week and returning to the airport parking lot and not remembering where you parked the car? You’re tired, the kids are cranky, and you all just want to go home, so whip out the phone and use Take Me To My Car. After storing your vehicle’s information, when you’re lost, just tap the app and it’s GPS service will show you where you are in relation to your car. (Free)

FlightTrack
You could download an app from all the airlines you frequently fly to stay abreast of flight schedules and delays, but this one app will show you all the airlines you need. When you enter your flight numbers, it will show you the gate and flight status, including delays. Comes in handy when sitting in the airport Chili’s and you don’t want to keep running to the flight boards to see if the status of your flight has changed. ($4.99)

iCarPark
Whether in a rental or your own car, you can track how much time you’ve parked and keep track of meter time so you never have to return to the car to find a parking ticket for an expired meter. It will also tell you, after you’ve clicked on the app at the parking spot, where you parked when you’re searching for the car after a day of exploring. It even tells you what floor and section of a garage you’ve parked on through its notes system. If traveling with others, the app will log up to five cars. (.99)

Currency Converter
When traveling outside of the U.S., don’t fret trying to figure out how much that souvenir costs in dollars. Let the Currency Converter app give you the daily exchange rates for more than 180 countries. (Free)

MetrO
Those big maps at bus and subway stations can be a bear to read (not to mention it screams tourist when you stand before them for too long) so instead try the MetrO app. Download the cities you’ll be traveling to and you won’t need to connect to the Internet to receive maps for more than 400 cities’ subways and bus systems. (Free)

Bank & ATM Finder
When you’re in need of cash or need to cash a traveler’s cheque, use this free app to help you locate a bank or ATM near you using Google Maps. (You need your phone to pinpoint your location so if you’re abroad, be sure to turn off your international setting. (Free)

Translator
When traveling abroad, it’s helpful to know the basic words for hello, goodbye, thank you, and how much, and this app will help you fit it, as well as help you find the right word for whatever it is you want to say. As a free app, the languages are limited, but the main ones are there: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Japanese and a few others. (Free)

TripAdvisor
Travel aggregate sites that help you plan and book trips from your phone are available in a number of apps, but we’re biased and like our parent company’s TripAdvisor Hotels Flights and Restaurants App because not only can you find flights, restaurants and hotels, but you can also read the millions of reviews written by real people. (You can leave your own reviews through the app, as well.) The app also provides maps and views of places of interest. (Free)

Written by Lissa Poirot

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