When going on a long car trip, you can face many different inconveniences and problems. To make your journey easy and enjoyable, we have selected and tested the most useful mobile apps on the road. It turns out that using a smartphone, you can find the nearest hotel or organize a free overnight stay, calculate fuel costs or call for technical assistance at the touch of a button, and even get a virtual navigator. Already packing your bags and filling a full tank of gas? Then this review is for you!
A handy app for making a route. Especially if you do not know the road or city, then Maps.Me will help you. It works very simply: download the maps of the required countries, set the route and you're done! Works without internet access. This means that at any time you can look at the saved route and travel without fear of missing the desired turn.
Name: Maps.Me
Price: Is free
Compatibility: Universal application
Link: Install
CoPilot
The application allows you to download maps of 38 countries of the world, which are available without Internet access. The maps show bright sights with links to "Wikipedia", by clicking on which you can find out, for example, the history of a cultural monument or an ancient building.
Name: CoPilot
Price: Is free
Compatibility: Universal application
Link: Install
Couchsurfing
it social network for those who are used to traveling light. Members of the network provide each other with assistance and accommodation for free while traveling or organize joint trips. If the option to book a hotel room is too expensive or not to your liking, use the offers of couchsurfers. Just select the country and city you are going to visit, and the application will give you hundreds of ads of real people with an offer to stay with them.
Name: Couchsurfing
Price: Is free
Compatibility: For iPhone
Link: Install
Russian AutoMotoClub (RAMK)
The application is simply irreplaceable when traveling across Russia and Europe. If a malfunction occurs on the way, technical assistance can be called in 30 seconds with one button. Your location coordinates will be determined automatically by GPS. Operators working around the clock will promptly contact you and send a tow truck or a technical assistance car to you. It is also possible to get free advice from experienced auto mechanics by phone. The company currently provides services in 400 cities throughout Russia and Europe. All of the above services will be free for members of the RAMK auto club. An extensive database of official dealerships is also loaded into the application.
Name: Russian AutoMotoClub
Price: Is free
Compatibility: For iPhone
Link: Install
City Maps 2Go
A must have for every traveler. Download maps, choose a city and go! Hungry? Select “food” in the tab, and the application will show on the map all restaurants located nearby. It's the same with cafes, shops, banks and other places of recreation. Bookmark the item, or attach a sticker to the card. For convenience, cafes can be marked with one color, banks - with another, and shops - with a third, so that later you know where to go to eat or exchange money. There is no navigation, but it is very easy to navigate.
Name: City Maps 2Go
Price: Is free
Compatibility: Universal application
Link: Install
Redigo
What can be transported through customs? How is it profitable to change currency? What current events are taking place in the country? These and many other important questions can be easily answered in the Redigo app. Choose the country where you are going to go, download information to your phone and without any Internet you get free access to information. The app also contains travel guides, maps and a phrasebook in 6 foreign languages.
Name: Redigo
Price: Is free
Compatibility: For iPhone
Link: Install
Second Pilot
The application was created in order to warn drivers on the way. When you are driving in an unfamiliar area, you do not know where the "ambush" will await you. Here other motorists will come to your aid, who have discovered the ill-fated pits, speed bumps or insidious speed cameras. The application has voice prompts, which means that you do not need to constantly look at the screen. The application also monitors the speed and reports the excess. Traveling around Russia is the best thing!
Name: Second Pilot
Price: Is free
Compatibility: For iPhone
Link: Install
MultiGO Fuel
The MultiGO Fuel application contains a database of gas stations with prices, reviews and ratings, which is updated every day. The driver can install any filters convenient for him: by type of fuel, by brand of gas station, by type of accepted fuel cards, and so on. In addition, the application will allow you to personally take part in price monitoring.
Name: MultiGO Fuel
Price: Is free
Compatibility: For iPhone
Link: Install
Find Your Car with AR
If you parked your car in the back streets of an unfamiliar city and set off to explore the surroundings on foot, then the application will help you find the way back to your car. The application determines and remembers the coordinates of the location of the car. It is enough to activate the application and go about your business. And when needed, the app will find your car by itself and show you the way wherever you are!
Name: Find Your Car with AR
Price: Is free
Compatibility: Universal application
Link: Install
Car Camera DVR
Recently, a video recorder has become popular with motorists. Very handy, such a gadget will be on a road trip. The video recorder will help not only to record the moment of an accident, but also to take pictures of the most beautiful landscapes along the way, which can then be shown to friends. Now there is no need to buy a separate video recorder, you can simply download the application to your phone! Car Camera DVR captures HD quality. The application allows you to turn off the screen completely when recording, or display only the most necessary information on it, such as the current speed, time and direction of movement.
Name: Car Camera DVR
Price: Is free
Compatibility: For iPhone
Link: Install
Hudway - navigator for night driving
This application is specially designed for those car travelers who find it more comfortable to spend time on the road at night. An ordinary navigator is blind and distracting at night, while the Hudway is designed so that you can see your route on the windshield of the car. To do this, you need to add brightness to the phone, put it on the dashboard, and the picture will be reflected in the windshield. The application's voice assistant will warn not only about road junctions, but also about dangerous bends or turns. The navigator is great, but we would not advise relying only on him!
Name: Hudway
Price: Is free
Compatibility: For iPhone
Link:
Most Useful Mobile Travel Apps for iPhone and Android: 12 Best Electronic Assistants to Organize Your Trip. Travelers, arm yourself!
Hello friends! I travel 10-15 times a year and without the convenient apps that are always at hand, my brain would break down, and my budget would suffer a lot. Traveling to new countries is difficult and costly without these assistants. In this review, I will tell you about the most useful programs for your gadget that I use myself. Go!
1. Search for tours
Do you prefer to have a vacation on a package? You don't need a travel agent at the metro office. They have only one interest - to sell you a tour at a higher price. I recommend people of the XXI century to search and buy tours using a smartphone. It happens that I urgently need to buy a last minute ticket when I am still abroad. How can you do this without a normal online service? No way!
2. Search for air tickets
Air tickets are the first thing an independent traveler needs. And preferably cheaper!
I think the best mobile app on the search for tickets - at the well-known Aviasales... Comparison of prices among 700+ airlines, a price calendar, voice search, building complex routes, a map of low prices and a bunch of other useful features in one program. Download for Android or iPhone.
I believe in cheap flights and budget travel! This is me on the Penang island in Malaysia, my first winter in Asia.3. Search for hotels
I bought tickets - it's time to look for a hotel. Prices for the same hotel are not the same for different services - the difference can be 10-30%. Therefore, we need to compare all booking sites and find best price... It knows how to do it Hotellook: Download for Android or iPhone. Install it on your gadget, and you can always quickly find an inexpensive hotel anywhere and anytime.
6. Offline maps
This is the most useful mobile app when traveling.
What does any traveler need? Of course, in the map! But a paper card is inconvenient, and online cards don't work without the internet. MAPS.ME and OsmAnd will come to the rescue - both work on the basis of Open Street Map and are almost identical, but the former has a more intuitive design.
These apps will help you get directions, find cafes, shops, ATMs, gas stations, attractions, and more. For offline work, download the map of the required country or region in advance. I use these programs on every trip: in the mountains, desert, jungle - wherever I find myself, it is easy to find the right road using GPS and these maps.
6. Finding food
Food in local establishments is always tastier than in restaurants for tourists. Famous people will help you find a good place to eat. free apps, or . There are reviews, ratings of tourists and more or less convenient filters for finding places by price level and type of cuisine.
The main thing in a trip is to find a place where food is tasty and inexpensive. The rest will follow! Photo from South Korea. 7. Money
Very important! Install your banks' applications on your smartphones. So you can make banking transactions, monitor your balance and block your card in case of problems.
- : 10% cashback from hotels and car rental, 2-3% from air tickets, 2% from all other purchases + free annual honey. insurance + the ability to buy tickets for any airline for miles + a year of free service.
- : withdrawing money without a commission worldwide + the ability to change the currency of your account (euros, dollars and others) in the application, so as not to lose a penny on conversion + 3 months of free service.
Read my unfolded and find out how to wisely save on travel.
Count your travel expenses in the program. Just do not forget to add your expenses there, and at the end of your vacation, look at the report - you will find out where so much money went.
In the magical mountains of the beloved Caucasus! Adygea, Lago-Naki. 8. Taxi
When traveling, I try to travel by public transport - it's cheaper that way. But sometimes you have to take a taxi. To prevent sly taxi drivers from ruining you (especially when you need to go from or to the airport), use mobile car search applications. Install in advance Yandex.Taxi(Android or iOS) for Russia and foreign version Uber(Android or iOS) for overseas. If you are traveling with a group or family, Uber rides are often even cheaper than buses.
9. Lost in translation
Abroad without an interpreter is possible! I am using a useful application Google translate(for and ). He also has a cool fiction - translation through the camera: point the lens at the text, and voila - more or less understandable text in a language you know. I advise you to translate not into Russian, but into English, otherwise the result in half the cases will make you laugh wildly (pearls are fierce there!). Download a dictionary of the languages you want before you travel. Alternative: - Useful applications to connect with family, friends and foreigners. For example, it is convenient to correspond with the owner from whom you are renting an apartment. By the way, from Skype you can make calls to regular landline and mobile numbers- the service is paid, but inexpensive. I had to call Sberbank support to unblock the card while traveling, and I used Skype.
12. Wine
I don't know about you, but I love wine! It is especially difficult to control yourself when traveling to the wine countries of Europe. I myself am never a sommelier, so I have to look for help when it comes to choosing a good wine.
Vivino is a cool, convenient and free mobile wine selection app. Launch the program, scan the label and get all the information you need: user rating, reviews, taste description, characteristics, average price. Choose wines with a score of 3.8 or more. One drawback: you need internet.
Thanks to this useful application, I buy wines in Europe for 10-20 €, which cost 5000 rubles in Russia. Bliss!
First photo: Martin Engel - Grafiker Hamburg | unsplash.com.
The smartphone, which is so popular nowadays, in a short period of time has turned from an expensive toy into a “pocket computer”. Thanks to the invention of operating systems for mobile devices, the modern phone has acquired functions unthinkable for its predecessors. With the help of an extensive catalog of applications, the smartphone can perform a variety of functions - with it you can go for a run, even on a trip. In the latter case, your phone can replace several things necessary for a voyage at once, for example, a map and a guidebook.
However, if you are traveling by car, it is no longer possible to get by with apps for planning a route or booking hotels. You need to know where the nearest gas station is and more. But which services have the best functionality? We have selected 10 extremely useful applications for those traveling by car, but whether it is worth installing them is up to you.
TOP 10 car apps
Appendix # 1: MAPS.ME
At the forefront of any trip in unfamiliar terrain is always the map. Some people use traditional paper-based solutions, but most have already switched to navigators and built-in solutions from Google and similar. However, regular maps on a smartphone have an Achilles heel - they only work if you have access to the Internet. But it is not everywhere, which means we need offline applications, the best of which is "MAPS.ME". You just need to download the maps of the region of interest in advance, and then they will calmly work without the Internet, although with it the functionality is incomparably wider (you can leave notes along the route and coordinates to your friends, etc.). In addition, the app is free and stable with almost no glitches.
Appendix # 2: Mandic magiC
How nice it is to go to a cafe and surf the Web while your order is being prepared! But constantly asking for a password for access is tiresome. However, this is easy to solve with Mandic magiC. The application allows both locally and in advance to find out the passwords of the wireless network in public places along the route, saving them in memory. Naturally, hacking a closed access point will not work, but respectable citizens do not need this.
Appendix # 3: AroundMe
If you are lost, then don't panic. Try to find out your location using "AroundMe". The application will show you where catering establishments, hotels, gas stations and even sights are located near you, after which it will not be difficult to navigate. However, the service will not work without access to the Internet.
Appendix # 4: Find My Car
This app is for those who know their location but have no idea where their car is. In unfamiliar terrain or in a huge parking lot, this can happen to anyone. Find My Car will help you find the "iron horse", leading you right to it.
Appendix # 5: WeatherPRO
The old joke about the fact that forecasters are wrong once, but every day, is rapidly losing its relevance as technology develops. And the WeatherPRO application is a good example of this. Directly from a smartphone, you can find out not only a very accurate forecast with all the data, but also how the weather "feels" outside the window, which will also be useful.
Appendix # 6: WhatsApp Messenger
Roaming is very expensive and can be ruinous on a long trip. And how sometimes you want to hear the voice of a dear person! However, this is easily solvable. All you need is Wi-Fi access and installed application with the necessary functionality, for example "WhatsApp Messenger". With it, you can make calls using Internet traffic, which provides huge cost savings. By the way, there are a lot of such services now, so it's easy to choose what you like best.
Appendix # 7: MyCar
A video recorder is now in almost every car, and it can be useful for fixing the moment of an accident. But what if it's not there? It doesn't matter, you can make a dash cam from your smartphone! Install the MyCar apps and place the gadget on the stable holder, then hit the road. The undoubted advantage of the service is that it allows you to recognize signs on the road, which are displayed on the smartphone screen.
Appendix # 8: Prey Anti Theft
In some countries, the crime situation is depressing, and your mobile phone can be stolen. Prey Anti Theft will help make it easier to find. It needs to be installed on 2 devices, one of which can be a tablet or even a laptop. Thanks to synchronization, it is possible to catch the signal of a stolen gadget, find out where it is, turn on the blocking and alarm, if any.
Appendix # 9: Untappd
It is difficult to imagine a trip to the Czech Republic or Germany without tasting the local beer, which is famous for its quality all over the world. The Untappd service will indicate not only the path to the bar, but also tell about its assortment, and if you are interested in a specific variety, the application will display only those bars where it is available. The main thing is to go to the tasting on foot, because a trip "under degrees" will not lead to anything good.
Appendix # 10: Instagram
For example, we were amazed to find ourselves in the Apple Store - despite the fact that this huge two-story store is one of the largest in the world, we observed an incredible crowd in it, and we counted about 40 people in the queue for the iPhone 5 (and this is after six months after its market launch).
Nevertheless, in Russia, the situation is significantly different - devices based on the Android OS are leading in terms of the number of sales, increasing the gap every year (75% versus 15% on iOS in 2012). However, this is not surprising, because smartphones on Android are produced by such monsters as HTC, Samsung, LG and Sony, and besides, they also have budget models in their assortment, which cannot be said about Apple products.
We could not ignore this popular operating system, and today we bring to your attention a brief overview of Android applications for travel.
Get the most out of the GPS sensor and compass built into your device with this powerful navigation app. GPS Essential allows you to see data such as coordinates, altitude, speed (current / maximum / minimum), moon phase. With it, you can record tracks, get directions, put markers on the map, take pictures with the camera, with data overlay and much more. The application can work with OpenStreetMap maps, Google maps and MapQuest.
This is the mobile application of the popular flight search engine. In addition to the selection of tickets directly, a widget is especially valuable in it, which allows you to easily monitor cheap flights in a certain direction. For example, if you want to fly from Moscow to Barcelona, but you don’t really care when exactly, you can adjust the widget accordingly, and periodically look at it - once a day, the information in the widget will be automatically updated and you will always have the latest information about the best deals on this direction.
Another ticket metasearch. It does not have such a convenient widget as Skyscanner, but, firstly, the application itself is very conveniently implemented, and, secondly, this search engine searches, according to the developer, "by 728 airlines (including low-cost carriers and charters), 40 agencies and 5 booking systems. ”And, indeed, very often gives the best deals.
By the way, what other ways exist to save money when buying air tickets, we told in our article "
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We have already written about these cards in the article "", but I would like to mention them here as well. This application, as they say, is a must have for everyone who periodically travels outside their city / country.
Unlike most navigation applications that use online maps and, therefore, are of no value in the absence of the Internet, MapsWithMe allows you to download a map of any country to your device and use it completely autonomously. For some countries, the maps are more detailed, for others - less, but in any case, all the main roads between cities are drawn. Another plus is that the maps are stored in vector form and, accordingly, take up quite a bit of space.
This application is very useful for those who cannot imagine life without the Internet. WiFi Manager searches very quickly for available wireless networks, displays the type of network protection and signal strength, and also provides the ability to systematize the found networks. The app has several widgets that allow you to find, analyze and connect to the network in a matter of seconds.
If Wi-Fi points there is no nearby and in roaming you have to use GPRS, but at the same time you do not want to receive a bill for several tens of thousands of rubles, it is advisable to take into account the volume of transmitted and received traffic. 3G Watchdog does an excellent job with accounting, and among other things, in the application you can set up notifications with daily / weekly / monthly statistics.
Almost every new smartphone user strives to install as many useful applications as possible. Most of them turn out to be not as great as the description says, therefore, in order not to turn your device into a trash heap, it makes sense to periodically delete unnecessary software.
Unfortunately, it is not always convenient to do this with built-in tools, and besides, not all applications can be completely eliminated, it is in such cases that the Uninstaller comes to the rescue. The functionality of the application is very modest, but it copes with it quite well.
If during your travels you climbed to a place where the signal strength cellular network not high enough, this application will help you. OpenSignal determines the position of the tower you are currently connected to, maps the nearest towers, and also shows the direction in which to move in order to get a stronger signal.
This application, of course, will not protect you from theft or loss of your smartphone, but it can make life much easier if it does happen. AndroidLost provides the ability to control your android-based device from a computer (or other smartphone): delete data from a map, block a smartphone, send SMS, search for a phone using a GPS signal and by towers cellular communication and much more.
One of the main advantages of Android is the ability to fine-tune the interface. Therefore, despite the fact that this application is not directly related to travel, we decided to mention it in this article.
With the help, you can completely customize the smartphone interface. Themes, icons, gestures and, most importantly, widgets - everything can be controlled from this application.
On trips, especially long ones, carrying paper books with you is an impermissible luxury. The best option is an e-book, but you can also read on a smartphone / tablet, although your eyes get tired faster.
Cool Reader is one of the most convenient and functional applications for reading books on Android. The application has many settings that allow you to adapt it to your taste as much as possible. There is nothing special to tell about the application, if you like to read books on your smartphone, it's better to just install it and see for yourself
Bigg
If you are not a linguist and English is not your native language, then one of the very important applications that will certainly come in handy while traveling is the English-Russian-English dictionary. With all the richness of choice, there are not so many really high-quality and complete dictionaries, and the Bigg application is the most optimal in terms of price / quality ratio.
Conclusion
Despite the fact that according to statistics, the most popular applications for Android are games and many travelers like to while away the time with mobile toys, we are not fans of this category, so we did not consider them in our review.
If you like to play on your smartphone, then perhaps you will be interested in reviews of games for Android.
If you have a smartphone recently and you do not know how to install applications, read the installation instructions Google play for Android.
