Before a three-week trip to Southeast Asia in 2024, I spent an afternoon downloading and setting up the 15 apps that I now consider essential for every trip. Those apps saved me money on flights, helped me Explore cities I had never visited, translated menus in languages I do not speak, and helped me find restaurants that were better than anything in my guidebook. This guide covers the specific apps I use, with practical details on how to set them up and when to use them, so you can arrive at your destination already equipped with the tools you need.
Navigation and Maps
Google Maps is the single most important travel app, and the feature that makes it essential is offline maps. Before leaving home, open Google Maps, search for the city or region you will be visiting, and tap "Download" on the map to save it for offline use. A map of a major city like Tokyo or Paris takes about 200 to 400 megabytes of storage, and a map of an entire country like Thailand takes about 1 to 2 gigabytes. Download maps over Wi-Fi before you depart, and you will have full navigation capability even without an internet connection. The offline maps include driving directions, public transit routes, walking directions, and search functionality, all of which work without data.
Maps.me is a valuable complement to Google Maps for hiking and outdoor activities. The app offers detailed topographic maps that show elevation contours, hiking trails, and terrain features that Google Maps does not include. I use Maps.me for the Inca Trail, the Laugavegur Trail in Iceland, and the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, where Google Maps coverage is limited. The app allows you to download entire countries or regions for offline use, and the maps are based on OpenStreetMap data, which is often more detailed in rural and mountainous areas than Google Maps. The app is free for basic features and costs 15 dollars per year for the premium version, which includes additional map layers and 3D terrain views.
Citymapper is the best app for navigating public transportation in major cities. The app covers over 100 cities worldwide, including London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Sydney, and provides real-time transit information, including bus and subway schedules, delay alerts, and step-by-step directions. The app is significantly more accurate than Google Maps for transit routing in supported cities, because it accounts for service disruptions, strikes, and schedule changes in real time. The app is free to download and use, and the premium version, which costs 5 dollars per month, includes additional features like alerts when your bus or train is approaching.
Flights and Accommodation
Google Flights is the best tool for searching and tracking flight prices. The "Explore" feature, accessible from the search bar, shows a map of the world with the cheapest flights from your home airport to any destination. You can filter by date range, number of stops, airline, and price, and the results update in real time as prices change. The "Price Graph" feature shows the price history for a specific route over the past 12 months, helping you determine whether the current price is high or low. The "Track Prices" feature sends you email notifications when the price of a specific route drops below a threshold you set. Google Flights does not sell tickets directly; it redirects you to the airline or booking site to complete the purchase.
Skyscanner is a useful alternative to Google Flights, particularly for finding cheap flights on budget airlines that Google Flights may not include. Skyscanner's "Whole Month" and "Cheapest Month" features show the cheapest dates to fly to a specific destination, which is Very valuable for flexible travelers. The "Everywhere" search, where you enter your home airport and leave the destination blank, shows the cheapest flights to anywhere in the world. Skyscanner also has a "Price Alert" feature that sends notifications when prices drop for routes you are watching. The app is free to use, and Skyscanner makes money by charging a small commission on bookings made through the platform.
Booking.com and Agoda are the two most useful apps for finding accommodation. Booking.com has the largest inventory of properties worldwide, with over 28 million listings in 228 countries, and its filters for price, location, rating, and amenities make it easy to narrow down options. The "Genius" loyalty program offers discounts of 10 to 15 percent at select properties after you have made a few bookings. Agoda is stronger in Asia, with particularly good coverage of hotels and guesthouses in Southeast Asia, where it often has properties that are not listed on Booking.com. Both apps offer free cancellation on most bookings, which allows you to reserve rooms while you finalize your itinerary and cancel without penalty if your plans change.
Translation and Communication
Google Translate is the most versatile translation app available, and the feature that makes it essential for travel is the camera translation tool. Point your phone's camera at a menu, a sign, or a document in a foreign language, and the app overlays the translation in real time. This feature works for over 100 languages and is remarkably accurate, especially for common languages like Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and Chinese. The app also supports offline translation: download the language packs you need before your trip, and you can translate text, voice, and images without an internet connection. The voice translation feature allows you to have a basic conversation with someone who speaks a different language by speaking into your phone and playing the translation aloud.
WhatsApp is the most widely used messaging app in the world, and it is the primary communication tool for travelers in most countries. In Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa, WhatsApp is the standard way to communicate with hotels, tour operators, taxi Guide, and new friends you meet on the road. The app works over Wi-Fi and cellular data, and the voice and video call features are free. Before your trip, install WhatsApp and share your number with family and friends at home. When you arrive at your destination, save the phone numbers of your hotel, your embassy, and any tour operators you plan to use. The app also allows you to share your real-time location with trusted contacts, which is a useful safety feature.
Google Lens, Combine into the Google app on Android and the Google app on iOS, is a visual search tool that is surprisingly useful for travel. Point your phone's camera at a building, a monument, a plant, or a dish, and Google Lens will identify it and provide relevant information. I use Google Lens to identify buildings and monuments when I am exploring a new city, to translate text on signs and menus, and to identify plants and animals on nature hikes. The feature works offline for previously identified objects, which means you can point your camera at a landmark you have already identified and get the information without an internet connection.
Money and Budget Tracking
Wise, formerly TransferWise, is the best app for managing money across currencies. Wise offers a multi-currency account that lets you hold and convert between over 50 currencies at the real exchange rate, with fees that are significantly lower than those charged by traditional banks. The app also provides a physical debit card that you can use to pay for purchases and withdraw cash from ATMs in local currency. The exchange rate markup is typically 0.35 to 1 percent, compared to 3 to 5 percent at most bank ATMs. I use my Wise card as my primary payment method while traveling, and it has saved me hundreds of dollars in exchange fees over the past two years.
Trail Wallet is a simple and effective app for tracking travel expenses. The app allows you to set a daily budget, record each expense as you make it, and categorize spending by type, like accommodation, food, transportation, and activities. The dashboard shows your spending over time, broken down by category, so you can see at a glance whether you are staying within your budget. The app supports multiple currencies, which is essential for trips that cross borders. The basic version is free, and the premium version, which costs 3 dollars, offers additional features like photo receipts and CSV export. I use Trail Wallet on every trip, and the daily awareness it provides has helped me avoid overspending.
XE Currency Converter is the simplest and most reliable app for checking exchange rates. The app stores the latest exchange rates for every world currency and allows you to convert between any two currencies instantly, even without an internet connection. I use XE several times a day while traveling to check whether I am being charged a fair price for a meal, a taxi ride, or a market purchase. The app is free and supported by unobtrusive ads. For a more detailed currency tracking tool, the Elfin Markets app provides real-time exchange rate charts and alerts, which are useful if you are traveling in a country with a volatile currency like Argentina or Turkey.
Transportation and Local Services
Grab is the dominant ride-hailing app in Southeast Asia, operating in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Myanmar. The app functions like Uber, with upfront pricing, Guide tracking, and cashless payment. In cities where taxi meters are unreliable or nonexistent, Grab is the safest and most transparent way to get around. The app also offers GrabFood, a food delivery service, and GrabExpress, a package delivery service. Download the app before you arrive in Southeast Asia, create an account, and link a payment method. In cities where Grab is available, I rarely use taxis or tuk-tuks, because the fixed pricing eliminates the risk of being overcharged.
Rome2Rio is the most useful app for planning overland transportation between cities. Enter your origin and destination, and the app shows you every possible route, including flights, buses, trains, ferries, and driving directions, with approximate prices and travel times for each option. The app is particularly useful in regions like South America, Southeast Asia, and Africa, where transportation options are complex and not well-documented in guidebooks. I use Rome2Rio to compare the cost and time of flying versus taking a bus or train, and to find the cheapest combination of transportation modes for multi-city itineraries. The app is free to use, with some features available through a premium subscription.
Citimapper is a city guide app that provides curated recommendations for restaurants, cafes, bars, and attractions in over 200 cities worldwide. The content is written by local journalists and is updated regularly, which means the recommendations are more current than those in most guidebooks. I use Citimapper to find restaurants and cafes in new cities, and the quality of the recommendations has been consistently high. The app is free to download and use, with some content available through a premium subscription. For cities not covered by Citimapper, the Culture Trip app offers similar curated recommendations with a focus on cultural experiences.
