What are the must have travel, planning, hotel, and entertainment apps for the holiday season? These!
Around the last two months of the year and the first month of the New Year, people do a lot of traveling. Whether you're celebrating the holidays or simply have some extra time off from work or school, if you're leaving town this season, I've compiled a list of apps that will make your trip a little bit easier and a lot more fun.
Planning
Transportation
How to get there
Places to stay
Things to do
Planning
Kayak
Kayak is a great travel planning service for getting a whole package together. You can search for flights, hotels, and cars, all with the same destination and dates. Results can be filtered by popularity, price, amenities, and lots more. My favorite feature of Kayak is the discovery map. You can enter certain criteria, like how long your trip is, your preferred month of travel, how much you want to spend, temperatures, and geolocation features like beaches or skiing. You can then check on flights, hotels, and transportation for filtered locations. So, if you don't know where you want to go, but you know you want to get out of town, Kayak can help get you there.
Free - Download now
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor is an excellent source for reviews of trips. Lots of people rate their flights, hotels, and even destination experiences. TripAdvisor will use the data collected from travelers to offer suggestions and recommendations for the best options for you, including how soon you should book to get the best deals for the holidays. You can also sign up for alerts to let you know when prices have gone down for flights and hotels. If you can wait just a little while longer, you might get a better deal.
Free - Download now
Orbitz
Orbits has this amazing rewards program so you can earn cash back from your trip. Book a $200-per-night hotel and earn $10 that you get back instantly. You can sign up for Platinum benefits, which includes big discounts and TSA Pre-check. With Orbitz, you can quickly find hotels, flights, and transportation nearby or for another destination. You can also look up hotspots in the area you are visiting if you're looking for something to do.
Free - Download now
TripIt
TripIt is my personal favorite travel app, mostly because every hotel, car rental, dinner reservation, or airline flight I book automatically gets added to my itinerary. This isn't exactly an app for planning your trip, but it is the best travel app around because it keeps your travel plans organized in one place.
Free - Download now
Transportation
Uber
Uber provides one of the cheapest ways to get around town fast. If you are visiting an urban area, you can get a ride in a matter of minutes. Because this is based on the ride-share industry, prices are competitive when they aren't surging. It's also simple to use. Once you are signed in, all you have to do is accept the ride offer — no need to carry cash or have someone run your credit card. It's all done through the app.
Free - Download now
App in the Air
When it comes to flying, App in the Air has you covered. Enter your flight number and keep your entire flight trip organized from start to finish, including check-in time, boarding time, estimated take off and landing, reported delays, gate numbers, and more. You can also get notifications sent to you for status updates on specific flights. If you just want to keep track of your family's travel status, you can search for flights by location, arrival time, and number. Save flight information to get alerts if anything changes.
Free - Download now
Transit
If you've decided to skip the car rental and don't want to spend money on ride-shares or taxis, the cheapest way to travel (besides walking or biking ... or hitchhiking) is public transportation. With Transit, you can find out when the next bus to the beach leaves or what time you have to be at the train station to get downtown by dinner. You can plan your travel route by public transportation from point A to point B, with travel times and which stops you should get off at to transfer.
Free - Download now
How to get there
Google Maps
My favorite mapping service comes from Google. It has all the features you need to get from one place to another, with recommendations for stops in between. Thanks to integration from Waze, you can get real-time traffic alerts and suggestions for faster routes, mid-travel. If you don't know the area very well but need a place to stop for gas, food, or a cup of joe, check nearby locations with Google Maps and take a quick detour without losing your final destination directions.
Free - Download now
Maplets
It used to be that we never left home without a paper map in our pocket or glove compartment, but thanks to mobile devices, we have the world's maps at our fingertips. Sometimes, maps don't work, though, especially if you're somewhere with weak cell service. Maplets is a database of virtual paper maps. Download a map before you leave for your trip and you will always know where you are. You can get visitors maps, ski paths, hiking trails, subway and bus routes, and more. It's the safest way to ensure you'll always be able to find where you are and where you need to go.
$2.99 - Download now
Places to stay
Priceline
If you are looking for the least expensive place to sleep, Priceline is where it's at. You can get great discounts on weekend rates, find deals on off-season trips, and more. The Express Deals offer super deep discounts, up to 60% off, if you're willing to risk it. You won't know who you are book ing through until you've already agreed to the deal, but you could save more than half off your stay. You can also bid on rooms by naming your own price. If the hotel bookers need to fill rooms, they might take your offer, no matter how low it is.
Free - Download now
AirBnB
AirBnB is like the Uber or Lyft of places to stay. People offer up their houses or apartments to travelers at (sometimes) discounted rates. You can choose to stay alone, with the owners of the place, or other travelers, and the amount of money you save depends on the amount of privacy you need. When you have a big group, you can all stay in one house together instead of having to rent multiple rooms in one hotel. One great benefit of AirBnB is that you have the ability to stay in unique locations that wouldn't otherwise be available to travelers.
Free - Download now
Hotel Tonight
If you're willing to take a risk, Hotel Tonight is one of the best ways to travel. Every day at a specific time, the app offers extra discounts on last-minute bookings. The app is also full of useful information from the company's travel staff. Pictures come from actual stays instead of nicely lit professional photographers. Recommendations include why Hotel Tonight travel staff like a particular place, and you can even search for hotels based on criteria like "Luxe," "Hip," and "Basic" to find a room that suits your style.
Free - Download now
Things to do
Calcbot
When you're traveling in another country, a currency converter is a must-have. It will save you money and lots of confusion. Calcbot has a converter for nine major currencies, and the reason I chose this over any other currency converter is that it also features 22 different conversion categories, like metrics, electrical, speeds, and more. It is free to download, but the conversion charts cost $1.99 extra. It's worth the two bucks in the long run to have a plethora of conversion options at your disposal while you travel.
Free, with in-app purchases - Download now
Pokémon Go
If you're traveling and you play Pokémon Go, you've got to take your game with you on the road. Imagine all of the new types you'll collect while visiting Aunt Sherrie in the mountains or your brother at the beach. Pokémon Go is fun for the entire family, so you can take the kids on a Poké walk if they start to get stir crazy, or hit the bars with the grown-ups for a little gym battle fun. Chances are, even if you don't play, the people you are visiting do, and they'll want you to join them in some Pokémon fun.
Free - Download now
Heads Up
Heads Up is one of those games I resisted for a long time, simply because I was tired of seeing everyone standing in line playing it. Turns out, there is a good reason everyone is playing it: it's fun. If you're going to be seated for a long period of time or find yourself in long lines, this game will make time zoom by. It's a guessing game where players try to explain what a word or phrase is to someone that doesn't know. It doesn't take up a lot of space or time, so it's perfect for traveling fun.
Free - Download now
Yelp
If there is any type of entertainment you need to find in a town, you'll find it with Yelp. The peer review service covers all manner of businesses, from retail shops to restaurants. You can even find out where the best off-road bike trails are. Most locations are also reviewed by people that have been there before, so if you're wondering whether that tourist spot is worth the trip, find out from people that have visited it before.
Free - Download now
Spotify
Whether you're in the car for half the day or on a plane for a few hours, music will help keep you relaxed and upbeat. Spotify is great for keeping the tunes rolling, but it also includes time-wasters like podcasts and stand-up comedy albums. You'll be entertained for your entire travel time, and you can use pre-made playlists to set the background music for your family get-togethers and late-night parties.
Free - Download now
Your favorites?
Are you traveling this holiday season? What are your favorite apps to get you where you're going? Let us know in the comments below!