Thanks to the smartphone, traveling today is much easier than a few years ago and it is possible to carry all kinds of useful information about the country you are going to: maps, language dictionaries, tourist itineraries, catalog of interesting places, restaurants, bars, hotels. Thanks to the smartphone, then, you can always keep useful tools on the go such as the flashlight, the currency converter, the translator, the compass, the calculator and other accessories that are comfortable on the go and that do not necessarily need an internet connection to be used.
As is well known, the Internet is the only problem when traveling, because the connection to the mobile roaming network may not be possible everywhere or it can be very expensive. Fortunately, more than in Italy, you can connect to free wifi networks and, above all hotels but also the restaurants and main squares of the cities have free wireless network to be able to connect to the internet.
The mobile smartphone today is, therefore, a fundamental tool when traveling, not only to call relatives but above all to manage your trip through the various applications that facilitate the search for the best places . If you have an iPhone or an Android smartphone you can download and install these among the best travel and holiday apps, excellent for use both in Italy and abroad.
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1) SkyScanner is the main search engine for air flights, a site that aggregates the best offers, orders them and allows you to choose the cheapest one. SkyScanner has free applications for both iPhone and Android, to search for air flights from your mobile phone.
2) Ryanair is the official app for Android and iPhone of the most formidable low cost airline in Europe, the one that always offers the lowest prices for flights, the one that is to be consulted first for every trip to Europe.
In addition to booking travel, the Ryanair app is convenient for managing booked air flights and having your boarding pass on your phone, without having to print it on paper.
2) FlightRadar allows you to follow the routes of planes in real time on the map, almost all over the world, and has applications for Android and for iPhone, in a free version.
3) Kayak is the other major search engine for air flights and also for hotels, with a simple and unmistakable website interface. Kayak helps users to choose a flight not only based on the date and cost of the trip, but also considering factors such as the departure time and the length of the flight. With the application it is also possible to compare flight costs, choosing a different airport or changing arrival and departure dates. Kayak can also be downloaded for Android and iPhone or iPad.
4) Omio to know if it costs less to travel by plane, bus or train is a great application to find at any time not only the plane, but also any train or bus, which, at times, is convenient both for the cost and for the time.
5) TripAdvisor (better than Yelp which is still a good alternative) is the most important website in the world to find reviews of hotels, restaurants and clubs of various kinds . Having TripAdvisor always in your pocket in your phone allows you to always find the best place to go to sleep or eat, in any city in the world or, at least, to avoid scams. TripAdvisor can be installed as an application for almost all mobile models, including Android and iPhone.
The official application, Tripadvisor provides guides for more than 300 cities in the world with the interactive map to download and the tours that you can see and follow on your mobile phone using GPS, without the need to activate the internet connection.
6) Google Maps, in addition to being a road navigator, has now become a complete app to find places to eat, to find places to visit, to create itineraries and also find hidden places. Google Maps is the best tool for planning itineraries and guided tours in every city .
7) Hopper is an app for Android and iPhone that makes flight price forecasts, displays graphs and sends notifications on the phone in order to book a flight at the lowest possible price.
8) Lonely Planet guides are free on iPhone and Android as described a few months ago.
9) Tripit is a website and also a mobile application for almost all mobile models, including Android and iPhone which allows you to plan the itinerary of a tourist trip, creating the various stages and designing the routes to visit a city in the faster way, without wasting time.
10) Sygic Travel, for Android and iPhone is a great alternative to the disappearance of Google Trips, which allows you to plan guided tours in more than 50 million destinations so you always know what to see and to get around a city without getting lost and without walking more than due to reach museums, parks, bars, restaurants, hotels, beaches, waterfalls and more. You can easily create a daily itinerary with the exact estimated travel time.
10) Booking is the best known and most convenient site for booking hotels in big cities. Booking also has applications for iPhone and Android. As explained in another article, Booking always obtains lower prices for booking rooms in hotels, also compared to the prices charged by the hoteliers themselves.
11) FlixBus for Android and for iPhone is the best bus booking app in the world, used throughout Europe with lower rates than other operators and coaches equipped with everything, even wifi.
12) To check the trains there are several applications available including, Train timetable for iPhone and for Android train timetable.
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13) On iPhone and Android you can also check the routes of ships and ferries with the free app Marine Traffic.
14) The GPS satellite navigator for driving on unfamiliar roads in a foreign country is essential in any trip or vacation where you go by car. As an app to use as a navigator and maps you are spoiled for choice now and, as seen, an app like Google Maps also works as an offline navigator on iPhone and Android, without the need for internet connection and also allows you to save maps for to be able to consult them at any time.
Other similar and very advantageous apps are also the Here Maps satellite navigator for Android and iPhone, free and offline and the Maps.me app, also for iPhone and Android.
15) Translator and dictionary
As a real-time translator you can use Google Translate for Android and iPhone which also works offline .
Google Translate also has the ability to function to instantly translate signs and writings and as a voice interpreter
As dictionary the app Dictionary.com as English vocabulary even offline.
16) The Currency Converter is the app (iPhone and Android) to convert currencies quickly and easily.
17) Google Photos, the app that saves all the photos taken online so you don't have to worry about losing them and never having the problem of full memory on your smartphone.
18) Around Me is a travel app to have all the points of interest at your fingertips and know, in every place, what is nearby, for Android and iPhone.
19) WAM The world around me (Android - iPhone) is an app that takes advantage of augmented reality and allows you to use your mobile phone camera to find out what's around, showing the direction of each person as the crow flies place nearby such as restaurants, hotels, bars, shops and various attractions.
20) Wifi Map should perhaps have been mentioned at the top of this list because it is among the apps that allow you to find out where free wifi is to connect to the internet in every city in the world, and is therefore primary to make the others work.
Wifi Map has free apps for iPhone and Android.
22) Weather applications to check the weather condition and, in this regard, see what they are:
- the best weather apps for Android with weather forecast
- the best weather apps for iPhone and iPad
23) The apps for making calls like Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger are important and they all have them, but they do not allow you to call fixed numbers.
It is therefore also worth installing a VOIP application such as Messagenet or Skype that allow you to call any number in the world wherever we are, at local prices.
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