The top 4 apps you need when travelling

Travelling used to be hard work. You’d need to pack all sorts of gear to find your way around, learn the language, figure out the taxi system. But now, everything you need is one place.

Your smartphone.

But it can be hard to figure which apps are the best and most useful for your backpacking adventure. So to help we’ve listed the best apps for anyone who’s hitting the road this year.

Google maps – If there’s one app you shouldn’t travel without, it’s Google maps. Wherever you are you’ll be able to quickly pull open the app and find out how to get from point A to point B. And with an offline mode, you don’t even have to be hooked up to the web to find your way around.

And they’re rolling out public transport routes which means you can find the most suitable way around a new city.

A translator – Probably the hardest part of travelling is overcoming the language barrier. Sometimes you need to ask for directions, or about a bill, but you don’t speak any French. What are you supposed to do?

With a translating app that’ll be a problem of the past. Just type your message in and ask it to translate for you. There are lots of apps out there that do it, from Google translate to iTranslate. Try them all out and find which one you like best.

Skyscanner – If you’re an android user, you should download this. Often the worst part of travelling is finding and booking flights. All you need to do is tell Skyscanner where you’re going and it’ll hunt the web for the best options available to you. Most of the time, it’ll manage to save you some money.

GoGobot – This app will help you find all the latest goings on in cities across the world. So if you arrive in a new place without any idea what there is there, just pull this open. You can save activities in an itinerary and find the best restaurants and points of interest. A must download for any traveller.

Don’t forget these 4 apps on your phone before you leave. They could end up saving your skin!