#TRAVEL HACK: 4 Apps That Are Apps-olutely Awesome!

Updated March 2022.

It’s a mystery to me how we ever traveled (or dealt with life!) without smartphones and apps.  I remember using MapQuest printouts to try to navigate around cities and find my hotel, and I guess if I think hard enough I’d recall paper maps, handwritten directions and road atlases. And how did we find hotels? Or flights? Back in the day we used travel agents and the Yellow Pages – today, there are innumerable apps that make travel – and our lives – easier than ever.

Here are a few of my favorite apps – please feel free to comment at the end and share your faves so I’m not missing something stellar!

ROME2RIO

This.  This is one of my absolute favorite apps out there!  I know Google has the ability to provide the same results, but I’m a huge fan of R2R and their format and ease of use and have been for years.

Here’s the concept –this app solves the question “how do I get from Point A to Point B and what’s the price/time/ease of doing so?”

Simply enter your start and end destinations and click “search”.  You’ll see how much/how long/how often the train, metro, taxi, shuttle, plane, ferry, Uber, bus, Grab, BlaBla Car or walk is to get there.  You can even click on the flight or train option to buy a ticket!

Easy peasy! I use this all the time to figure out how to get from the airport to the hostel, or from the city I’m in to the next destination I’m headed to. Use it to find the next restaurant, hotel, bus station and more!

 

MOMONDO

Another app I’m stoked about is Momondo.  Sure, Skyscanner does the same thing, but I prefer using Momondo.  This app works best on your smartphone rather than on your laptop, btw.  Pretty simple – choose your starting airport and your ending destination and get the Best/Cheapest/Quickest flights – one way or roundtrip.  Flexible on which dates you’re flying? Use the Price Calendar to see a bar graph of which dates are less expensive. Not sure where you wanna go? Use the “Explore” feature on the bottom of the screen to search for what’s cheapest from your airport of choice – search by your budget, dates, distance.  Your results will be ranked on a scale of 1 – 10 depending on price and layovers, making it easy to choose the best flight for you.

(Note: always always go to the actual airline website to book your flight rather than using a third party service like Kiwi or Expedia.  Sure, you might save $10 or $20 but if there’s a snafu (and isn’t there always anymore??) the airline won’t help you if you’ve purchased through anyone other than them.)

HOPPER

Ok, maybe I like using this because the bunny is so cute as he scampers off to find you the best price for flights.  This app is ideal for when you’re not quite ready to purchase a flight and want to watch to see if the price will come down.

The Hopper app monitors your list of flights and notifies you when the price has dropped and also lets you know if you should “wait” or “buy”. They even offer a Free Price Drop Guarantee in case you’re worried your flight price might drop after you buy it. Just the other day, I got notified that the flight to Charlotte in October that I had asked Hopper to keep an eye on for me had dropped from over $200 to $47.  That’s $47 dollars ROUND TRIP.  You can bet I bought my ticket quick as a bunny!  

I’ve saved oodles of money using this app. I highly recommend it!  🙂

Here’s  a link to sign up for Hopper – if you do it here, I’ll earn a coupla bunny bucks  🐰

Ok, those last three app recommendations were for booking flights and other modes of transportation – a bunch of moving around.  Here’s the last app recommendation for you – Lounge Buddy – for chilling out and staying in one place in comfort now that you’ve booked that flight!

LOUNGE BUDDY

The airport lounges are for frequent flyer/first-class/ business travelers who are members of the various airlines, right?  That’s what I thought! Turns out some of them offer day passes to regular folks like you and me. GAMECHANGER!  Simply check the Lounge Buddy app to see what is available at the airport where you are stuck with a long layover and find out what they offer, how much a day pass costs, and how they are ranked (Basic, Solid, Luxe).  For example, a Luxe lounge usually offers unlimited beer, wine and cocktails, delicious appetizers, showers, newspapers, wifi, comfy chairs,  printers/copiers, arrival/departure monitors, smoking areas and TV.

Some lounges even have spa services and quiet places to stretch out and catch some zzzz’s.  Prices for the one-time pass range from $8 to upwards of $70.  Totally worth the price – you get appetizers, adult beverages, soft drinks, water, reliable and secure wifi, and a quiet environment to relax between flights.  I used a lounge on a layover at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport.  The receptionist told me I was allowed to stay for 5 hours and to relax and enjoy myself.   Well, I had an 8-hour layover, so…needless to say, I didn’t leave after 5 hours and no one asked me to! I think I paid $35, and drank and ate at least that much, getting my money’s worth…well worth the cost to have somewhere comfortable, clean, uncrowded and relaxing to spend the day.

Travel is much easier these days with these amazingly easy to use, helpful and free apps.  All these apps are available wherever you get your apps for your phone or tablet.  I’ll blog again soon about my other favorite and indispensable apps, including those for accommodations, hiking and navigation.

I hope these app recommendations were helpful – as always, enjoy the journey!

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See you there! 😉

A person susceptible to wanderlust is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.  ~ Pico Iyer