The Best Travel Apps for Organising Your Next Trip

Holiday planning can be one of the most enjoyable admin tasks you’ll do. There’s nothing quite like making those dreams of days on the beach and evening drinks on sun-warmed terraces a reality.

However, there are numerous ways to conduct research, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. To get your ideal travel plans booked in, here are some of the best travel apps that will take care of every detail for your next trip.

Apps for planning your itinerary

By organizing all flight details, hotel reservations, and tour bookings in one place, you save time on the road. Platforms such as TripIt simplify this process by either syncing with your email inbox or forwarding your confirmation emails directly to the app. From there, it automatically constructs a chronological itinerary based on booking information.

Wanderlog is an app for plotting your daily activities alongside your bookings on a dynamic map. You link your own email to bring your reservations in before you travel, and they update themselves.

The best navigation and transport apps

When traveling to a new city, it is essential to have accurate, up-to-date transportation data to ensure a smooth journey and avoid missing connections.

Citymapper offers up-to-the-minute train and bus timetables and step-by-step directions for public transport routes in key cities worldwide. You can also download offline map areas in Google Maps before your flight, so that you will have turn-by-turn walking directions even in the event you don’t have mobile data while traveling abroad.

Travel apps for booking activities

If you want to try local excursions or grab tickets before you head to an attraction or museum, GetYourGuide provides instant ticket confirmations right on your phone.

Book these must-see tour slots weeks in advance to secure your spot and benefit from an early-bird discount.

Managing your holiday budget

You can often bag a bargain if you opt for last-minute holidays, but even then, you need to make sure your holiday budget is in place.

You may find unexpected transaction fees and exchange rates can easily rack up your travel costs. Platforms such as Wise and Revolut provide multi-currency accounts that enable you to deal in foreign currency at mid-market rates with none of the hidden bank charges.

There are also specific expense trackers like TravelSpend that allow you to monitor daily cash costs, limit your spending and divide expenses among your travel companions. Make sure to organize your everyday spending into categories and manage your holiday spending within your selected finance app.

Keeping important travel information accessible

Make sure you have some backups in place. Safely store encrypted copies of your passport and travel documents on cloud storage such as Google Drive. The official UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) travel advice service also provides instant alerts for a destination right to your device.

Store all important boarding passes or PDFs offline in the wallet app on your smartphone to present them on the spot at the check-in counter without depending on airport Wi-Fi.