You know you’ve become a hardcore traveler when you have more travel apps on your phone then anything else. So we’ve put together a list some of our favourite and most used apps on our phones.

Skyscanner:
I’m sure we’ve all heard of Skyscanner, Kayak, and Cheap-o-air, but there’s a trick. Use this app to find the cheapest flight. Then whichever airline is the cheapest, go directly to that website and search for your flight again. This should give you an even cheaper price because you do not need to pay the extra costs of using a search engine. This doesn’t always work but it will for the majority of your flights. And don’t forget to clear your cookies before starting a new search.
Note: NEVER use Cheap-o-air, their prices are misleading and their costumer service sucks. Long story short we ended up paying almost $4000 for what we thought was a $1500 trip because they messed up, canceled our booking which then let the flight book up and we needed to be home for a funeral so had no choice but to pay the extra money.

Hostelbookers:
We prefer this booking site over the others solely based on the fact that you can pay in which ever currency suits you. Other sites such as Hostelworld only allow you to pay in GBP, USD, or EUR. Like most accommodation sites you can choose to either pay a small deposit to keep your booking or pay the lump sum up front. Now most times ill do the same thing here as I would do while looking for the cheapest flight. I’ll find the hostel I want (this site always provides reviews and ratings which we always look for) and then ill go directly to that hostels website. Usually the prices are the same but if you go straight through the booking site, they will charge the hostel a small fee, whereas if you book directly through the hostel, the hostel keeps all the profit. This way the hostel doesn’t need to bump up their prices to cover the cost of the booking site.

TripIt:
A relatively new app, for us at least. But its really rather handy. TripIt allows you to store all of your travel itineraries in one spot. So no more going back weeks in your email just to find a booking confirmation number or flight schedule. Just by entering your flight number TripIt can bring up departure times, arrival times, flight durations and layover times, you can also add in confirmation numbers. It has the option to make folders for each individual trip which is really handy if, like us, you have several trips book at once. You can also include activities and car rentals in the folder so literally everything is in one place. The only down side is that there is no place to include hotel/hostel bookings.

Trip Adviser:
Everyone who travels will know this one so I won’t say much as its pretty self explanatory. The only thing I will say is it’s worth having the app. If you’re using the website on your phone or tablet it will constantly pester you to download the app. So just get the app, it’ll make life a little easier.

 

EX currency:
This is probably on of our most used apps. You can choose from any currency you can imagine plus allows you to save your most used on the front page. It keeps up to date global currency prices. It takes seconds to convert and is so simple to use. Definitely worth having no matter how much traveling you do.

 

Expedia:
Another one that everyone knows. We only use this one if we want to splash out and get a hotel for a night, so far it’s the only reason we’ll use it. Flights are usually more expensive here then skyscanner or airline sites, why; I have yet to figure that one out. But when it comes to getting the best hotel prices, Expedia’s the way to go. You can also book cars and activities in the App but we have yet to use these options.

WikiCamps:
Available for Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, and England. It downloads everything when you’ve got data or Wi-Fi so that it can work even when you’re offline. It also comes with a built in compass, a section for reviews of places and a full road map of Australia. Its kind of hard to explain how it works but its pretty simple to figure out once you download it. This app basically lists all the places you can camp in Australia, and is completely run off of other travellers. There is a Filter option so you can adjust what campsites are being shown. We always had ours set to, free camping only, toilets on site, and drinkable water. But the settings are endless. Just go into the Filter page, choose what you need in a campsite and then it narrows down your options, it can even find free beach camping sites. You can favourite camp sites plus add new ones that you’ve discovered that aren’t on the map. We always added free places to camp and anywhere where showers were free. We managed to drive from Sydney straight west to Mildura VIC, down to Adelaide and followed the cost all the way up to Bundaberg QLD, all without paying for a single place to sleep or shower. I’m telling you, this app is will be your best friend and you will get to wake up in some pretty incredible places.

Note: Each country has their own App. If you search in the App store for WikiCamps
each country will come up individually.

Instagram:
Last but not least and not for what you’d think, Instagram is great for following friends and posting pictures of your adventures. But I’ve noticed lately that my Instagram following list is becoming more and more centered on other travel pages. Which is why I’m listing it under my top travel Apps. There are so many accounts out there dedicated solely to travel. And a lot of them post about places you’d never think to go or never heard of and now that’s all you want to see. For me there’s accounts such as Worldpackers, which is a site that can find you volunteer work or work for accommodation in places ALL around the world, its an incredible idea and a great one to follow, or there’s Neat Places, which is based in New Zealand and just posts about neat restaurants, cafes, or shops that aren’t like any others. The Bali Bible is a good one as well, although they are a little more upscale and not for the budget travellers but they still feature some pretty great places to check out. Then there’s Instagramers like BareKiwi whose photos make you really want to get out there and explore these places their posting from. Anyway, if you’re planning a trip, it’s worth searching Instagram for travel pages, they just might have a few surprises you didn’t know about.

These are just a few of the many travel apps we use. If you’ve got any others that you love to use, we’d love to hear about them.

Links in App names