The Best Apps For Travel

When traveling anywhere, your phone is your best friend, from finding your way back home, to discovering once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Compiled below are some of the best-rated apps when traveling globally that you may not have heard of.

To begin, let's start with the apps that provide a roof over your head!

HostelWorld

When traveling on a budget, Hostel World will be your best friend. Located globally any backpacker or traveler can find rooms available for as little as $5 a night.

[listed above is a 5000 year old building in Nazareth for only $34 a night]

So what is the trick?

Well, as long as you are open to sharing your room with 1-20 people of any age, this would be perfect for you. Listed within the app there are opportunities to room with all female, all male, mixed, and any number of people staying in one room with the most common amount of people being four.

Though this sounds shocking and a bit scary to an individual traveling alone, they allow for 24 hour security, lockers for belongings, separate bathrooms and in most cases a common area if you ever feel the need to not be around the people in your room.

That being said…

These are other solo travelers! Gone for the day exploring they are only really there to sleep. With most hostels offering common rooms, bars, free breakfasts, and sometimes even free tours, arcades, dinners or yoga nights with all of the travelers, it is a great way to meet new people and not feel alone.

[Pictured above is the availability for this accommodating showing an all female dorm]

In new updates they have even allotted for a new chat setting, finding people that will be staying there when your time is allotted which allows you to meet the people you could connect with before arrival.

In my experience this has been where I have met some lifelong friends, people I wound up traveling with for months after meeting and places that would have never felt the same without those hostels.

[Pictured above is an average breakfast at any hostel of your choosing]

It is always smart to book ahead using the app and reviews section, however, one of the best things about a hostel is you can almost always have a bed upon arrival which is incredibly beneficial if you ever are in a bind.

WorkAway

WorkAway is an app I find myself telling almost every traveler I meet. With hundreds of thousands of opportunities, WorkAway allows for a plethora of working experience in exchange for opportunities, a home, and authentic meals.

Most of the job offers listed on WorkAway are a free exchange, with dates the workers set, you can find yourself working on a farm 4 hours a day in the south of France in exchange for free accommodation in beautiful family villa, with home cooked meals, and oftentimes use of the owners vehicles or offers to take you on trips.

While traveling I met one of the most amazing people I have ever met. After being kicked out of his home in Japan he had nowhere to go, no income and no plan. He had been using WorkAway for 11 years, seen over 80 countries, and he had people all over the world who knew him and opened up their homes to him.

Whereas the app is mainly comprised of opportunities like these that are an exchange, there are also multiple paid positions offered, especially at hostels. The individual I mentioned above used this in order to gain an income for transportation from country to country and spoke highly on working for hostels as he met so many people like himself.

Though WorkAway has a subscription of $50 a year, this provides you with work experience, opportunities to meet and know people for a lifetime, and thrive in your love for travel.

Couch Surfing

Of the apps listed, I will clarify; this may be the only app I do advise many travelers to use wisely especially while traveling solo or as a female, however I have had many female friends use this solely.

Couch Surfing is an incredible opportunity to meet locals, and more specifically locals that want to meet you!

The app is completely free and provides listings of hosts offers and accommodation, from a full private guest bedroom to their couch (hence the name) or even sharing their bed.

With hundreds of hosts globally, the guest is offered filtration of men and women based on reviews and proximity to where you want to travel. I have had many friends use this as a mean of even just knowing someone locally to stay safer in rougher areas.

Couch Surfing only asks that you get to know the host, and its true, they want to hear your stories and get to know you. By using Couch Surfing it allows the traveler to not only get to know customs and eat local cuisine, but allotts that in any emergency, you know someone.

I had a friend once have an issue with flights. He was planning on getting a hostel but upon arrival could not find any close by. He got on CouchSurfing and immediately found a safe dry home to stay for the night, even extending his stay after a close friendship had created.

Though Couch Surfing is not for everyone, and granted even the thought sounds intimidating, their app also provides an area for hangouts! A virtual messaging system that allows other travelers or hosts in the area to meet each other and go grab a drink!

While in New York for a solo weekend trip I found myself not finding much to do I had not done already. With the hangouts setting I was able to meet this eccentric man from Germany backpacking the U.S. along with a gentleman from Turkey who had recently moved to New York and found making friends to be harder than expected. We accidentally spent the whole day together and I still message and keep up with them till this day.

Now that you have made it to your country, what is there to do?

AirBnb

While Airbnb is not the friendliest to your wallet accommodation wise, the app also offers thousands of experiences that are unlike any other you will find on TripAdvisor.

With $10 cruises, one on one cuisine workshops, tours and more you will find more than you were hoping for.

[listed above is the Jesus trail on horseback in Northern Israel]

Local hosts are more than happy to give you these experiences for any country you are in. Whether this is riding horseback along the Jesus trail in Nazareth or doing a photoshoot with a former National Geographic photographer along a castleside landscape of Hungary, Airbnb offers some of the top trip stories you will go home and tell your friends about over and over.

[Listed above is Fisherman's Bastion in Budapest]

WorldMap

WorldMap is one of my favorites as a fellow traveler, mapping out where I have been, where I plan on going and checking things off my bucket list, WorldMap has so much to offer.

Whereas this is not necessarily an app to find and book experiences, it allows you to broaden your idea of things do to in the area. With categories assigned to each country you visit, WorldMap allows you to look into beaches, festivals, and monuments you may have missed on your itinerary by the main tourist attractions.

Transportation… the hardest part of any travel expenditures

FlixBus

Flix bus is another worldwide app that allows one of the only other cheap option than trains!

With hundreds of buses the FlixBus app allows you to go from country to country for as little as $15 no matter the destination. Reclined seating and multiple stops, FlixBus offers many overnight buses as well so you can sleep and recover for the day ahead in a new area.

FlixBus is one of the leading transport apps having bus stops in almost every city and country town, with lunch breaks and fascinating riders you can guarantee to either meet someone amazing or get a wonderful nights sleep.

Last but not least, one of the best transport apps I have ever used is…

Omio

With up to date train tables out there, Omio is one of the best apps for finding, booking, and taking trains, flights and even buses. With cheap tickets and to the minute updates, Omio allows for you to find the nearest trains, flights and busses heading to your new destination.

With reserved silent cabs, flight deals, free luggage storage and up to date times for when you need, Omio provides one of the nicest and safest routes for transportation.

Allotting for train transfer time and on site maps to find your next connecting train, if its not one way, Omio allows for you to sleep easy on you ride or flight out knowing everything is booked and planned, and better yet all in your language so there is no room for error or scamming!

I hope you found these apps as helpful as I have in traveling and make sure to post your photos so we all can live vicariously through you!

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