Traveling? Forget the map, get the app...

Gone are the days of flipping and folding paper maps with your route highlighted in milky yellow ink.  Gone are the days of pouring over travel brochures before heading to a destination.  Nowadays, our phones have become our hub for restaurant reviews, road trip music mixes, traffic-defeating directions, and more.

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Before you take off on your next journey, here are some highly rated travel apps that I think are most worth the download. 

(I have not been compensated for these reviews, nor do I have any affiliations
with these companies, just honest thoughts from a frequent traveler!)

XE Currency Exchange
Heading to another country, perhaps even as close as Canada? Converting amounts to different currencies can cause a brain freeze faster than a Friendly's Double Thick Fribble.  Just enter in your default currency and add the others that you want to keep track off.  This app is reliable and will even keep rates saved on the phone for those times that you lose internet connection but still need to convert dollars to francs or yen or euros.

Google Translate
Ever try to beat the clock while you flip through an English-Spanish dictionary for the right way to express "Bathroom, STAT"and your toddler does the potty dance?  Not only can Google Translate assist with text translation, it can also take what you say out loud, then show and speak the translation back to you in the language of your choice.

Expensify
One of the most hated parts of business travel for a lot people is dealing with expense reports.  Matching up crinkled, faded receipts to pages of credit card bills can be a hassle (and that is if you can actually find all of your receipts once you get home).  Expensify to the rescue!  Use your phone's camera to record all of your receipts and then the app will organize all of them into one PDF for you to submit upon your return to the office.  One note of caution - ask your finance department about this before you travel - some offices will still only accept original receipts.

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Tipping Bird
Picture this, your taxi is pulling up to your final destination or you are ready to pay your bill after a sit down meal.  Do you tip?  How much?  This is a tough question when you are traveling to places outside of the U.S. as some cultures actually find the practice of tipping to be quite rude.  The Tipping Bird app allows you to not only indicate what country you are in, but more specifically, what situation you are in (hair salon, bell hop, shoe shine?) so you will know how much is appropriate to leave.


HappyHoured
After a day of surviving through hours of meetings in an ugly hotel conference room in a city that you aren't familiar with, the last thing you want to do is end up at the local, rundown Denny's where you can't even get a drink.  Use the HappyHoured app to look for local deals on drinks, apps, and more.  You can search for pubs that have food, wine bars, spots that feature mixed drinks, or your classic 2 for 1 cold brew.


TaxiMagic
Perhaps you took advantage of the previous app, went to a Happy Hour and then became a little too happy to drive yourself home.  TaxiMagic lets you type in where you need to be picked up, watch your taxi move on a map as it comes to find you, and finally allow you to pay for the ride instantly on your phone.

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What apps would you never leave home without?

Until next time, travel on...
Maggie