For years, we’ve been bringing all kinds of techy travel gadgets with us as we’ve travelled around the globe. These days, it seems like our smartphones can handle it all! From photography to bookings, our phones do a great job of stepping in and becoming our personal travel assistant. Follow our easy steps to set yourself up for lots of success!
Truth be told, I love the planning process. It’s one of the many reasons why I write and share so very much. In fact, I sometimes think that planning is as satisfying as the trip itself! (I’m looking straight at you, Disney peeps!)
I know, I know! A weekend trip to Asheville is a super big difference from a multi-country, multi-week jaunt across the ocean. While one is just a matter of gathering a few things, the other necessitates my big fat trip planning strategy. However, there are a few things that are a travel blessing no matter what kind of trip you are on.
My mother often talks about an incredible road trip she took down the Romanticstrassa in Germany. She fondly remembers how each charming hotel owner would simply call ahead to another inn just a few hours’ drive south. Each place was a new adventure with rooms fit for a princess and picturesque views that are simply unattainable these days. They traveled from Amsterdam all the way to Lake Como using this call-ahead system.
I once planned a trip to Ireland for six people. The trip was a massive undertaking and took a ton of planning and, as a result, tickets and schedules. I wound up carrying around a mini binder tied up with a ribbon that kept us on track for almost three weeks. Thankfully, technology has done a great job of replacing my binder, but it can be its own challenge on the road. From Google Translate to audio guides, organizing your phone to be ready to handle all that you planned before you ever walk out the door is imperative these days!
Can you imagine it? Just calling ahead!!! One day in advance?! That Europe is certainly not today’s Europe. And, for that matter, it’s not that kind of travel world either. It’s time to face the music: You’re going to have to embrace the digital world to thoroughly plan and track a trip.
I think about starting to plan. With three trips in the future, I’ve got to log in for flights, tickets to venues, ground transport, hotels, or Airbnb’s. It’s a lot of log ins and, as a result, a lot of opportunities to screw up well meant plans. On top of that, it takes time. Hours and hours of time.
There are quite a few great digital conveniences that exist for the planning junkie and top of my list is TripIt.com. This travel tracking website and app duo is great to keep your upcoming travels organized in one place. Whether I am simply planning a weekend getaway or I am crafting a multi-country, multi-week adventure overseas, I use TripIt to file each and every plan. I can keep track of my museum tickets as well as my flights. I can add copies of PDF tickets and boarding passes. It keeps me digitally organized.
Travel Tech 101: Travel Apps
By far, out of all of the travel tech gadgets and gizmos that are out there, the most important one is my phone. I keep everything digitally and I use many of its features to keep me organized and on top of all of my travel plans. My iPhone is a little upset with me these days. There never seems to be any downtime for the poor thing, as I am constantly downloading and deleting apps to check out which ones are worth it and what I can pass on. I recently had the pleasure of listening to a great talk by someone who spends a ton of time on this very topic and I learned about a whole bunch of very interesting travel tech that could totally make your trip a better experience!
Our Overall Travel App Pick: TripIt.com
This app syncs with your email and collects all of your reservation information and turns it into one linear itinerary. It’s perfect for a weekend or for a couple of weeks. The app keeps track of everything and is organized in an easy-to-use manner. You can add everything from your flight info to a dinner reservation through the email auto upload or manually. It works whether you are using a travel agent or you are a DIY planner. Share your plans with your traveling group and keep everyone in the know. You can try it out for free, and if you really love it, you can upgrade to Pro.
Our Air App Picks
Dedicated Airline Apps
Regardless of who you are flying with, connecting directly with your airline carrier through their app has all kinds of perks. connect with in-flight wifi, pre-order food, upgrade your seat, get travel updates, store your ticket, and get access to baggage tracking. It’s well worth it! We can not stress this enough! Ensure that you are logged in with an account to your airline. If something goes wrong, you are already one step ahead of everyone else!
STEP Program
The State Department is the government agency that issues passports and puts out official travel alerts. To keep in touch, they’ve developed the STEP program that sends out alerts pertaining to the travel that you’ve registered with them. It’s a quick direct line to the information you need.
My TSA and TSA on Instagram
It’s nice to see this serious work take a break and smile a little! Follow TSA on instagram for funny posts about who’s trying to bring the most ridiculous things onto a plane and a few cameos from their faithful furry sidekicks. Then swap over to the app to see how long the lines are at any airport in the states. Very helpful!!
Flight Board
A simple app that does just one thing, it displays the departures and arrivals at any airport just like the big boards. It’s great for picking up, dropping off and knowing when to give in and reschedule.
Find my phone.
Yup. This should be on your phone and your fellow traveler’s phone. Solo travelers can share with someone back home. I was once in Universal Studios and my phone went missing. My son opened the app and we found it within seconds. We asked a park attendant to retrieve it for us, and we were back in business in no time. Now add AirTags into the mix and see how very helpful this app can be to any traveler in any location. From finding people in a crowd to tracking down lost luggage, AirTags are well worth the tech dollar.
Our Favorite Picks for Touring
Google Maps and Google Translate
You can’t go wrong with either one of these apps that work pretty much anywhere. Use them to create walking trails, find restaurants, ensure that you know where you can do your laundry and more. The only place that Google Maps is not worth your time is the great city of Venice. Instead, just use the local maps. Google maps does not know how to navigate the alleyways and passages.
Solo Trvlr
If you are looking to head out on your own, women can depend on this user-driven site to give great information about how to tackle destinations in and out of Europe. We love that they cover safety tips as well as great things to do, stay, and see. This website and app are always
Rick Steves’ Audio Europe
This app has extremely informative walking tours of museums, galleries, city centers and more for almost every destination in Europe. If you are looking for the nuts and bolts tour, this is your app. In Milan and want to know about the art in the Duomo? Rick’s your guy. Interested in a walking city tour of the architecture in Prague, Rick’s got you covered. Rick will walk you through the Louvre and the canals of Amsterdam. His pitch is pragmatic and no nonsense. It’s self paced and available for download to use sans wifi.
Direst sell apps for your specific activities.
The app to any public transport, sites or museums that you plan to visit. They are full of maps, special event announcements, and insider tips. Many are also offering audio guides through your device so you don’t have to rent a separate piece of equipment. Most of all, you can buy your tickets directly from them instead of through a third party site.
Audible or Kindle
Gone are the days of carrying big bulky books on travel. Instead both of these do a great job of passing the “in transit” time. Be sure to download great books that inspire your travels! We’ve got all kinds of suggestions. Just click here.
Crash Course: Europe
If you are looking for a little bit of background history, John Greene over at Crash Course is here to help. With 43 episodes, all available on your YouTube app, you can get small bites of European history to put your surroundings in some real context. He’s pithy and easy to follow, and worth the few minutes of your time.
Step Two: Check your storage.
Nothing, and we mean nothing, is more annoying than going to take a picture of the best thing you’ve ever seen only to have your phone tell you there’s no more storage. Simply go into your settings/general/iPhone storage to see where the damage lies. There are a couple of choices here including offboarding apps that are not used very often and reviewing big text message files. While your at it…
Go down memory lane then delete any photos you don’t need. Upload them to whatever cloud you use or get rid of them. It’s fine to have a highlights album but you don’t need to keep a picture of every dinner you ate for two weeks in Italy (even though they were life changing!) Instead, try Amazon photos or something similar to make all of your great photos your TV screensaver.
Step Three: Get your documents game together.
Take a picture of your passport. Yes, you are bringing it but if the worst should happen, a photo is a good first start to get you back on track. While you’re at it, screenshot the address of your local embassy or consulate. It’s easily deleted on the way home but it’s handy to have should you lose your international ID. Speaking of taking pictures…
At the airport, take a quick photo of those barcodes that just got put on your suitcases before you say goodbye to them. If you run into any trouble, use the old Twitter trick and send them the photo. Luggage can be tracked in as little as five minutes.
Step Four: Support your phone with these items.
A quality portable charger. Choose one that works fast, is not too heavy to carry around, and recharges quickly.
Optional items include a portable, rechargeable light ring for videos, an Airfly adapter for long haul flights, an international adapter, and some sort of small stand. All of these items should fit into a small sealable bag.