It’s safe to say we can’t really live without our smartphones these days. They pretty much dictate what we do on a day to day basis, yet when we go travelling we do our best not to use them.
Now, we aren’t saying you should be sat playing games underneath the Eiffel Tower, but there are hundreds of great tools out there that can enhance your travel.
There’s of course Maps for starters but, here’s our full rundown on how to make your smartphone the ideal travelling companion…
Find Your Friends
Firstly, if you have friends with you, the Find Your Friends app is a must, especially in an unfamiliar city.
Essentially, it’ll keep track on where all your friends are, so if you do become detached from them, they’ll be easy to find.
Download a VPN
Sometimes when out on the road you just want some home comforts. Catch up on the local soap opera or a soccer game from back home.
One problem is that geoblocking is often an issue around the world, preventing you from watching, say BBC iPlayer outside of the UK or NBC outside of the US. A VPN will camouflage your IP address to get round such blockages, meaning you can watch whatever you want without any issue. You can click here to find out more about specific VPNs, and they’re well worth looking into.
Deliveroo
Knowing where to eat is one of the toughest decisions that needs to be made when away. It can be made easier though. Of course, internet research is a must, but a quick way to discover what’s around is by downloading Deliveroo.
Now, you’ve probably all ordered from them before and will know it’s a good way to get restaurant standard food delivered to your door. But what it also does is give you a good idea of the good restaurants around, what they serve and a general idea of the cool parts of town.
Think about the options you have with Deliveroo. They’re generally in the cool, up and coming areas and nearly always serve great food, right?
City Guides
The days of a paper guide are long gone. It’s time to download one straight to your phone.
The likes of Localeur are great ways to get to know a city, with the app’s content being written by those in the know. This particular app uses a “community of local tastemasters” to submit its recommendations and the results generally can’t be complained about.
However, there are tons of great guides to get hold of. The Guardian recently published a great article highlighting the very best ones.