People born before the ‘80s remember (not without a little nostalgia) travel which was pretty different from that of today. They had to make space in their luggage for maps, tourist guides full of page markers and underlined notes, pieces of paper with hotel numbers and restaurants suggested by friends, some local currency for the taxi, the odd scrap of paper containing choice words in the local language…
Today, all this is on your smartphone.
Just like a suitcase, a ‘travel smartphone’ needs some preparation.
After making sure you have enough space in your phone storage or on your cloud for your travel photos, scanned copies of your most important personal documents such as your driving licence, passport and ID, it’s time to install and create your accounts on the essential…
5 apps for travellers
- Payment app. On the off-chance you ever lose your wallet, here’s step one to saving your trip. Choose from Apple Pay, Satispay, PayPal, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Bancomat Pay depending on your operating system, your device brand, compatibility with your bank account or your credit card. You can easily pay using contactless technology in a host of shops, restaurants, taxis and even for underground train tickets in some cities (avoiding useless queues).
- Car sharing, taxis & more. Transport is a very important part of your trip. Depending on your destination, there are a lot of options to get you from A to B. If you need a car (either self-drive or with a driver), you can use Share Now, Enjoy, Free Now, Uber or WeShare. Otherwise, you can use a local electric bike or scooter service if you prefer to move around more actively.
- Lufthansa app. Forget about telephone bookings, check-in queues and boarding passes, which stay at the bottom of your pockets for years. Today, Air Dolomiti passengers can travel with the utmost simplicity, managing flights and the Miles & More programme through their smartphone, tablet or Apple Watch with the Lufthansa app, which is available on iOS, Android and Huawei. For all those who use iOS 12 and on, you can use the Lufthansa app with the voice assistant Siri, who can even remind you when it’s time to leave to go to the airport.
- Splitwise. Are there two of you travelling? You’ll find this virtual petty cash account extremely useful and you’ll finally be able to forget about that boring settling of accounts between fellow travellers. Each user can enter joint expenses each day and get a precise balance of the credits/debts accrued by their fellow traveller. Nothing could be easier!
- Translation tools. Although it may be true that now almost everybody knows a few words of English and that you only need to give communication a go, it’s also true that in some situations it’s handy to be able to rely on technology. For example, if you need to say that you’re allergic to a specific food, you can help whoever is serving you with a translation app such as Google Translate, the most used online translator in the world. If you want to learn, use slang and read interesting facts about the cultural context you’re in, try TripLingo or iTranslate, complete with learning tools. If you know the local language, Word Reference might help you expand your existing vocabulary!
