11 travel apps worth paying for
Invest in a few of these savvy apps to help your holidays go a little smoother.
You get what you pay for, and especially when it comes to some critical aspects of your holiday such as navigating your way around a new city or finding exceptional places to eat. In some cases, it’s worth paying a little bit extra to enhance your travel experience, so here’s our pick of the most useful paid travel apps.
1. For cyclists: EuroCycle
EuroVelo is a network of 15 long distance cycling routes, connecting corner to corner of Europe. The Rhine cycle route for instance, runs from the source of the river in the Swiss Alps right along to the Dutch North Sea. The Iron Curtain Trail takes you from Barents Sea in the Arctic to the Black Sea. This app allows you to access the full route (or do parts of it) from London to Warsaw. It also allows you to download maps offline to use while cycling without using up your data. Handy for when you’re in remote areas or can’t guarantee coverage.
2. For foodies: Where Chefs Eat
At the pricier end of the scale, Where Chefs Eat is actually a spin-off from the well-loved printed version, which is the authority on the world's best restaurants with recommendations from the likes of Yotam Ottolenghi and Rene Redzepi. The app uses that information and layers it over your location finder to see if there is anywhere near you.
In terms of choice, the apps injects information from 600 chefs, covering 3,200 restaurants in 70 countries, so you’ll have a decent amount to choose from. What you’re paying for here is quality, which is handy especially if you don’t have loads of time to trial and error your meals. It also saves you time trying to juggle a dozen free restaurant finder apps, though one criticism is that the map function has a tendency to crash.
3. For frequent fliers: App In The Air
App In The Air is one of the best travel apps in terms of intuitiveness, design and slickness. It has none of the clunkiness of most flight apps, and bills itself as a personal flying assistant. It helps you track any delays or changes across 1,000 airlines, and even helps you navigate airports. It has some fun elements too, as it keeps track of your mileage, routes and travel ranking among friends.
The paid subscription is for real-time status updates and automated check in, but the devil is in the detail: it's designed to your whole travel experience less hassle. For instance, the app links with taxis in over 200 countries, suggests places to eat and keeps you informed of any pertinent travel information.
Apple: £29.99 annually
Android: £29.50 annually
4. For explorers: Komoot
If exploring the outdoors is your thing, whether it’s kayaking, cycling or hiking, Komoot pulls together navigation and maps to help you do it. The first region you sign up to is free, and then increases in cost depending on the package you choose. You can download maps, but the highlight is guided navigation and access to the Komoot community where you'll find tips and advice based on areas they’ve passed through.
Apple: £3.99-£29.99
Android: £3.99-£29.99
5. For urban explorers: City Maps2Go Offline Maps
One of the best rated offline maps in the iTunes App store, the main highlights include an incredible attention to detail, as well as helpful information and pictures. Covering 150 countries and 60,000 places, it’s extensive. It has different functions such as downloading offline maps, but also sections to organise your trip and the ability to search under different categories such as architecture, bars and restaurants.
The one criticism is that the app may perform slowly if you have a lot of other apps open, so make sure you shut them down. You can download the first map free but the next will cost £11.99.
Apple: £14.99-£19.99
Android: £1.79-£19.99
6. For aviation enthusiasts: Plane Finder 3D
Plane Finder was the first app to offer aviation charts within a tracking app, and this slick bad boy allows you to see live air traffic in crystal clear 3D. There’s a flight path visualisation, and it allows you to track live planes. The original version is still free, and the 3D version is still developing all the time, but it’s the gold star for plane tracking apps in terms of aesthetic.
Apple: £4.99
Not available on Android
7. For extroverts: iTranslate Voice
Described as ‘real-time spoken word translation for your phone’, this snazzy app allows you to speak into the phone, it then repeats it in English and then translates it into the language of the other person. It covers 40 languages and they have a transcripts feature which allows you to export your conversation. Basically, it’s more than just a translation tool - it also helps you to learn a new language by providing a phrasebook to support your communications.
If the £40 a year seems a bit steep, you can pay £9.99 for just two months access.
Apple: £9.99-£39.99
Not available on Android
8. For groups: Splittr
There is nothing worse than fighting with mates about money on holiday, whether it’s deciding who owes what, or someone having to bear responsibility for holding everyone else’s money. Splittr isn’t unusual in that there are a few money splitting apps around, but it stands out from the rest in that it’s specially geared for travelling. It has a really quick interface, and it works across a number of different currencies which does the conversion rate for you.
Apple: £3.99
Android: coming soon
9. For hungry vegans: Happy Cow
Voted as the number one travel app in iTunes, Happy Cow is a vegan restaurant food finder. It allows you to search for type of cuisine and dietary requirements from Mexican to gluten-free, while also allowing you to save and build up a portfolio of your favourite restaurants.There are photos and reviews but crucially it’s community based and the vegan community is pretty active about sharing the love of places they’ve found. More than anything, it saves a lot of time trawling different restaurant finder apps and the fee is a one-off.
10. For sun worshippers: Wolfram Sun Exposure
Invaluable for beach holidays, this app tells you how to spend time in the sun safely (and more vainly, avoid unsightly sunburn). You enter your skin type, and it works out how long you can be in the sun before getting burned. It also works out the UV strength in your location, and marries that with the time of day and strength of sun cream you’re wearing.
Apple: £0.99
Not available on Android
11. For planners: Ready Set Holiday (Pro)
Even if you hate organising, you’ll love this easy-to-use, beautifully designed app. First, there’s the countdown to your holiday to get you excited, second there’s a checklist for you to organise your trip, and one of our favourites is the ‘tour’ function which suggests organised tours you can do in the place you’re visiting. Also, for added social media envy, it lets you screenshot your countdown and seamlessly share it across your platforms. The extra £1.99 means no ads, you get checklist task alerts and you can use your own backgrounds.
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