Sofia Almeida
I started 2025 with approximately 30 travel-related apps on my phone. Half of them I deleted by the end of the year. Some of them I replaced with better alternatives along the way. Some of the apps I even never opened at all before deleting them. Below are the apps that I actually use as a solo traveler in 2026.
Maps: Google Maps plus offline backup
I use Google Maps for my navigation as it has the best coverage of most countries around the world. It also has a feature called “offline maps” which allows me to download a region before arriving and then use the maps while I am traveling without having to use my data. Occasionally, I encounter countries where Google Maps is not as strong, but have found Maps.me to be sufficient for countries like parts of Mongolia, rural Albania or even some of the Pacific island countries. I also use Naver Map for Korea as it is the most reliable maps for that country, and Citymapper for major cities in the Western world for public transportation as it provides the best last-mile walking instructions for those cities that have been fine-tuned by the developers such as London, Paris, NYC.
Translation: DeepL plus Google Translate
For anything that requires more than a few sentences, I reach for DeepL. It’s able to generate long translations that read naturally. For everything else, I have Google Translate available for camera and voice translations. And, recently, Apple Translate has become sufficiently competent that I’ve stopped looking for a paid translation app — it’s perfectly fine for offline usage on the iPhone.
Accommodation: Booking, Hostelworld, Airbnb
Booking.com for cities that have hotels for booking and a free cancellation filter. For staying in hostels (solo female, over 30 etc) there is no app better than Hostelworld for its reviews and filters. Airbnb for long stays (of 2 weeks or more) for weekly and monthly discounts. Vrbo for domestic vacation rentals in the US. Deleted: Hotels.com, Trivago, Kayak hotel and Expedia as none of them offered anything that the 3 above hadn’t already covered.
Transport: Rome2Rio plus local apps
Rome2Rio – a must download for any serious traveler as it shows you a huge range of ways to travel between two cities. Although it does not book your ticket for you I then proceed to book on the relevant operators website (such as Trainline for European trains, BlaBlaCar Bus for European cross country bus journeys, FlixBus for certain long distance in countries across Europe, 12Go for long distance bus and train journeys in South East Asia). If on a trip to a part of the world where Rideshare Apps are popular I will download relevant local DiDi (Latin America) Grab (South East Asia) Bolt (Eastern Europe) style Apps as the cost is so cheap when downloaded on local connection. I made this trip 3 times ( most recent was the most expensive middle one was the best value).
Travel admin: TripIt and not much else
All flight, hotel and rental car confirmations are forwarded to TripIt Pro which then organizes the automatically-generated itinerary for me. I no longer need ‘travel companion’ apps such as App in the Air, Hopper and others that I used previously because I don’t open them enough and have yet to add value to my travel planning or execution. To track receipts for trips that I bill, such as my recent 4-week stint in Shanghai, I use the Expensify app for specified tags that I don’t bother to log in and look until the end of the trip to which the bill pertains.
Communication: WhatsApp plus local SIM apps
I use WhatsApp for communication abroad for almost every booking (restaurant, activities, places to stay) and for communication with the host, and with taxi services etc. The apps for local SIM cards: I use Airalo for purchasing eSIMs for abroad, and then the app of the local telecom provider for the local SIM that I have purchased for the country I am in. Deleted Skype, Viber and a few other less used apps for messaging.
