Technology has transformed travelling in so many ways. Allbeit, one of my biggest pet peeves is sitting in a restaurant,eating a delicious meal and trying to indulge in interesting conversation yet everyone is glued to their screens. Or people walk into you on the street because they are fixated on the world inside their phone and not the world around them? The city of Chonqing, China has actually introduced “phone lanes” on the footpath to cater for this!! Each to their own but it’s just not for me! Inspite of all this, the positives definitly outway the negatives and for me, travel apps have enhanced the art of travel. I love my smartphone and nearly use it every day – whether it’s keeping connected with home or planning the next big adventure. Its taken some trial and error to identify which apps hold pole position on my phone and now I want to share them with you (best of all they’re all free!)
Viber
It’s strange, although I am on the other side of the world to my family and friends, I have never felt closer.I have been gone for 4 months and we have already exhanged over 450 photos – daily. It’s the best app for keeping that connection with my nearest and dearest back home. They love getting random updates/photos/voice messages about the weird and wonderful, the food I eat, the people I meet and in return I love hearing about the antics they get up to at home! Its a win win!
Rome2Rio
This is quite possibly the handiest app when it comes to travel and planning trips. Just pump in your origin and destination and it tells you all your travel options how to get there – what bus/plane/train to take, their associated costs and timescale. Whether it is how to get from Foshan to Hong Kong or else China to Brazil – it knows ALL (it scares me!!) With all these factors effecting where I go, this app could not make planing that weekend away or next big adventure any easier. 
Waygo
I live in China and not just Beijing or Shanghai, I live in Foshan. A small city close to Guangzhou where not many people speak English and menu’s/signs/notices etc are rarely, or should I say NEVER in English. It is all part of the fun and I find I get by but sometimes you do just want to know exactly what you are looking at/what you are ordering/what you are supposed to do. Enter Waygo, just locate the chinese charachters on screen and it gives you an immediate translation. Fair enough it is not always 100%, like when you know swmming pool probably isn’t on the menu – but man does it make life easier!
Tripomatic
Now this app I only recently discovered by chance on a weekend trip to Hong Kong and it is the handiest! I generally research the unusual places to see when going to a big city and this app just hands it to you on a plate! It gives you offline maps (for the small price of 2euro) which works great with gps, its lists hundreds of things to do in the area, places to eat etc. What I love is it doesn’t just stick to the usual touristy options either. It really helps you find the hidden gems the city has to offer. An extra plus is lets you plan your intinary day by day oh so simply!
Betternet
Have I mentioned I live in China?! This app is golden when it comes to battling “the great firewall of China” It offers a VPN service for your phone/device. What is a VPN you ask? Its a virtal private network and basically it lets you access all the blocked sites like google, twitter, facebook that are all banned in China. Best of all it is totally free!
These apps are genius and you should take full advantage of their potential to make travelling that little bit easier BUT always remember to look up, speak to the people around you, take in the atmosphere – that is what travelling is all about!!
Intro photograph credit: http://www.travelettes.net
this crow flies 