Is it your first time to travel and you don’t know what to do? Want to find something interesting to eat, drink, or do on your trip?

Plan and reserve bookings. Organize itinerary. Waste less time at airports. Convey something in Mandarin. Steer away from traffic congestion. In short, get rid of the hassle! Put on those essential apps on your smartphones and travel at ease.

Actually, I’ve piled up a collection of travel app reviews which range from mapping apps to travel guides and references. See it for yourself!

1. TripIt Travel Organizer Free (Free for , , Blackberry)

Organizing your flight times and check-in dates can really be a hassle to any traveler. That is why this app simplified everything by acting as your secretary, providing you all the information you need to know in one place. With minimal effort on your part, this travel organizer simply allows you to keep your sanity.

What to Expect

This app offers a free account and a pro account that you can purchase in the app itself. It works simple: just send your confirmation email for airline tickets, hotel reservation and the like to and they will do the rest by stripping out the important data and compiling it into an easy-to-read, color coded travel itinerary accessible on your mobile phone. The app also allows you to monitor the status of your flight and provides details of weather forecasts, directions and maps for your every destination. It sync all your trip plans with your calendar and lets you share your trip plans with your family and peers.

What to Like

This app is well-designed and has a devy of features that lets you keep track of everything you’re worrying about– your flight, hotel reservation, itinerary and many more. It’s a must-have for you don’t have to dig out on those travel documents– all you have to do is whip out your phone and use the app. Upgrading it to TripIt Pro version will provide you on-the-go flight alerts, rewards point trackers, status updates and a lot more which is a handy tool for globetrotters.

2. GPS Essentials (Free for )

If there’s an essential app that map things out easily, then this one can provide. It turns your smartphone into a full-fledged GPS allowing you to locate the vicinity within 10 meters of your current position. This one’s perfect for those who are adventurous at heart.

What to Expect

Aptly tagged as “The Swiss army knife of GPS Navigation”, this app is highly useful for people who loves to travel. It provides you information like altitude, latitude and longitude, speed, average speed, sunrise, sunset et al. You can also formulate your own utility belt by customizing the dashboard and adding on other GPS related widgets. It has a plethora of features that helps you navigate your way to different tourist destinations. It includes built-in map mode and acts as a compass– so no need to worry about getting lost in your journeys.

What to Like

This app is highly capable of marking your route, setting waypoints and much more, but even though it is very useful, it requires full internet access. Nonetheless, what I particularly like about this is the camera HUD (heads-up display) which shows your waypoints by your snapped photo. Overall, the app is extremely well laid out plus it’s free!

3. Tourist language learn & speak (Free for )

If you’re lost for words on how to ask for the nearest fast food chain in Macau, then you better head on to your smartphone to help you. This app is developed for travelers to get a grip on a new language. It provides you translations of greetings and key phrases in 23 foreign languages that are divided into simple-to-access categories: numbers, airport, taxi, hotel, restaurant, police, hospital, etc.

What to Expect

This app covers a lot of the most needed, basic phrases for quick and easy access. With a range of topics such as transportation, food and accommodation, emergency situations and language basics, this app lets you learn some useful phrases for certain circumstances. It even provides you an audio version of a phrase so you can pronounce it like a local. It also includes a handy alphabet section and number pronunciation coupled with the restaurants section which can be very useful when ordering at an upscale dining restaurant.

What to Like

This app doesn’t take much of your time to learn since it’s convenient to use because categories are divided and organized accordingly. Overall, this basic language learning tool can help you get around in a foreign country in the most comfortable way possible.

4. TripAdvisor Hotels Flights (Free for and)

Have your perfect trip planned with this comprehensive travel app. It includes over 75 million reviews from users of different countries providing you the necessary information of available hotels, great deals and airfares, nearby restaurants, luxurious shopping malls and pretty much everything you need in your trip with just a tap away.

What to Expect

This app allows you to sift through millions of reviews, opinions, and candid photos by travelers from different parts of the globe. It also helps you find the best hotel for you and lets you explore restaurants that depends on your chosen food type, price range, and rating. But if you’re interested in a different dining experience, then use “Near Me Now” feature to locate restaurants near you. With this app, you can also put on reviews and photos from your own travel experience from Rome! How cool is that?

What to Like

It’s one of the best easy-to-use search engines for flights, hotels and restaurants. This trusted travel savvy app works flawlessly and I truly appreciate that it sort things by categories– very ideal for travelers on the go. However, there are times when not all locations load in search. I think they should keep it up-to-date from time to time.

5. MyDirections-Google Map ext. (Free for )

This actually is just an extension for Google Maps and not an Android map app itself. However, this one makes Google Maps a totally different app. Most map apps use Google Maps for the base layer, but in contrast, this one works with G Maps to make it even better than it normally is.

What to Expect

Whatever you’re looking for, this app will take you there with just a minimal typing effort. It is an improvised version of all other Google Maps, however one of the unique features of this is that you can create multiple list of custom destination, like your favorite destination. It comes very handy each time you go to a new place you’re not familiar with. It’s also superb, in a way that it provides you exact local bus (transport) routes. It also has a voice command which doesn’t work for most devices. Nonetheless, it gives you enough and accurate locations at some point but not all the time.

What to Like

It is a recommended travel app for better mobile navigation. You can operate this to find your destination more easily although it has a tendency to make your saved locations unsearchable and usually experiences some glitches, making it a bit crappy.

End Note

Whether you are a seasoned traveler and not simply a tourist on vacay, these apps are your travel companion. Although not most of these travel apps can help you out, however there are some that are exceptionally useful. Now go, take your pick and get globe-trotting– because with a few of these apps in your smartphone, you may never perceive the world in the same way again.

Bon voyage!