There’s no shortage of travel apps cluttering up the Android and Apple marketplaces these days — and that’s a problem, as most of them are terrible. Sorting out useless ones from those worth installing is not the most fun you’ll ever have with your smartphone, but no one wants to pay for a worthless app.
If you’ve got a trip coming up, rather than wasting a week of your life downloading useless junk, start with these 10 great travel apps instead:
LoungeBuddy
I’ve spent enough of my life waiting around in airports to know that it basically sucks. I usually fly on budget airlines with long layovers and terrible connections, so dirty seats, expensive Wi-Fi, and bad food are a depressingly regular part of my life. The only places that offer any respite are the lounges — but without a membership or business-class tickets, I’m not inclined to wander around and ask random lounge staff if they’d like to let me in.
LoungeBuddy takes the pain out of the process. After entering your credit card, airline status, and lounge memberships, the app tells you which lounges you can access at any given airport. Even for people like me who don’t have any of those things, the app still lets you know about any free lounges or ones you can purchase a day pass for. It’s slick, easy to use, and free!
Get it for iOS.
Hostelworld
The Hostelworld app has does all the usual things you’d expect an accommodation booking app to do — searches, descriptions, filters — and looks particularly good while doing so. The full-screen interactive map makes it easy to work out whether the hostel you like is anywhere near where you want to be, while those all-important reviews are only a tap away.
