Transcript for:
Essential Apps for Traveling in Europe

Whether you need to book transportation, organize your itinerary, find cheap food or just figure what to pack in your suitcase, I promise you there is an app for that. So if you have a trip to Europe planned this year make sure to listen up because this video is going to cover 20 must download apps for your Europe trip that'll make your life so much easier so that you will be spending less time on the floor crying and more time stuffing your face with food. Now be sure to stick around till the end for a full list of download links and also for a chance to win a postcard from me so without further ado please hit that cheesy intro. What's up, smarties? Christina here from HappyToWander.com except now I have purple hair! Anyways on this channel we talk all about how to travel Europe smarter, cheaper and more off the beaten path so if that sounds like your jam be sure to subscribe and give this video a like. Now today we're talking all about travel apps but before we do that I first need to give away a postcard. So one thing I like to do is I give away a postcard a week to somebody who comments so if you want to win this week's postcard just holler in the comments with your favorite app that I showcased. Last week was especially special... especially special... because I also gave away a free set of packing cubes with the giveaway so a huge congratulations to last week's winner Mae who's gonna be winning her own set of Eagle Creek packing cubes and also a postcard which now I realize it's a very lame prize compared to the packing cubes anyways today we're talking all about apps specifically wonderful mind-blowing apps that are gonna make your Europe trip way way way way easier so without further ado, these are the apps that are APP-solutely worth a download. I'm sorry - please don't leave me. Anyways let's begin. Number one is a magical trip planning app known as TripIt. So I love TripIt because it offers a really easy way to organize your itinerary and aggregate all your different bookings including your flights or transportation, your hotel bookings or event bookings show tickets all that stuff. The best thing is it does it automatically through scanning your inbox for confirmation emails so it makes it really easy to completely organize everything without really doing too much work. Although the automatic import can sometimes be finicky all you need to do is forward emails to [email protected] calm and it detects all the information automatically from there. Magic! Number two is an app that you have probably already heard of and that is Google Maps. So I'm quite certain that 99% of you have used Google Maps at some point in your life... if not, navigation wizard, I applaud you. So the good thing about Google Maps for when you travel is not only for navigation but it also has all these other hidden features that a lot of people don't know about so for me personally what I love to do is if I'm browsing Pinterest or Instagram and I find a cool cafe or place that I eventually want to check out, what I'll do is I'll hop on Google Maps and I will star that place so that when I'm in the city I can just pull up Google Maps and kind of see depending on where I am what the cool spots are to check out that I've already vetted for myself. Another great feature is you can actually save maps for offline use which is very very handy if you don't have a data plan wherever you're going... and here's a really cool hack for you that most people don't know about. If you're on Google Maps and you see a certain chunk of the map that you want to save for offline use, all you need to do is type in OK Maps in the search bar and it will automatically download it for you for offline use which is mind blowing. Number three is a travel comparison and booking app known as Omio so Omio is this really great app that allows you to compare and book all the different modes of transport so this is especially handy in Europe where there are like a million and one ways to get from one place to another so imagine you want to search up all the busses all the trains all the flights at the same time, Omio is an app that lets you do that which is really really great. Number four is an amazing translation app that I'm sure you've used before called Google Translate but fun fact they have an app and it is amazing! So there's a lot of different features that you can use with the Google Translate app. Having it on you for example when you have data or Wi-Fi, you can basically translate any language into English or into whatever language you choose so that you're able to read signs and stuff but what's even cooler is you can actually download languages for offline use just like how you download maps so let's say that you're gonna be traveling to Germany you know you're gonna be there for a while so you can actually download German for offline use and then that way you don't need internet when you're translating all these phrases, talking up some cuties, you know that kind of thing. And another really cool feature is also this image scan translate so basically you can just hold up your phone camera to a sign, to a menu or whatever and then it translates it in real time which is honestly quite scary and I'm not sure how they have accomplished that. Technology has come really far I mean I used to play with like a Tamagotchi so this is really neat and I think that it's definitely a tool that people don't realize exists so be sure to look into it be sure to have Google Translate on your phone. So number five is another translation app known as SayHi so SayHi is really cool and is a little bit different from Google Translate in the sense that its main thing that it does is voice translation, so imagine you're in a foreign country, you can't speak to anybody, what you can use SayHi for is you can input your you know your language you're speaking and then the language that you're hoping to translate it to and then you just use the voice dictation and say "excuse me where can I find the cheese" and then it'll like you know translate it and then say it out loud so if you're at a shop or if you're at a bar talking to someone fun, you can actually just use that to speak and translate what you're saying which to me is another like "technology has come so far" so if you're looking for a great way to break the ice with locals or have kind of a fallback in case you're in a country and nobody understands you, this is a really good app that does that. Number six is an electronic financial institution known as Revolut and they have a really great app that goes along with their service if you want a functional debit or credit card to use when you're in Europe that charges you no foreign transaction fees then what you need to do is you need to look into Revolut. I've been using them for years and making an account is so easy, it takes only a few minutes and it can all be done on your phone and then all you need to do is request a free card which is shipped to you within a few business days. With it you're able to top-up your card and transfer money between currencies at the interbank exchange rate which means a lot of potential savings. Number seven is an app that is here to save your friendships okay by making splitting costs a lot less awkward. This one is known as Splitwise. So you have probably... if at any point you've traveled with friends, with family, with the significant other, ran into like that awkward conversation that you need to have after every trip that's like "hmm so you kind of owe me a lot of money". Somehow no matter which one you are you think the other person owes you a lot of money so Splitwise is an app that really takes the guesswork out of that and makes keeping track of things a lot easier. Basically what you can do is you can input different expenses and say "hey like I paid for this", "so-and-so paid for this", "I paid for this much of the bill" or like you want to split it 50/50, there are so many different capabilities within this app and it's great because it just does all the math for you and it keeps all the information in one place which is great so that at the end of the trip you can be like "hey Joe you actually owe me like five hundred dollars". So if you want an app that makes doing the math so much easier and an app that prevents you from going like full loan shark mode, then this is a great one to have. Number eight is a packing app known as Packr... Packr without the e so if packing stresses you out first of all, be sure to check out my packing tips video - I think it'll help and also be sure to download this app known as Packr which generates automatic packing lists based on the information you give them so like your trip dates, kind of the activities you'll be doing and you just enter all of that and it'll automatically generate a packing list that you can keep on your phone. Number nine is an experiences, activities, tours, attractions app called GetYourGuide. Basically GetYourGuide is an aggregator for different activities that has great selection in Europe so everything from walking tours and skip the line tickets to experiences like cooking classes, you can actually book and pay all through this one app which takes the hassle out of finding a fun activity to do. They also have a best price guarantee so if you can find a place that does the exact same tour for cheaper, they'll actually pay you the difference which I think is pretty amazing. Number 10 is a great travel documentation app known as PolarSteps so if you ever have trouble keeping a journal, keeping your memories straight... I mean I know I sure do or you just want a seamless way to keep track of your travels, PolarSteps is an amazing app that does that actually automatically by scanning your phone's camera roll and kind of matching it with geotags and things like that to keep a seamless documentation of where you've been and you can edit the info and add little notes, put in like little places that you've been to and just really create this very nice visual documentation of your trip. Number 11 is a waste reduction food app known as Too Good to Go so if you're gonna be traveling Europe long-term or just on a budget and you want to eat out but you don't necessarily want to be spending a ton of money, Too Good to Go is a food app that operates in a lot of major European cities and basically what they do is they match up with restaurants who sell their leftover food at the end of the day or after their like lunch rush for a really really cheap price... so I think their cap is actually like five euros so you can get a full meal for less than five euros and you're doing good for the environment by keeping food waste out of the landfills so I think it's quite a win-win. You don't actually get to choose what meal you're gonna have but they sometimes have different options like for vegetarians and stuff and it's just like a really good way to eat cheap so that's nice and I highly recommend it. Number twelve is a hotel accommodation app for last-minute deals known as Hotel Tonighr so when you travel sometimes you want to be spontaneous or you are forced into being spontaneous because something has gone wrong, well Hotel Tonight is a great app to have on hand for moments like those when you need to see at a moment's notice what is a cheap hotel room I can get for tonight. Sometimes finding last-minute deals can be daunting but they make it really really easy and seamless through their app you can enter your date so today or tomorrow or for sometime in the future and it'll show you all the cheapest hotel deals in your area and they also have this really great thing called the daily drop which is an especially cheap deal that you unlock once per day and I've always found that those deals are amazing like you can sometimes save like half-price on like four star five star hotels so it's really really good to check out, keep that in your pocket just in case. Something in a similar vein for number thirteen, we have an accommodation app known as Booking.com so odds are you have maybe come across Booking.com when booking accommodations online on your desktop, but their app is actually really fantastic so I love to have it on my phone for instance when I want to book accommodation on the go. And the reason I love Booking specifically is because their cancellation policies tend to be really really chill for most hotels so if you are in a position where you're not really sure if you're gonna be needing a place in a specific city or you just want to have a place just in case, you can reserve a place on Booking.com. You don't need to pay anything upfront most of the time and then usually you can cancel within like 24 hours of your arrival so this is really good if you want to have a bit of flexibility during your trip but you don't want to be like potentially homeless during your trip either. Number 14 is a very popular European taxi app known as FreeNow, formerly it was called MyTaxi so if you plan on taking any taxis during your trip in Europe you should definitely make sure to download this app because they operate in most major cities and basically they're like Uber or Lyft but they partner up with licensed taxis so that way you can hail an actual taxi all through an app, you can pay either in person or on the app and it's a really seamless way to make sure you don't get scammed by taxi drivers and can also make sure you're able to hail a cab no matter where you are so number 15 is another public transport app known as City Mapper. So if you're gonna be visiting any major cities in Europe like London, Paris, Rome and dozens of others, they are fully operational in these cities and it's a really great app that lets you compare how to get from point A to point B with a lot of different options so like public transport, walking, cycling, going by car and honestly I have actually found that a lot of the time their information is more up-to-date than Google Maps. I'm not sure why but it's just what I've noticed in some cities and the great part is you can save routes for offline use and also some of their functionalities are available offline as well so that's really handy in cities like London for example where you don't have service underground, so it's really really good to have this in your pocket just in case so that you're able to plan your trips and even tell you how many calories you burn if you walk. Not sure how accurate that is because you don't really input any body data but that's still pretty cool. Number 16 is a Wi-Fi location app known as a WiFi Map - very creative name but honestly if you're like me and when you travel, the priorities go water food and then Wi-Fi... then this is an app you need. Maybe Wi-Fi os even number one. Let me know in the comments if you also feel like Wi-Fi is perhaps more important than water when you're traveling. Number 17 is a guidebook and audio tour app by Rick Steves so if you've ever turned on a television or walked into a Travel section of a bookstore you probably know Rick Steves, he's kind of like an OG European travel guru who has been doing this... filming TV shows writing guidebooks since I was like a fetus probably so he really knows his stuff and he's got this great app or you can download different audio tours, different like you know little snippets about destinations all around Europe and he's just got this really wonderful little like grandpa... or but no, a nice older uncle who's just really wise and just like wants you to live your best life that's the kind of vibe I get from Rick Steves so yeah he's really great. Make sure you download the app and you get access to all these cool audio tours and like podcast II type things for free. Number 18 is a currency conversion app known as XE Currency so if you've ever found yourself in a situation where you're in a foreign country and the currency is different and you're like "is that a great deal or like a horrifically terrible deal", this app is perfect for making those really quick currency conversion exchanges. That way you can avoid getting scammed and you know exactly how much you're paying and this is especially handy if you're gonna be traveling all around Europe because contrary to popular belief not all of the content is on the Euro so there's quite a few countries that use different currencies so it's nice to have this in your pocket so that you're able to be prepared all the time for quick calculations. And speaking of calculations, number 19 is a great tipping app known as Globe Tips so if you've ever found yourself in a restaurant kind of like "ooh what am I supposed to tip here", this is a really great app that has tipping guides for countries all around the world and also an inbuilt tip calculator so that you're able to quickly calculate how much your total bill should be depending on like whether the service was good, just okay, it was great, etc. What's cool is they also offer tipping guides specifically for different scenarios so this is how much you should tip your taxi driver, this is how much you should tip a server at a restaurant which is really great. Lastly for number 20, we have a vegetarian and vegan food app known as Happy Cow so if you're a vegetarian or have like a plant-based diet, one of the things that you might struggle with when you're in Europe is finding a good restaurant to eat, where you can have more than just french fries like all the time right so Happy Cow is this really really great app... it is paid but all my veggie friends rave about it so I'm quite certain it's worth the money if you're traveling for a while and it basically aggregates all these different reviews and restaurants that have vegetarian friendly options so that you're able to see at a glance like in your area where are all the veggie friendly restaurants where can I find a meal that I can actually eat so I don't starve to death or only eat fries for the rest of my life. Alright smarties I hope you enjoyed this list of awesome travel apps for Europe. if I missed any of your favourites just let me know in the comments and also for a chance to win a postcard, be sure to let me know which of these apps you found the most mind-blowing or the coolest and so thanks so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video please give me a like and subscribe if you haven't already and I will see you guys next week. Until then, byeeee!!!!