How to make your Mobile phone the best travel companion
The year that is 2020 has certainly ruined quite a few planned holidays and adventures for many of us who are able to travel but as we edge closer to 2021 and a vaccine, we can begin to start dreaming of our next adventures again.
With this in mind, below are some of my top tips on how to get the most out of your mobile phone for travelling be that local or international travel.
Be savvy with your chosen model
When it comes to travelling abroad we often worry about our precious items especially, if we are travelling long term and having to travel light, such as backpacking etc.
When I went travelling in South East Asia (Sigh, memories!) I decided to cash in my new device which I knew would be at risk as I was jumping around from country to country for a safer more robust refurbished option.
I was able to get a fantastic quality device but for a fraction of the price if I had brought it new, and as I recycled my old phone via giffgaff I also earned extra budget to put towards my travel money. Nice! Even better when I returned, I’d appreciated my refurbished device so much that when it came to buying a new phone, I chose refurbished again and was able to make a further saving.
You’ll be happy to know that you can at any point submit your phone for recycling and earn an extra few pounds so even more reason to check your drawers for unwanted devices.
Apps Away
Once you have your device sorted the next step is to fill it with useful apps that help you get the most of your chosen travel destinations, here are a few of my favourites.
City mapper – This is the app that got me into travel apps in general. What is great about it is that it find you various routes to get to a selected location, even offering scenic route options and the best places to on public transport, which I really appreciate as I am an anxious traveller. Particularly good if you have little ones as well and need to do longer journeys.
Maps Me: is a great app where you can download maps and routes in various places without needing access to the internet. Extremely useful for when the wifi fails you.
Splitwise: Is super handy when going on trips with groups of people as it allows you to spread the cost and keep a tally of shared travel costs, thus avoiding those awkward conversations.
Polarsteps – is basically like a blog/diary that you can track every step of your journey and add text and images etc, and it comes up on a map, and people can also follow your journey.
Culture Trip – is brilliant as it has location-based content and editorial on the app for where you are in the world – nice if you really wish to ‘go local’
Detour is a fabulous little app that offers audio guides/walking tours of selected cities/places around the world. Great if you like to explore areas on your feet.
So how do you use your phone when you go travelling? Are there any apps we’ve missed ff that we should check out? If so let us know below or continue the conversation on our social channels.
