10 Travel Apps Matador's Editors Actually Use

onX

onX is disrupting the GPS mapping app market with a product that is better looking, has better technology, and is much more user-first than anything else out there. Beyond its basic routing and tracking abilities, onX has drastically upped backcountry safety and strategy for trip planning through new layers in its apps (one each for backcountry hiking and skiing, off-roading, and hunting). This summer, the app debuted Wildfire layers, which shows the location of current fires in the area and provides basic info about them. In winter, onX has an equally useful avalanche predictability layer that shows potential trigger points based not just on current conditions but on factors like slope angle and aspect, elevation, and terrain traps. The layer goes so far as to show how big and far-reaching an avalanche in a given location is likely to be, and provides info on routing around likely trigger points. It has tools specific to hikers, mountain bikers, hunters, overlanders, and skiers – all available with a simple $34.99 Premium annual subscription or $99.99 Elite annual subscription. No app, service, or educational tool provides more up-to-the-moment safety info for backcountry skiers and snowboarders. — Tim Wenger, Transactional Content Editor

Try onx

Flighty

Being based in Denver in a United Airlines hub, I deeply appreciate the award-winning United App that provides all the information I need in a timely and reliable manner. But I can’t always fly United with a job that requires frequent travel. I tested out Flightly on a few recent trips, and it brings the same functionality of United’s app to every other airline. Plane updates, gate changes, time estimates, and more are pushed straight to my phone with Flighty. It predicts delays and sends them immediately. I particularly appreciate the taxi, takeoff, and landing time information as someone who sees the time in the air and somehow always discounts how long those on-the-ground tasks take. It’s a boon for people who obsessively track the plane for their flight so they know exactly what to expect, and unlike your standard delay notification, Flighty also can usually list why the delay is occurring so you can plan accordingly. It’s more trustworthy than the repeated gate announcements that boarding will be delayed another 15 minutes every half hour. Best of all? It’s universal, covering all worldwide airlines every day of the year. — Nickolaus Hines, Managing Editor

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Omio and Busbud

I’m a big advocate for bus travel. As excited as some people get about hopping trains in foreign places, especially for longer or intercountry trips, I’ll almost always see if I can get where I want to go by bus first (for a number of reasons I’ve written about before). Omio has always been my go-to for finding and booking bus tickets in Europe (although the platform also covers the US and Canada, as well as trains, ferries, and flights). It’s a particularly great option when you want to compare different modes of travel on longer routes. Say you want to get from Barcelona to Paris — you can easily see whether it’s more time and cost effective to book a budget airline, hop on a train, or take a bus. Busbud focuses primarily on intercity bus and train travel but has a broader global reach, with bus and train options in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Both platforms are reliable, comprehensive, and straightforward to use. — Alex Bresler, Editor

Try Omio

Try Busbud

Xe

Theoretically speaking, it’s not too tall a task to memorize the conversion rate for whatever currency is used where you’re traveling and then do some simple equations to figure out the cost of things abroad. Practically speaking, I’m terrible at math and it takes me far too long to accurately come to the correct number — especially when bargaining for something or making a quick purchasing decision. Xe does all the hard work for me. The app quickly makes real-time currency conversions for whatever number you put in for currencies around the world. I always have it up on my phone for quick access when I’m traveling, so I always know what I’m paying for something. It’s also helpful when budgeting out what the costs for a trip will be outside of the pre-booked things like accommodations. The only downside is that it requires an internet connection, though the right phone plan fixes that. — Nickolaus Hines, Managing Editor

Try Xe

Airalo

I’ve used Airalo, an eSIM marketplace, as a digital alternative to physical SIM cards since before my latest iPhone deleted the SIM card tray altogether. It’s simple: You just use the Airalo app or website on your smartphone to select the eSIM that makes the most sense for the country or region you’re visiting, pick the amount of data you expect to use given the duration of your trip, and follow the installation and activation guide. As something of a tech luddite, I appreciate the step-by-step, user-friendly instructions, complete with graphics to make the eSIM setup a breeze. I’ve used Airalo across Europe (both for shorter trips to specific countries and longer multi-country trips) and parts of Asia, always with affordable, fast, and reliable service. Best of all, you can top up your plan as you go and even get credits (Airmoney) when you refer friends (many of mine are now dedicated Airalo users, too). — Alex Bresler, Editor

Try Airalo

Flush

The answer to nature’s call used to be easy in any city I went to: Go to a bar, because anywhere that serves alcohol probably also has a toilet. It was trickier when traveling with people who weren’t as open to throwing one back for the sake of a bathroom, and then trickier still when I had a kid who couldn’t enter said bars. Few, if any, travelers want to actively think about bathroom stops, but they’re a necessary consideration for any trip — particularly when the trip involves spending long days out and about. Flush simplifies it all by showing every public restroom near you. It has helped me with family trips in France and Italy, urgent pit stop requests in hometowns, and late-night adventures. The bathroom locations listed vary, but are all public. Sometimes the nearest option is a Starbucks or a gas station, other times its a park. There are even semi-permanent porta potties on there. And it’s all connected to maps so it’s easy to find the closest walking directions directly to the John. — Nickolaus Hines, Managing Editor

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Wise

Wise looks like a bank, but is a “Money Services Business.” I have used it for more than three years for global money transfers, among other things. One can hold balances in 40-plus currencies and send transfers to bank accounts in a large number of countries with much smaller fees than traditional banks. In my case, it allowed me to receive payments from the US while I was living as a digital nomad in different countries, as well as to transfer money to friends and pay for goods and services in places such as Brazil, Mexico, Australia, and Spain. In the case of friends and family who were also using Wise, or if I was transferring from a balance to a bank account in the same currency, usually I paid minimal fees or no fees at all for the transfer. For example, if you send 1,000 euros from your own balance in euros to an account in euros, you only pay 0.95 cents as a fee (try the fee calculator). The exchange rate is excellent (much better than the exchange rate I get from traditional banks) and one can also get a Wise debit card to use around the world. — Deb GC, SEO Editor

Try Wise

TripIt

I’ve used TripIt to build travel itineraries since 2015. Each time I book a hotel, restaurant reservation, flight, or anything else, I forward the confirmation email to the app’s automated email service and it adds it to my itinerary without any effort from me. Entire trips come together with an easy-to-follow timeline and I love having all confirmation numbers, addresses, and contact points for a trip nicely organized in one place. The app also tracks travel stats, and it’s cool to see how many cities or countries I’ve visited over time and how many miles I’ve traveled. There’s a free version as well as a paid version that adds benefits like airport maps, notifications of flight changes, and other helpful perks. — Tim Wenger, Transactional Content Editor

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PlantID

PlantID, as well as similar apps like Picture This and Pl@ntNet, are easy to use for plant identification while outdoors and/or traveling. All you need to do is upload one or multiple images of the plant, mushroom, or lichen you want to identify, and the app will give you the best estimates using image recognition technologies. The information you get contains the common name, a short description, and the scientific classification. It can be useful to spot poisonous plants, for example, but bear in mind that although the artificial intelligence models are improving all the time, the results are not 100 percent accurate. Accuracy depends on the plants being in the database of the app, and image recognition working properly. Additionally, if you are house sitting and you need to figure out what’s wrong with one of the plants, these apps can help you as well through their Plant Health Assessment options (though some of that info is only offered under the paid plans). With the free version of PlantID, you can identify 10 plants per month maximum. — Deb GC, SEO Editor

Try PlandID