You’re safe to assume I love to travel. It’s an unspoken requirement of the CultureWizard team. Whether for work or fun, bring on the miles. Of course, working for a technology company, I never leave home without my smartphone. My journey really begins before I even get on the plane. I always start off with getting as much information about the country via our CultureWizard Mobile app and intersperse it with other various ones throughout my travels. Here are my go-to travel apps broken down into five categories because I couldn’t choose just five single apps!
Organization
Packing Pro might change your life. Creating packing lists like “2-nights NYC Spring” dramatically reduces the thinking required to get ready for trips. Do the thinking once and use the lists over and over again. It’s fantastic.
Tripit captures all of your travel details in one place: flights, hotels, meeting locations, dinners, everything. Email itineraries and travel receipts, and the app compiles them into your trips. You can also add locations and events manually.
Services
Most business travelers use airline apps to make checking in easy and to keep up with flight delays. But did you know rental car providers have apps too? Hertz messages your car pick-up location; it’s waiting when you hit the tarmac and take your phone out of airplane mode. Amazing.
I use the Hotels.com app but no hotel specific apps. Do you? Which ones do you like?
Recommendations
Getting advice from locals makes every trip better. When I don’t have anyone to ask in person, I go to the recommendations on TripAdvisor and Yelp. I discover some of the best places with a little help from my online friends.
Navigation
With recommendations in hand, Google Maps gets me where I’m going - on foot or in taxis - from Atlanta to Shanghai. To fight international roaming charges, I used to map my route on the hotel wifi and screenshot it for later reference. Now, Google Maps offers offline navigation, which is much easier than scrolling around screenshots.
Communication
I always want to make a great first impression and build strong relationships globally. For that, I start with our app, CultureWizard Mobile. It offers detailed information on 155+ countries. Topics cover everything from meeting and greeting, to avoiding cultural faux pas, to delivering effective presentations and negotiating. There is even a section dedicated to women in global business.
CultureWizard Mobile includes basic phrases in the local language. If I need more, I turn back to Google and use Google Translate.
What about you? What are your favorite travel apps?
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