Planning to do some travelling around Asia and Europe (Im from North America) and wanted some suggestions for apps that have helped you along on your travels.
So far I got:
>Google Translate
>Smart Things to track my galaxy tags
>VPN to circumvent regional restrictions
>Flight Aware to check on flight times
What else should I consider downloading?
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Honestly, I think you got everything you need. Of course, you could download some navigation apps, but most phones already have it installed.
There are a lot of travel-related functions that exist as apps, but they could just as easily be done on a web browser. Such as checking in for a flight. You COULD download the airline's app, but you could also go to the airline's website and do it there. You could obtain your boarding pass through the app, but you could also download it as a PDF from the airline's website, or have it emailed to you.
Same thing with European train tickets. They often have apps, but their websites work fine.
Going back to navigation, if you're not satisfied with Google Maps, I guess you could try Rome2Rio. Some people prefer it because it shows you options that israelitegle might not consider.
If you're planning on going to a major city, you could try Citymapper.
This ain't an app you gotta download, but I usually put multiple clocks on my home screen. One that shows the time of the place I'm currently in, the time of the place where I normally live, and sometimes even the time of the next place I am planning to visit.
Also Apple's pre-installed "plans" app fricked me more than once, I'd advise on at least using google maps and double checking where the apps are sending you if you have to take the taxi or something like that.
I often use OpenStreetMap mobile apps because you can have truly offline maps and road navigation, Google Maps often requires "updates" at the most inopportune moments.
OsmAnd & MAPS.ME my beloved
>Maps.me
Literal botnet after a semi-hostile takeover, use OsmAnd on Android and Organic Maps on iOS instead.
Notice how I mentioned two apps at once, both of which you've now just mentioned.
Organic Maps is a fork of Maps.me without the malfeatures such as telemetry without consent.
The OSM community recommends to switch, as Maps.me went closed source after the takeover in 2020.
Alright: and does OsmAnd do the same?
Both OsmAnd and Organic Maps are open source and are vetted by the usual FLOSS autists.
I use both and they do exactly what they promise, maps, navigation and basic Wikipedia/Wikivoyage info that work perfectly without internet access after initially downloading the relevant maps.
Depends on the country. Most countries you'll be fine, but if you end up in eg. East Asia or Central Asia, Google products are nearly useless or even obstructive. Eg. Bing knows China better, but Baidu maps or Amap is 100% better and will give you accurate taxi prices and public transport info. Any -stan will look more reasonable on eg. Yandex affiliate sites.
Bing's translator's offline options are lightyears ahead of google. Their image translation offline is a must-have backup option. Yes, there will be better image translator services online.
SmartThings I found useful indeed, to track my luggage.
Every country has their own preferred public transport app unfortunately.
It's not an app, but for Europe's train schedules bookmark bahn.de (it has an English version).
It's not meant to let you BOOK tickets outside of Germany, but they do have all the train schedules of all of Europe. Not just EU.
Mapy.cz
Dont know how usable it is for non czech/slovaks, but for us I think it is the best app for travel. Offline maps for every place with biking/hiking trails.
One thing I can suggest is downloading local equivalents of apps you already use. In other countries, what you normally use back home could be a minority market share, therefore you might be better off using whatever is more popular over there.
Some examples:
>rideshare (Uber, Lyft, Grab, etc.)
>third-party food delivery (Uber Eats, Doordash, Just Eat, Deliveroo, Foodpanda, etc.)
>communications (WhatsApp, LINE, KakaoTalk, etc.)
It should be easy enough to figure out what the majority uses. You'll probably see their logos on various ads & signs.
trainline
Is there a good travel manager? I'm using Kayak which automatically adds all bookings in a single trip folder but I'd like something better than that.