Must Have Travel Apps in the 21st Century

The world of mobile apps has made our lives so much easier to travel in the 21st century! I cannot imagine what people had to go through even just 20 years ago. We are so lucky! Having been to 30+ countries, these are some of my favorite apps when I’m on the move,

Flighty is an amazing flight-tracking app! Not only does it keep track of your flights, but it gives you information on the physical plane, how often it’s early or delayed, if there are gate changes, the weather at your destination, and that’s all before you even pay for premium!

You can import your flights via email or manually look them up via your flight number. In your profile, you can see your all-time stats and even how many hours you’ve lost to delays. At the end of the year, they give you your annual passport, think of it as your Spotify wrap-up, but for airplanes.

You can even have “Flightly Friends” where you can privately share flight information so you know when to head to the airport to pick them up! The free version I think, is plenty for your average person & this app has been an incredibly useful tool.

I do, however, have a lifetime premium membership because I love it that much! You can try the premium for free with my link!

Citymapper is a great app for using public transportation, finding bikes, walking directions, etc.! It will update based on the city you’re in, and if used on an iPhone, it gives live updates on the directions when not directly in the app.

I found this super useful in London when Apple and Google Maps kept taking me to the wrong places, but Citymapper worked great! It doesn’t cover smaller cities, but for larger ones, I really enjoy having it handy. They do have a paid version if you want to get rid of the ads, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

If you’re landing in the US and don’t have Global Entry, this is a great alternative to speed your way through immigration. The app is totally free! Select which airport you’re entering the US from and begin a new submission once you land. The form must be submitted after the plane has landed in the United States!

Once you have your Customs and Border Protection form receipt, follow the signs at immigration for Mobile Passport Control with your passport in hand!

If you fly within the US, the MyTSA app is super helpful to check security wait times and double-check if a certain item is allowed in your carry-on or if it has to go into your checked bag. You can even message the TSA through the app if you have extra questions!

Hotels can be pricey! Especially for younger travelers on a budget. With Hostelworld you can find hostel accommodation easily around the world. See locations, photos, reviews, and once you book, you can even connect with others in the area to find groups to hang out with.

With HotelTonight you can find last-minute hotel deals on all kinds of properties that just want to fill the room that night! They even have their own rewards program, so the more you book, the more perks you can earn. Great for spontaneous getaways!

Have an awkward 10-hour layover and don’t want to hang out at the airport? Or maybe you need somewhere to relax while waiting to check into your other hotel? Dayuse is perfect for booking a hotel room for just the day. Use it to unwind, get some work done, or just have a comfy private spot rather than a table at a coffee shop.

Going is originally known as Scott’s Cheap Flights & is an amazing travel deal newsletter that I’ve been subscribed to for about two years. They find great deals on flights, including mistake fares, and notify you so you can book these to save big on your next trip.

They launched their app & it’s like having Google Flights, but better because they’ll notify you right away when a deal appears instead of you just getting lucky if you’re looking at the right time. Not only that, but they also support business class, first class, and points and miles deals. Going has three membership tiers: limited, premium, and elite.

If you like to travel within the domestic United States or just want to browse, the limited membership (free) is perfect. If you want access to international fares, Alaska & Hawaii, mistake fare alerts, and more, go with premium, and if you’re looking for luxury on a budget for business and first-class deals, go with an elite membership. They’ll also run promotions through the newsletter a few times a year for discounted annual memberships. You can save 20% today if you sign up with my link!

I really enjoy getting their newsletter, and the app has been a great addition to me finding my next cheap flight!

Get Your Guide is another amazing local tour and activity booking service. They organize their offerings in a really clean and fun way that makes it easy to find what you might like to do. I love that you can create a wishlist to save items to come back to if you’re not ready to book yet. You can view all your bookings right in the app, with details from the providers, meeting points, and your voucher.

I used them to book some of my activities during my time in Greece and Australia, and the process was super easy. Make sure to double-check refund and cancellation policies, but most things have very generous terms. Lots of things would even let you reserve now and pay later!

If you’re solo traveling, meeting people can be one of the trickiest parts. However, here comes nomadtable, which helps connect you with other solo travelers in the area who are also looking for people to go out to eat, visit museums, go on day trips with, etc. You can look to join an activity or create your own. There are also group chats for that area, activities, and direct messages.

This is how I found a group to go to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney with! Of course, always be careful when meeting up with strangers and be sure to meet in public spaces.

There is a paid version of the app, but I’ve had no issues with the free one so far.

It should be no surprise that money around the world is not the same & the exchange rate can change all the time. Evening knowing that, sometimes it can be difficult to quickly figure out how much something might cost in the currency we understand best. 

As an example, 18,000 Yen might sound really scary to someone whose currency uses a decimal system. That’s actually only about $121.90, as 1 Yen is equal to 0.0068 USD (October 3, 2025). Being able to quickly convert a price from a foreign currency into your own can help you understand how much something costs, so you can make smarter buying decisions wherever you are.

The app also refreshes rates every minute, so you’ll always have the most up-to-date values.

If you’re out to dinner with friends or splitting expenses on the group trip that actually made it out of the WhatsApp chat, you can use Splitwise!

Create a new group with everyone you need, and each person is able to enter their expenses, select who is responsible for each thing, and how much. The app will automatically calculate what you’re owed and what you owe to other people. Complete payments on or offline, but this makes it so much simpler than trying to punch a bunch of numbers into a calculator and hoping you did it correctly. This app worked great for the group camping trips I went on!

There is a premium version of the app, but the free version should work for most people!

Let’s be honest. Tipping can be very confusing, as in countries like the United States, it’s fully expected to leave something in addition to your meal. However, in Japan, a tip would be seen as insulting. So what do you do, and how do you know the tipping customs? That’s where GlobeTips comes in!

Simply open the app and allow it to auto-detect your location or select the country you’re planning to visit. It includes a calculator to know how much you should leave or not, and also includes a guide about what’s expected in that country.

The free version gives you just enough information to know what to do, but they do have a paid version if you want to unlock even more in the tipping guide, bill splitting, and currency conversion.

If you earn in or need to easily convert between different currencies, Wise is a great resource! You can make virtual international accounts with their own details to send and receive funds. Conversion fees are low, and you can even get a physical and/or mobile debit card to use and spend in the local currency.

They also have a regular website.

Trying to remember what time it is somewhere can be such a pain! If you’re in South Korea but you need to make a call back home to the United States, knowing what time it is so you’re not waking your loved one up in the middle of the night is pretty important. That’s why I love World Clock! I can add all the different timezone locations I need to quickly see who’s awake or not.

They also have widgets so you can add the most important ones to your home screen. As someone with siblings on three other continents, I can’t imagine being without this. There’s even a timezone converter so you can check in the future for scheduling appointments to make sure it’s an appropriate hour for everyone.

Personally, I have the paid version to remove the ads, which was only $4.99 USD and absolutely worth it to me!

Let’s face it. At some point, everyone has to go, and finding a place to do so can be a nightmare. Flush allows you to find the closest toilets to you and even includes details about their accessibility. Click on the one you want to go to, and it will open your map application for the directions!

What’s worse than having to check out by 11 am, but your flight isn’t until 9 pm, while you have a big suitcase, but an entire day to still explore? I’m sure plenty, but this is still a crappy situation. That’s why Bounce is so useful! They’re a luggage storage service that allows you to find retailers that will keep your bag safe while you hit up a few more spots before heading back to the airport. Especially since plenty of places will specifically say bringing in luggage is not allowed.

Don’t drag your bag around and store it instead!

Though I sure hope you got yourself a great unlimited eSIM for your adventure, sometimes you need some good old-fashioned wifi if using a laptop. WiFi Finder shows you a map of the places around you that have free wifi, so you can go get some work done or whatever else you need!

If you discover a spot has wifi and it’s not on the map, you can also add it to share with the next people!

Jet lag sucks! Wanting to crash at 2 pm because it’s 4 am where you started can really mess you up. If you want to make jet lag easier, try Timeshifter! You can tell them where you’re going and they’ll give you tips on how to prepare, such as when to avoid or get extra exposure to light, if it’s ok to consume or not drink caffeine, etc.

They can’t promise no jet lag, but if you follow their tips, it will make the transition into the new timezone much easier. Take it from someone who had to go forward 14 hours when moving to Australia.

Can’t read Korean or Greek? No problem! Papago is a great AI translator that handles voice, conversations, images, and documents. It will even put the translation into the language of your choice directly on an image.

This app was so helpful in South Korea before I knew how to read Hangul!

In this digital age, having data while abroad is extremely important! You need it for getting around, accessing digital tickets, contacting people back home, or even in the case of an emergency. 

That’s where my favorite eSim provider, Holafly, comes in. They offer affordable eSims that you can install directly onto your phone and activate once you arrive, so you have data as soon as you land. Using their app, you can install the SIM directly onto your phone. No having to scan QR codes or manually typing in all those crazy codes anymore!

They offer country-specific as well as regional plans, so if you’re going to be bouncing around to a bunch of different locations, you won’t need to keep changing your SIM card. They’ve got you covered! I used them for my trip to South Korea & my service had no issues at all. I also used them in Greece, The Bahamas, Jamaica, The Cayman Islands, and in Australia! If you buy a SIM and no longer need it, they also have a great refund policy.

If you want to try them out, you can save 5% off your first eSim.

Pictures help us remember some of our best moments when we’re traveling! If you’re a solo traveler, however, it can be harder to get these pictures, and handing over your phone to a total stranger is risky. We also can’t only have selfies. Ew.

That’s why Lens Buddy is so helpful! Set up your phone on a tripod, set how many pictures you want it to take with a set time in between to change poses, and done! Select the photos you want to keep, and it will export them to your camera roll. It’s like having your own personal photo shoot!

They do have a paid version with unlimited photos and no watermarks for $29.99/yr, but you can test it out without needing to pay. Either get the three-day free trial or scroll down & hit “dismiss” on their subscribe message to play with the camera settings.

Pin Traveler is my favorite digital travel map! It allows you to drop virtual pins on the map to see all the places you’ve been & you can also place pins for all the places you want to go! It keeps track of the destinations, places, & countries you’ve been to and will even give you stats on your travels. For example, the farthest I’ve ever been from home was Taiwan, which is 7,879 miles away, or my southernmost point being Barbados at 13.18 degrees N.

You can create trips that will map out for you and automatically add your new pins. If you do want to add unlimited pins, there is a small one-time cost to unlock the whole app, but I did it without hesitation because I really do believe it’s the best one available, and they keep making improvements.

You can follow friends and family to see their maps, and if you want to follow mine, you can here!

If you have long layovers, you know how grueling it can be to have to sit by the gate where it’s loud, you can’t find a plug, and all the food wants you to refinance your house just to afford it. If you have a Priority Pass membership, getting the app is so nice because it will tell you which lounges in the airport are within their network, what benefits your membership gives you for each one, and how to find them.

You can also add a digital version of your membership card to your mobile wallet, as some will accept that over the physical card! Of course, always carry your physical card anyway, just to be safe.