You might already be using some of these apps or maybe you have never heard of them. The idea is that you can use them both in everyday life and for traveling!

Vivino

This app is not only unusual but also extremely useful, how did I live without it before?!

Do you struggle what wine to choose from over 100 items of the restaurant’s wine list. Do you get to try some really good wines but eventually forget their names? Or simply, are you a wine lover? Then this app is for you!

So how it works?

1) First take a picture of any wine label or restaurant wine list. Or you can manually browse the wine list in the app by entering it’s name or type.

2) The app will instantly show you the detailed information about the wine like taste characteristics, food pairing and reviews. It also shows the price and all available purchasing options (in case you are at the restaurant and just looking to buy wine).

3) To purchase, tap the green “buy” button and have it shipped to your door.

The perks of this app that I LOVE:

• You can read reviews from the world’s largest community of wine drinkers and leave your own ones.

• You can leave your own ratings and reviews to build your wine profile and enhance your personalized recommendations.

• You can easily keep track of wines you have tried, including personal rating, notes and date consumed.

• You can add the wine “ to cellar” to always know what wine you have on hand in your collection.

Flush

When you are traveling and going out for sightseeing for the whole, the emergency might struck unexpectedly. Sometimes you can use a restroom in a cafe, restaurant or a mall but it also happens that non of those are an option. Then the Flush app for IOS and Android comes in handy as it is a crowdsource restroom finder.

• The app is free and has over 190,000 bathrooms in its database.

• You can use the app without the Internet connections.

• The App will tell you if the WC is free, requires a fee for usage or requires a key.

• It will show if the WC has disabled access.

• You can add toilets to the app to increase the list and improve the app for everyone!

• You can rate and report a toilet by swiping to the left on a toilet in the list.

Similar App: SitOrSquat

Prey Anti Theft

Prey Anti Theft is an app that allows you to protect your Android or Iphone devices from loss or theft.

The App allows you to connect up to 3 devices from single account. And it’s free to use with Premium upgrades available.

Features:

• GPS Geolocation: Prey Anti Theft lets you retrieve the exact location of the lost or stolen device.

• Front and Back Camera: Take silent pictures or screenshots by the device to discover who is holding your phone.

• Security Alarm: it can play a noise, even when the device is in silent mode.

• Message Alert: Display a custom message on the screen which might help to contact the current user.

If all this fails and you believe your device is lost for good, Prey Anti Theft lets you directly brick your device. It's one of those last-ditch options that it's better to never have to use ... but it's good to know you have the option to not let the thief access your information.

There are many similar apps but we found this one to be the most thorough and convenient!

Wikitude

This app might be handy for those of you who love random facts (writing this and keeping my fiance Jim in mind). This AR app can provide you with information about what is around you and we are not talking about famous sites and landmarks. It will give you details about every building or even object you point your camera at.

With this app you can:

• Explore places in augmented reality when you point your camera on them or show these places on a map or a list view.

• Browse over a hundred million places and interactive content from more than 3,500 content providers that are also called “Worlds” .

• Search for specific places, for instance “Chinese restaurants”.

• Organize and bookmark your content.

• Find and sort the “Worlds” through many different categories.

• Find events nearby, tweets, Wikipedia articles and ATMs and many many others.

Note: Wikitude automatically checks if your device has a digital compass built in or not. With a compass you will be AR enabled but if you don’t have one, you can use Wikitude in map view as well.

Windscribe VPN 

Why would you need VPN when traveling? Let’s imagine the situation where you are in another country and you don’t have a cellular service, so you need to use WiFi to buy a ticket online. A public WiFi network is considered to be not secure and when you enter your card details while being connected to WiFi… well somebody may actually steal your info. The solution will be using VPN which will allow you to protect your data while using public WiFi.

And another option is that some websites are blocked and accessible in some countries, that’s when VPN becomes handy.

Why Windscribe? It’s simply the best VPN service I have come across so far.

• It offers 10GB of bandwidth for free per month which is plenty.

• It encrypts all your data so nobody can spy on your Internet operations. You can use it for desktop too.

• My favorite part is a huge selection of servers in many countries.

• There is an upgrade available for bigger amount of servers and unlimited bandwidth.

TransferWise

TransferWise is an app created solely for the purpose of transferring money.  In theory, this sounds quite simple.  But in reality, when you start traveling you can expect foreign exchange rates and fees to eat away at your holiday budget.

The TransferWise app allows you to easily transfer money from one bank account to another, anywhere in the world, regardless of the currency.  The best part about it is you get the mid-market exchange rate - this is essentially the best exchange rate you can get.

On top of this, TransferWise now offers a debit card backed by Mastercard.  This card links up directly to your app and allows you to withdraw cash from ATMs and pay for things just like a credit card, but with lower fees than most.

Features:

• Better exchange rates and lower fees than big banks, most credit cards, and PayPal.

• You can transfer money to and from the app in your home currency for free.

• Receive payments from employers or other people without fees.

• When making a purchase or withdrawal, the app will use the currency in your account with the best exchange rate.

• Comes with a free debit card that is backed by Mastercard - so it works in most places around the world.

We've found this app useful for making payments and withdrawals all around the world, including traveling to Rarotonga and southeast Asia.  We also use it for receiving payment for work we do when overseas.

Written by Delilah from Our Travel Mix

Fair Trip

We all want to be a bit more environmentally conscious in our daily lives, but why stop when we travel? Fair trip is an App full of places to stay, eat and shop based on their Eco credentials. With filters like local, social, green and fair you can hand pick the highlights of your holiday to make sure it’s sustainable. What’s great about this collaborative travel guide is that it has over 3000 places from all over the globe. It’s built by “FairTrippers”, users of the App that contribute to the map, meaning you too can add your favorite spots.

Features:

• • In-app translator

• • Customer reviews

• • Offline maps for when you are traveling without data

• • Personalized recommendations based on your location, your search or other FairTrippers you follow

I love the idea that as 10% of global GDP is created through tourism, we can turn travel into a driver for sustainable growth. When booking through the Fair Trip App 10% of the revenue received is used to support impact projects in developing countries.

By Jo Williams from Lost Wanders

Revolut

Revolut is a free app with a free card that you can use abroad instead of your home country's bank cards with high fees for abroad transactions. Why is it perfect for traveling?

1. It's free to set up and use, so you can spend more money on your travels.

2. You can take out up to €200 a month in international ATM withdrawals for free. This means you can go to Bangkok, put the card in an ATM and get out the local currency. No more shady exchange places and worrying about the exchange rates being fair.

3. One of the cool things the app offers is travel insurance. You can choose what to cover - only your phone, or your health as well. The app can detect your location and keep the insurance active only for the days when you are abroad, which can save money for frequent travelers.

4. The app allows you to freeze the card if you have lost or misplaced it. This is useful in foreign countries, as you don't want the extra stress that someone will spend money from your card. It's also easy to unfreeze the cars when you find it again.

5. Sending money to your friends who also have the Revolut app is a breeze. You can even add gifs to make things more interesting. Money can be sent in 30 currencies with the interbank exchange rate, so your friends don't necessarily have to use the same currency as you.

6. With an upgraded and paid version of the card, you can get access to over 1000 airport lounges worldwide at low prices.

By Una from Wandernity

HappyCow

HappyCow is a global directory of vegan, vegetarian and veg-friendly restaurants and eateries around the world. It's a crowdsourced app, so anyone can add a new listing, review or photo. HappyCow has been around in one form or another for more than 20 years now (originally just as a website). But with the growing interest in veganism, the number of listings has really exploded in the past few years.

Of course, HappyCow is not just for vegans and vegetarians. It's also useful for people with allergies to eggs, dairy, meat or seafood, and anyone looking for a healthy, vegetable-focused meal. And the app has recently expanded to include more than just restaurants. You'll also find separate categories for farmers' markets, health food stores, catering/delivery services, food trucks, ice cream shops, and even veg-friendly B&Bs.

While the website is handy for doing pre-trip research on where to eat, the app is super useful once you've arrived at your destination.

My favorite feature is the "see everything nearby" button. With just one click, you can see all the veg options nearest you, even if you've just landed in a new city and have no idea where you are.

Contributed by Wendy Werneth of The Nomadic Vegan

Trail Wallet

How does it sound if an app can take all of your financial responsibility during your travel? Sounds CRAZY, right? Trail Wallet is an app that every budget traveler should download in their mobile device before any trip. Being a budget traveler this app not only helps me to keep track of all of my expenses during the entire trip but also gives me relief on financial stress while traveling.

The best part about this app is it allows you to create different categories as per your requirements like accommodation budget, food budget, transport budget etc. At the end of the trip, you can easily get a clear view of where your money was spent.  

Features of Trail Wallet:

•   Trail Wallet allows you to select any of your local currencies.

•   Multiple categories can be created as per your needs.

•   Detail summary screen with cost breakup.

•   An interactive pie chart to show your category wise expense details.

•   An interactive bar chart for a visual view of the last five days’ spending.

•   You can export your entire data in CSV format.

 If you are a budget traveler, backpacker or frequent traveler, you must download this app. I am personally using this app for the last two years and it’s really worthy. Last year when I was on my Switzerland solo travel, Trail Wallet helped me a lot to keep track of all of the expense details. The only downside about this app is it is not available for android users.

Written by Trijit Mallick from BudgetTravelBuff