I have never been a tech-savvy person. But you’ve got to change with the times, or evolution will leave you behind. It’s no more Surivival of the Fittest, this is Survival of the Techiest. The travel app (there are like a gazillion of them now) – you can love ‘em, you can hate ‘em, but you sure as hell cannot ignore ‘em. And as much as I hate to accept it, they actually do make travel easier. Sure, I love getting lost once in a while, but for all the other times, these little techno snippets sure come in handy.

This list is strictly based on utility and functionality; I don’t care much for apps that will take away your attention from precious travel and profound thinking time. Here is a comprehensive list of the best free travel apps, compatible with both iOS and Android operating systems.

Kayak
For any trip you are planning to take, unless of course you wanna give us at WAH a call!

Kayak has been voted the #1 Travel app on a number of reputed surveys. It includes includes flight and car search, hotel search and booking, Flight tracker and My Trips, so you can access all of your travel information with one tap.

Compare flight, hotel and car rental deals, book your hotel right in the app itself, track your flight status, view and manage your trip itinerary, look up baggage fees and access airline numbers and airport info.

GateGuru
If ever you found yourself in a situation like Tom Hanks in The Terminal.

Acquired by TripAdvisor in June (2013), this app is aimed comes in handy on the day of travel. It’s almost like an airport navigator. Once you feed in your travels details, the app will give you up-to-date information on eateries, coffee shops, shopping places, restrooms and other relevant services available at the specified airport during your date(s) of travel.

With the airport card, you can access amenity information, maps, weather forecasts, airport tips. The JourneyCard will keep you updated on real-time security wait times, flight delays, gate changes or layover time adjustments.Through an exclusive partnership with Avis, GateGuru allows you to reserve a rental car at a discounted price of upto 35% !

You can compare yourself to other GateGuru High Flyers and see where you rank in terms of how many miles you have flown, how many airports you have visited and much more.

SeatAlerts
Cuz you don’t wanna end up here!

Some of us like window seats, some of us prefer aisle, but I’m yet to meet anyone who likes the middle seat. Find your preferred seat with SeatAlerts. Look up the seat map of your flight and pick your preferred seat. Set up a Seat Alert for that seat and you will get notified when it is available. You can then contact your airline or travel agency and get it done. SeatAlerts supports over 140 airlines that have preassigned seating.

Additional alerts for multiple seats will cost you money. Seat maps include SeatGuru seat ratings so you know which seat is the right seat for you. Just click on a seat to see its rating and review.

TripIt
If you’re living out of a suitcase and can’t afford a secretary!

You finally decided to book an airline ticket three months in advance and the reservation is now buried somewhere in your mailbox? You’ve made 5 different hotel bookings and they’re all now cluttered in your inbox? TripIt is the app for you! Simply forward all your bookings and travel related data to plans@tripit.com and you will get in return a magically organized itinerary that can include restaurant reservations and car rentals.

You can also easily edit travel plans, share your trip plans with family & friends, get daily weather forecasts, directions and maps for each destination, use map-based search to find restaurants, businesses and attractions, then add them to your trip itinerary, sync all your trip plans with your calendar, post your destinations to Facebook or Linked In and get travel advice from your social network.

Wi-Fi Finder
If you’re a travel blogger or something like that and have to work while you travel.

This is simply the best app for finding free or paid public Wi-Fi hotspots online or offline; on both phones and tablets.  The new Honeycomb version features over 550,000 free and paid locations in 144 countries worldwide. Search for public Wi-Fi anywhere in the world. It filters results by location (cafe, hotel, etc.) or provider type Wi-Fi Finder will also provide you hotspot detail, call location and directions.

Wi-Fi Finder requires phone call permission on the phone version as an easy way to call the public Wi-Fi location when viewing the detail view of a Wi-Fi hotspot. The app will NEVER make calls unless you explicitly click on the phone icon and confirm that you would like to call the Wi-Fi location.

ICE (In Case of Emergency) would also be on the list except that it is not free. It stores important information for first responders and hospital staff to use in case of an emergency involving you. This information can be accessed even when the phone is password/pin/pattern locked.

The ICE lock screen also includes an optional “if found” message in case you lose your phone.

What are your favourite apps this season? Let us know in the comments section.

Shivangi

As the newest member of the content team, Shivangi Rajendran comes from the world of professional dancing. With a passion for travel and a flair for writing, the Masters in Mass Communication is just an added advantage. A gypsy at heart, she doesn’t believe in planning and is always ready to pack her bags and leave.

Shivangi – who has written posts on WAH Blog.

Email