Are you an app-happy traveller? If not, you should be. Some of the most useful apps for backpackers can offer the convenience and money saving benefits to enable people to reach the ends of the earth.
This summer, we're offering free currency exchange for life to any WeSwap user who gets five friends to sign up! As a result we're all a bit smitten with the number five. Here is the first in a series of blog posts where FIVE is the magic number…
By 2020, it is predicted that 24 billion devices will be connected to the internet, with the vast majority using wireless access (Gigacom). As a leading tech provider for travellers, we believe that this technology can enable a better way of travelling.
And while we recommend our P2P currency transfer app, there are other fantastic services out there. Here are just five that you should check out.
A journaling app that has the ingenuity to turn your travelling memories into something visually stunning.
Winner of an Apple App of the Year Award (2012) and an Apple Design Award (2014), Day One documents your experiences through images, videos and diary entries. It also adds the weather, the time and - get this - the music playing at the point of entry.
Evocative, intuitive and imaginative - get ready for some post-holiday tears.
When sampling a sunset in the Serengeti, a sunrise in Siem Reap or sunburn on your friend Sarah's back, a Boots disposable camera just won't make the grade. And it shouldn't need to with the standard of camera app now available.
A choice market leader is VSCO which (amongst other things) will manually allow you to tweak the focus, shutter speed, white balance and exposure compensation. While VSCO does have a bourgeoning community, photos can be instantly transferred to Instagram and Facebook.
Sometimes the language barrier can prove a little too high for even the most multi-lingual of traveller.
Google Translate listens to two different tongues and translates one into the other (you read the translations from your phone's screen, which will divide in two). In addition, focus the Word Lens on a sign or billboard and it'll decipher it on the spot. Be careful who you show, or risk being tried for witchcraft.
With over 450,000 listings in more than 34,000 cities, Airbnb is an app every backpacker should have. While purists will no doubt sneer at its mainstream credentials, the reality is that this is an exhilarating line of travel - especially in cities where hostels are extortionate.
If you're in San Francisco, Chicago, Austin, Portland or San Diego then bid to use a stranger's car for a day using Getaround. Seriously, you can borrow a vehicle for as little as $10 (£6) per day. Fully insured.
Laundrapp
https://www.instagram.com/p/6PU5ZvrIjR/?taken-by=laundrapp
This app isn’t strictly to use when abroad, but any seasoned backpacker would verify the following: the worst thing about returning home is not the underwhelming skylines, price of beer or endless questions around “your favourite sunset”, it’s actually the over-facing bag of smelly washing in the corner.
Not anymore…
London-based start-up Laundrapp have drivers that make London cabbies look like amateurs. They will pick up your dirty washing and return it to your door, washed, ironed and folded. Magic.
Keep your eyes peeled for another five-themed blog post next week...
