[Traveling Abroad]Top 10 Must-Have Apps to Instantly Become a Travel Pro

Today I’m going to introduce some super useful apps — every one of them is a travel essential in our collection. Especially for this trip to India, we had already bought a SIM card in Taiwan, making us total high-tech travelers reliant on our smartphones, hahahaha. By the way, two years ago when we went to North India, we didn’t buy a SIM card in advance nor did we get local data — we just used free Wi-Fi from our accommodations. But this time, having internet really makes me feel like I can toss my travel guidebooks out the window (!?) Wait, wasn’t I the writer? (!?) Hahaha, anyway, enough rambling — let’s dive right into the topic:

This is an app we absolutely love. Its best feature is that you just input your e-ticket booking number — like 447THQ in the picture below — and it will automatically list all your flight bookings (round-trip) for that trip. For example, for this India trip...

This is the outbound journey — from Taipei → Thailand → India

This is the return trip — from India → Thailand → Taipei

Most importantly, it clearly shows if there’s any delay or early arrival, which flight it is, and which gate — all at a glance. This is incredibly important for travelers because airlines might change your flight schedule the day before without even notifying you. You’d have to check online yourself. This app saves you from a lot of unnecessary hassle. Highly recommended!!

Don’t you think this little white bear is adorable? Haha, but we definitely didn’t download it just because it’s cute. Are we that shallow? (laughs) Okay, enough playing around — if I keep this up, I might be writing until 3 a.m. HotelsCombined’s little white bear is simply a booking miracle tool. Why? Because when you’re traveling, you don’t have a computer, and you can’t possibly compare prices one by one in front of a screen for every place you like. Using Google on your phone to compare prices while you’re out and about is just tragic. But this app is literally a lifesaver for travelers!!

After logging into the app, just tap the blue location circle at the top, and it will auto-locate you and list all nearby hotels and inns. Aside from price, you can also see reviews, which is really important for us traveling in India. After all, you know Indian standards are quite different from Taiwanese ones, hahaha!!

Take the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel we stayed at last time, for example. You can see the lowest price across all platforms, as well as other available accommodations in the same area. Blue means there are vacancies, gray means fully booked. I can only say that two years ago when we didn’t have internet, we had to visit each hotel in person in every city. Sometimes dragging our luggage up and down was really exhausting. Other times, too tired to choose, we’d end up staying in a total dump. Haha, but this time with internet, we just booked everything online, got off the train, and directly took an auto-rickshaw to the hotel. It was so convenient it brought tears to my eyes!!

If you don’t like the system’s auto-functions, you can also customize. We usually go straight to the price section and adjust it within our budget. One small downside is the built-in search function’s last option “hotel name contains.” We found that when searching for a hotel name, you can only enter one keyword — like “Mayfair” as I typed above. If you enter two keywords, it often can’t find the hotel. That’s something to watch out for.

This was our accommodation in Goa — “Hotel Mayfair Panaji.” A double room for just over 700 TWD per night — cheap, clean, comfortable, and with a complimentary breakfast. It was truly great value. Vicky loved it here. The lobby has a super cute wall. We booked a night online and thought it was great, then asked at the counter if booking on-site was cheaper. To our surprise, they said it was actually more expensive there (since it’s more like a hotel chain), and they suggested we book online through the app to get the discount. Isn’t that something? So we booked three more nights. But since this article is about the app, I’ll write more about how great the room is in another post. Haha, leaving you in suspense. The owner said he’d never hosted Taiwanese guests before. Hehe, once we tell everyone about it, I bet lots of people will come just because of us. But why? The travel stories will have to wait till the next post. For now, just obediently download the app and have fun, okay? Be good!!

MAPS.ME was our new favorite during this India trip. Its functionality is essentially the same as the India map app I recommended two years ago called “India Map.” Aside from navigation, it also lists all nearby food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and attractions. The even better part is that it’s completely free!! Free!! Free!! Technology, why do we still need offline maps when we have internet? Sir/Madam, because our SIM card was only bought for one person, and navigation sometimes uses a lot of data. So using both is the most practical solution!! Plus, MAPS.ME also has a Chinese interface, which is more user-friendly for those who aren’t confident in English.

Those of you who have been following our blog for a while probably know that two years ago, we highly recommended this India navigation map. Even though it was a paid navigation app, I must say this time I absolutely do not recommend it. Why? Because I’m really upset — two years ago I paid for it, and now, two years later, when I try to open and use it, it locks the features and asks me to pay again to unlock them!! I’m not some cheapskate; I fully respect paying for usage. That’s exactly why I bought it two years ago. But I can’t accept paying once and then having to pay again to unlock features I’ve already bought. Ugh!! So I’m done with it. Even though it’s a great app, compared to being unable to use what I already paid for, I’m just going to go all in with MAPS.ME!!

I’m sure I don’t need to explain how great Google apps are, because it’s already a massive global enterprise!! Just the search function and database alone are unbeatable. So what I want to introduce is how travelers can use them:

Take a look at this — I prepared this in Taiwan beforehand. The background is Mumbai. I searched for and marked all the attractions I wanted to go to. All the yellow stars are places I wanted to visit. See how dense they are?

The great thing about Google Maps is that you can see the distance between each attraction and can plan your daily route accordingly. For example, I input a restaurant I wanted to go to — “Leopold Cafe” — and tapped save (the note I added myself saying it’s delicious and popular), and it created little stars. I wonder if anyone is curious — having a map app is normal, and a translation app is fine too, because you often can’t read signs or menus abroad. But what’s the “Google Drive app” for?

What I’m about to tell you is about the cloud function — teaching you how to instantly become a travel pro. Haha, no secrets kept here. When you’re traveling solo, unexpected situations often happen. Suppose you lose something or it gets stolen. We usually prepare for all kinds of emergencies. Meaning, when you have nothing, at the very least you should have your travel itinerary. I usually prepare these materials in advance and upload them to the cloud.

Then before you depart, enable the sharing function, and you’ll get a link. Copy that link and send it to a family member you trust. In case anything happens, they’ll have the important information to help you, so you won’t be left with nothing. I personally think this is super important and also a responsible attitude.

Those who have traveled in India know how troublesome it is to buy train tickets on-site. Even if foreigners can go directly to the counter, it’s still common to not get the train you want, considering the country has over 1.2 billion people. So having an app to book trains is truly invaluable. Although there’s a small fee for each booking, we think it’s worth paying. Paying for time-saving is totally reasonable. Most importantly, remember last time in India, we once couldn’t get tickets, so we asked someone on the street to book them for us — they charged 50 rupees per person and we couldn’t even choose the berth type. But with the app, you can choose your berth. Ever since then, we’ve booked all our trains via the app.

This is the train booking interface. You can select where to go (shows abbreviated place names), date, passengers, and class. More related info can be seen here. How to book tickets?What are the classes? How do you lock your luggage? Let us explain it all in one go. But one slightly tricky part before using this app is how to apply and bind your account — you’ll have to look that up online yourselves.

I can only say that taking trains in India requires superhuman patience. If the train arrives on time, thank the heavens. Delays are normal. Cancellations? Be mentally prepared. After all, India itself is unpredictable. On this trip, we took three train rides — two were delayed. The short delay was about one hour, the longer one was over four hours. What can you do? Haha, just wait… and when it finally comes, it feels like a huge relief. At least it didn’t get canceled and ruin your itinerary, right?

In the app, just input the train number and your scheduled departure, and you can find out. We only found out about this app because a local told us — we had no idea what time the train would arrive at our destination, and we were so curious why the locals always knew. So we had to keep asking them, “What time do you think it’ll get here?” Once, I met a young guy in the bunk opposite me, and he told us we could check it online and even taught us how to read it. We were practically moved to tears. Because not knowing the arrival time is so nerve-wracking!!

It’s recommended to download the app before you leave the country. Otherwise, you can just Google “indian railway,” choose the link in the picture above, and input the train number to check the real-time status — including how late it is and what time it will arrive. Everyone, please save this info ASAP. Otherwise, you’ll really end up waiting for the train until you cry!!

This is an app I loved using on this trip. Since I brought a tripod this time, I used the countdown timer function a lot. But I found that whenever I used the iPhone’s built-in selfie timer, the photos would automatically turn into 10 continuous shots.

Like in the picture above. And that really takes up memory + it’s annoying. The only solution I found was to turn on the HDR function, and then it wouldn’t take 10 continuous shots automatically. But sometimes I don’t even want HDR. Then I found this great photo app — just strike a pose, clap toward your phone, and it uses voice control to auto-countdown and snap a beautiful photo. Super easy to use. You guys should download it and try it out. Of course, don’t tell me you’re going to take selfies in some super noisy place. Otherwise, you might break your arm trying and still not get a single usable shot, haha.

Zomato is an app I discovered on my last trip to India. I didn’t download it to use back then, but when I Googled restaurants I wanted to go to, I found this site had all the info I needed. This time, since I had internet, I downloaded the app too. After using it, I found it super convenient for finding restaurants. And not just restaurants — it includes everything from street food joints to five-star dining. I even cross-checked the reviews here with those on other platforms, and they were pretty consistent. I think (because eating is such a healing experience, and hitting a dud can really piss you off). Most importantly, it can also locate based on your position and list all nearby restaurants. During our India trip, it helped us discover a lot of great places to eat.

This app is the official app from Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I personally think this app is extremely useful. By “emergency,” I mean things like getting robbed, injured, or experiencing serious accidents while abroad... etc. I sincerely recommend that everyone traveling abroad download this app. Because you know, when something unexpected happens overseas, the first reaction is sheer panic. But if you’ve already downloaded this app in advance, at least after the panic, you can immediately look up the nearest embassy or consulate, and see what kind of assistance they can provide.

It step-by-step guides you on what to do in case of an emergency,

and also lists which types of emergencies the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can assist with. There’s even an emergency hotline. I must stress once again: every traveler planning to go abroad should download this app immediately—better safe than sorry.

The last app I consider essential is your insurance provider’s app. I wrote about the importance of travel insurance a long time ago, so I won’t go into detail here. What I want to say is, no matter which insurance company you use, you should download their policy-viewing app. You can directly enter your policy number, and it’s just as important as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs app. For example, say your train is delayed by four hours, but your insurance only covers delays of two hours—you can check that right away without going through the hassle of applying for official documents, only to find out back in Taiwan that your policy doesn’t apply.

Alright, that’s all for my introduction—I’m almost out of breath. The apps I’ve shared today are all ones we’ve personally found super useful. Of course, there might be some great apps you think I missed, because there are so many apps out there, and everyone has different preferences, right? So go ahead and download them to try—what matters most is finding what works for you. Bye for now~

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