The 5 Best Travel Apps You’ve Never Heard Of

1. The Best Travel Journal App

The best travel journal app you’ve never heard of is Driftr, which is available for iPhone, Android, and web. Driftr lets you create a personalized travel journal categorized by “trips”. You start, by creating a trip, and then you simply add “moments” like photos, videos, and text. Each moment is geo-tagged with your location, creating a beautifully displayed visual overview of your entire trip on a map. Click on any map marker to view the photos, videos and journal entry recorded at that moment.

2. The Best Taxi & Ride Sharing App

Everybody knows of Uber and Lyft, but if you’re traveling internationally, you just might find that neither of those taxi apps work in your current location. While I can’t speak for every part of the world, the best travel app I’ve found that you’ve probably never heard of is Grab. Grab is exactly like Uber, but specifically for countries in Southeast Asia, where Uber typically doesn’t work. A couple standout features of grab that differentiates it from the other ride share apps include their pricing structure and payment processing. Unlike Uber, Grab gives you an exact and final price for each trip before booking your driver. Also unlike Uber, Grab doesn’t require you to connect a credit card so you can actually pay with cash. BONUS: Get free rides with promo code GRABSJQ7K8HH4

3. The Best Maps & Directions App

One thing every veteran traveler discovers very quickly is that even with a local sim card and data plan, service can be very spotty. And when you lose mobile data, you lose all means of directing yourself from point A to Point B, which is why more and more travelers are using Maps.me. Maps.me is unique in that it allows you to download an offline version of a map anywhere in the world, which includes popular destinations like hotels, restaurants, bars and just about any other local business. So whenever you find yourself in a jam and can’t get reliable directions, simply open up Maps.me and let your GPS do the directing for you.

4. The Best VPN App

Many travelers still don’t know what a VPN or why it’s so important. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and essentially spoofs your location by routing your internet traffic through an IP address from a different country than where you are. Some countries restrict access to Facebook and other social networks. If you are an avid Netflix or Amazon Prime Video user, you might find your favorite shows are no longer watchable outside of your home country. Even some of your favorite mobile apps may not be accessible in every country you visit. For instance, I was unable to access my Bitcoin wallet on my phone without the use of a VPN because of country restrictions. This is where a VPN, like Nord VPN, comes in handy. Simple set the country you’d like your IP address to originate from, and you’re all set! Nord VPN is the only app on this list that is not free, but it is well worth the asking price of $2.75/month or $99 for 3 years! It is highly recommended to stay away from free VPN services because they often track and sell your data, while Nord VPN has the best reputation in the industry and doesn’t keep any logs of your browsing history or usage.

5. The Best Currency Exchange App

Currency Plus is the best free option for up to date currency conversion on the go. You can set up to 4 different currencies to convert between instantly, which makes it a great option for travelers who are heading to multiple countries and want to track their finances before and after the fact. It provides real-time currency exchange rates (Wi-Fi or data required), and can also show you graphs to see which direction each currency is trending when converting from your home currency.