Travel Apps We Fell In Love With Last Year

Uber: Raise your hand if you don’t have an Uber ride-sharing app on your phone. You’re one of the few who don’t. I don’t even have Uber in my town, but it’s even on my phone. I went to San Francisco earlier this year and used it all the time. Uber is active in about 77 countries and 527 cities, absolutely exploding over the last year. Once you are registered, you can call for a car, let them know where you are and have it paid for when you get picked up, all through the app. It also tells you how close your driver is to your destination.

Mobile Passport: The Mobile Passport is now available at one cruise port and 21 airports. It is officially authorized by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and you can use it to skip those long lines to enter the country. Simply scan in your passport information and bam, done.

Packing Pro: There are so many apps to help you to pack for your upcoming trip, but Packing Pro is one of the best. “It allows me to enter my trip location, dates and activities,” said Judith White of White Sand Travel. “One of the most excitement options is that I can add my own custom activities, such as attending a wedding, dining, snorkeling etc. Once all the 
activities are loaded, I am presented with a list of essentials to pack for my trip.”

She explains that the items are separated in various category such as toiletries, fancy dinner, photography, and beach and beneath each category is a list of items.

“Check off each item you want to include for packing,” she said. “You can edit, remove or hide items on the list. Share the list with your travel companion, save it or print it. It is quite a bit easier than trying to remember everything without a checklist.”

Google Translate: Want to ask for the nearest bathroom? Thank someone for their hospitality? Order your food? Google Translate is now available in 103 different languages, so you can hear the translations out loud and say them while you travel.

Snapchat: It’s not categorized as a travel app, per se, but there’s no doubt that Snapchat deserves its place as the number one app of the year. Travelers are using it to record short snippets of videos as they travel and sharing their stories, and are watching other videos of other users to find out what’s going on in the area they are visiting. Snapchat users also use geofilters, which are special overlays that communicate the “where and when” of a Snap in a fun way, whether you're sending it to a friend or adding it to your Story.

According to Bloomberg, Snapchat's daily video views increased 400 percent year over year and that was back in May. Bloomberg states that, at a linear monthly growth rate of 33 percent, Snapchat will surpass 18 billion daily video views by May 2017. The Financial Times also noted that Snapchat's video views have tripled every 6 months.

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