Top 5 must-have travel apps for UAE residents

With summer travel plans driving people into frenzy with all the pre booking, shopping and packing suitcases, many a time travellers forget to actually plan the holiday once they arrive at their destinations.

From blaming the husband for not printing out the route maps for that cross country road trip to aimlessly flipping through the pages of your ‘Russian to English’ dictionary whilst trying to decipher a road sign, most frequent travellers have experienced such hiccups at least once during their holidays.

With international roaming rates not exactly the price of peanuts with service provider, lest you land and buy a local SIM card, your best option is to pre-empt the holiday hurdles that you may face down the road.

Emirates 24|7 brings your five must-have travel apps that will ease the stress and allow you to relax on the holiday like the way you were meant to.

XE Currency

There are quite a few currency apps available, but this one is easy to use, free to download and provides accuracy with its live rates.

For those living in the UAE, travelling to Uzbekistan and wondering what is the Som’s exchange rate to the US dollar, the dirham and possibly even the Indian rupee don’t have to feed in the chosen amount four separate times; simply add the currencies of choice on your main form page and the app will simultaneously number crunch the rate for all the countries you have pre-selected.

Available free on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone

Kayak or Expedia

The travel search website offer deals on flights, hotels, car search and booking, flight tracker and itinerary management.

Why we picked these two over other similar phones apps is firstly, Kayak not only allows you to pay for your reservations on its site but also includes aggregate searches on Expedia, CheapoAir, etc to ensure you get the cheapest deal.

Secondly, in Expedia’s case you also get a few added perks including mobile discount codes, which, it states can ‘save up to 40 per cent with Expedia Mobile Exclusive hotel deals’.

Available on: Android, iOS, Windows Phone and BlackBerry

Wi-fi Finder

With roaming data charges burning holes in the wallets for most travellers, this nifty little app is right up your alley.

As the name suggests, the Wi-Fi Finder application by JiWire Inc, assists travellers to locate free wireless hotspots or access points in public places.

Using the GPS function on your smartphone, the app maps out the locations you want searched with Wi-Fi hotspots clearly marked as free or paid.

When you find the location you want to use, you’ll be given a phone number and directions on how to get there.

You can also filter results by provider type, whether it’s a restaurant or a mall, for example.

Naturally, you need to be online at some point to actually do all the research

So make sure you download the offline database.

According to the developers, the app has already pre marked over 650,000 locations in 144 countries worldwide.

Available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry

Word Lens

There are loads of translation apps out there but few can instantly translate printed words with your phone’s camera.

The app blurb states it requires no network to work; simply point your camera at the text you need translated and let it work.

You can also look up translations by typing them in or clicking on a word.

Available languages include English to Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Portuguese.

The makers do say that it is best used to decipher clearly printed text, such as road signs or menus, and it does not recognise handwriting or stylised fonts.

While the download is free of cost, you will have to make in-app purchases for one of the language packs.

If paying isn’t to your liking then there are always free apps such as FancyTran or Better Translator that provide more than 50 languages supported in text-to-text mode – some even work in voice recognition mode.

Available on iOS, Android

Google Maps

Does this summer plan include a roadtrip across Europe?

If you plan on renting a car, then you may also want to download the Google Maps app to combat your navigation trail.

You can also feed in options such as transit routes for a possible non-toll road, or avoid a certain highway due to the live traffic information that the app will also provide.

Available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone

(Home page image courtesy Shutterstock)

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