My Favorite Travel Apps + A Giveaway

My name is Amanda and I’m addicted to my iPhone. It’s my only constant travel companion. While some travelers wax poetic about days on the road before technology, I can’t imagine traveling without my handheld GPS, memory recording, communication device.

Last year, after breaking my 32GB iPhone I decided to save some money and replaced it with a 16GB device. This meant I had to delete about half my apps to make room for everything. The culling process made me realize that there are some apps I just really can’t live without.

Oh, and after I wax on about my favorite apps, I’m giving away some of my favorite phone related products. Hint: your battery will never die and you can take some really awesome Instagrams to hang on your wall.

My Favorite Travel Apps

Instagram

Obviously. Even when it doesn’t grow as fast as I’d like, Instagram is one social network I’ll never get sick of. My feed is a great combination of my friends, favorite travel bloggers, and talented photographers I use as inspiration. I don’t care if it’s a selfie or a picture of your dinner, Instagram is the first thing I look at when I wake up and the last thing I scroll through in bed at night. #nofilter

Citymapper

Though it’s only available in 22 cities right now, Citymapper is the ultimate transport app. My friend told me about Citymapper when I moved to London (and when this startup was only available in 3 cities) and it instantly changed the way I traveled thorough the city. Using public data, Citymapper analyzes the best real time transportation options and includes estimated cost, time, and calories burned. It’s super user friendly and has some great walking directions. My favorite cities to travel to are cities with Citymapper.

XE Currency Converter

I’m really bad at math and XE helps me kind of have an idea how much I’m spending or taking out of the ATM. The nicest part is you can download your most used currencies and do conversions while offline with the last known rate which comes in handy if you don’t have a local SIM or aren’t near a wireless network when you need to figure out exactly how much that sunset cocktail will cost.

Untappd

More beer app than travel app, this is one of my favorites to use at home and on the road. It’s kind of like a social network beer lovers. You can add friends and then check-in at bars, rate beers, and post photos and reviews. I like it because it’s a way to remember what beers to never buy again and keep track of my favorite brews and favorite bars.

Google Translate

Obviously every traveler needs a translate app. I’ve found Google Translate to be on of the easiest and most reliable. Plus, I like that you can use your finger like a pen and write the words which is hand when your in a country where you don’t have the write keyboard installed or don’t know how to type on a phone in that language. (China, I’m looking at you.)

Snapchat

This is my new favorite way to keep in touch. When my friends first told me they were using Snapchat I was in Korea and though the app was only used to send nude photos. It’s not. Now I use it to send photos of the ridiculous things I come across that might not warrant a text or random moments of my day. And in the sake of full disclosure, there are a lot of selfies and shots of alcoholic beverages. If you’d like access to all these wonderful moments, add me on Snapchat. My username is amandaslav.

Outbound

This is the app I wanted to create during an offseason trip to Taiwan. I was the only person in many dorms and found it so hard to meet people. All I wanted was a location based app to find other travelers. Enter this startup from Australia which connects travelers on the road based on location or events. I haven’t actually tried it yet (I was a beta tester), but I’m so excited to try it out this spring!

The Giveaway

Being a phone addict has led me to search out products to enhance my technology experience even further and now I want to giveaway some of my favorites to you. Like my favorite apps, these three products from Social Print Studio, olloclip, and Jackery have made my life easier and more fun and I’m excited to share them with you.

Here’s what you can win!

Set of 24 4″ x 4″ Instagram Prints from Social Print Studio

I first found Social Print Studio last year when I was decorating my flat in London. I was looking for an inexpensive way to print some of my travel photos when I saw a blog post about this company that prints Instagrams. Their ordering system easily integrated with Instagram and soon enough I had two dozen of my favorite shots picked out. I hung them haphazardly over my bed (and got tons of compliments) but they’d also make great gifts or look nice framed.

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

olloclip 4-in-1 Lens

The olloclip 4-in-1 is a lens that fits over the camera on the iPad, iPhone 4/5/6, or Samsung 4/5. The 4 lenses (fisheye, wide angle, and 2 macros) are crafted into one small piece that is easy to travel with and makes your iPhoneography even more stunning. I’ve always wanted a fisheye lens for my DSLR, but am too cheap to buy one so I had tons of fun playing around with the olloclip version, especially at temples in Asia. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #olloclip on social media to see what phone photographers around the world are getting up to with their lenses.

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Jackery Bar Charger

Constantly using my phone, especially on map apps, is a huge battery drain. After having to ask countless baristas and servers if they could plug my phone in, I decided to investigate external batteries. The Jackery Bar was attractive to me because it can fully charge most devices more than once (almost 3 charge cycles for an iPhone 5), so it would come in handy on multiple day treks (it was really useful in Jordan with 4 bloggers who constantly needed a charge). While it’s kind of heavy, it makes up for it with its fast recharging and 6000mAh capacity.

Facebook | Twitter

Enter now to win these 3 great prizes! The giveaway ends Thursday April 30 at 10 am EST and the winner will be announced shortly after. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What are your favorite travel apps or phone related products to use on the road?