The act of travelling can be quite a daunting prospect, not just for the usually home-bound but often for even the seasoned traveller. Oft-repeated questions; “which train am I getting”, “what time is my flight”, “where the hell even am I”; plague every type of traveller, be it the globetrotting backpacker or the slightly less intrepid summer sun worshipper. Luckily, a map and a phrase book are no longer the only weapons in the traveller’s arsenal, smartphones and applications overtaking these traditional items and making travelling the dream that it rightly should be. Here are some of my favourite travel apps out now that will make your next trip a blissful breeze!

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PackPoint

 

Leaving behind essential items is something I personally can attest to doing. Misplaced phone chargers, travel guides, even tickets have all soured what would have otherwise been faultless journeys. With PackPoint, however, you can make sure you have all those essentials packed and ready! It’s not just a listing app, however; PackPoint users enter their destination, date, length of stay and purposes of their trip, and the app generates a list of likely items users will require.

 

MrSmithCasino

 

It’s not the train, plane or taxi journeys that truly make a trip abroad, it’s the magical things you see and do. Even with this in mind, however, travelling does inherently involve a heck of a lot of waiting around. With the MrSmithCasino app, where players can play a variety of free and for-money games through a smartphone, boredom is banished and you’ll also have an opportunity to make a little extra money whilst you’re playing. Be careful though, you don’t want to burn away all your money before you reach your destination!

 

Entrain

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Jet lag is the pox of travel. So many times I have been abroad, just having reached a destination, only to find myself tired and lethargic, confined to the hotel room for a day or so as bodily rhythms catch up with the local time. Entrain aims to get rid of awful jet lag, however. Users input their sleeping habit data, schedule their trip, and then are informed via a lighting schedule as to when they should be asleep or awake. The end result; drastically reduced periods of jet lag!

 

HerdTracker

 

Going on a safari is one of the most enthralling experiences anyone can enjoy, though often finding that elusive wildlife can be rather difficult, especially during the wet season. HerdTracker combats this, allowing guides and travellers to update in real time where they have seen groups of animals, placing these on a map of African national parks. Though some will enjoy the adventure and surprise of finding wildlife on their own behest, HerdTracker is a highly innovative system.