The modern mobile devices may have changed the way you communicate with one another, but they’ve done so much more than just that. Gone are the days when you had to carry around a printed map in your car on long road trips and stopped to ask directions to strangers, all thanks to apps like Google Maps. With the ability to carry around a compass, a virtual tour guide, a digital wallet and so much more in a single device, traveling has become stress-free.

Apart from Google making some of the coolest apps for travelers, the Play Store has become a safe haven for hundreds is nifty travel apps. With the holiday season in full swing, you might just end up needing a useful app to get around town, find the cheapest flight tickets, and some excellent places to eat at. So we’ve compiled a list of the best travel apps for Android that are sure to make your life a whole lot easier.

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Best travel apps for finding accommodations

1. Booking.com

There’s a reason why Booking.com has been the best service providers for finding millions of hotels, motels, vacation homes and so much more. Whether you’re planning a family holiday this summer or trying to find a budget destination to get away with your significant other, this is the app that’ll get you there. Offering daily deals with prices covered across the spectrum, Booking.com charges you nothing as booking fees, you get a free cancellation on most accommodations right away, and multiple filters to rule out hotels based on their location, meal quality, Wi-Fi service, Pool availability and so much more.

Download: Get Booking.com on Google Play

2. Airbnb

What Netflix has done to the entertainment industry is quite similar to what Airbnb has brought to the tourism sector, by connecting people to places like never before. Search across a whopping 190+ countries across the globe to find a vacation home for the family, go on a journey of self-discovery alone, or take up a spot for your next business trip. But unlike other hotel booking services, you get to book a space to stay with a host and not a corporate hospitality service, offering you a far more personal look into the location, the places around the city, and special tours and services based on the cities you visit.

Download: Get AirBNB on Google Play

3. TripAdvisor

Similar to Booking.com, TripAdvisor makes your life simpler by giving you a complete rundown of your transportation, stay, and exploration. The tiny application, which is available for free on the Google Play Store, is one of the most trusted apps in the business and gives you a fairly unbiased rundown of what to expect from a place. The app houses unsponsored photos, articles, and videos from travelers, which comes in handy when you’re looking to explore your options. TripAdvisor also has a plethora of restaurants/hotels under its umbrella and hands out exciting offers from time to time.

Download: Get TripAdvisor on Google Play

Note: As an alternative, make sure to check out another leading app in the segment, Expedia. Expedia, too, is available for free on Google Play.

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Best travel apps for the commute

4. Flightradar24

Flightradar 24 is the unchallenged, most popular flight tracking application in the world. The free Android app brings real-time flight movement in the palm of your hand. The app has quite an informative map and also offers a unique pilot view in 3D. If that wasn’t enough to get you onboard, there’s a cool flight identification feature that’s guaranteed to excite you. With the help of this app, you can get detailed information about an overhead flight in a heartbeat. Simply point your phone at the sky and fetch all the available information about it. Finally, there are a bunch of filters, which narrow down your flight options.

Download: Get Flightradar24 on Google Play

5. Citymapper

While finding a plane ticket to somewhere is the easy part, knowing your way around an unknown city can be the real hassle. This is why the folks at Citymapper have built an app that acts as a unique urban transport app that combines geographical data to find you the best routes through cities by walking, metro, rail, ferry, Uber, cycles, and so many more. Offering real-time data for the local transport services in most of the major cities, Citymapper offers details like route disruption, delays, and alerts on upcoming strikes right to your Android device.

Download: Get Citymapper on Google Play

6. Hipmunk

If you’ve ever heard of the term “hacker fare”, you probably know that very few websites do it as good as Hipmunk does. For the unaware, Hipmunk is a service that helps you find the cheapest flight fares, but unlike most flight finding apps, Hipmunk breaks down your journey based on layovers and duration, so you can choose either the cheapest fares or the quickest flights, depending on your preference. By allowing you to break up your journey into multiple flight tickets, you’ll end up finding the cheapest fares when choosing multiple carriers.

Download: Get Hipmunk on Google Play

7. Guides by Lonely Planet

For all the travel junkies out there, Lonely Planet has been a TV series that is close to heart, and now its mobile app helps you travel smarter and use your money and time more efficiently. With a list of city guides curated by some of the most talented travel writers, Guides by Lonely Planet, you get a tried and tested experience to the best places to see, the most scrumptious restaurants to visit, everything packed into an app that you can even take offline. Apart from the ability to help you find things, Guides by Lonely Planet comes with a massive library of phrases in 19 different languages that you can use to get around a town you’ve never been to before.

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Essential travel apps

8. PackPoint

Packing up for an exciting holiday trip or even for a few days away from business is probably the least fun part of traveling for most, especially for those who are always forgetting things. PackPoint is the ultimate solution to this problem, helping you get ahead by asking you some basic things like your destination, how long you plan on being away, and the activities you plan to do. PackPoint will generate a list of things you will need based on Essentials, Toiletries, Fancy Dinner, Bicycling and many others, so all you need to do is select them and check the items that you’ll need to carry.

9. GasBuddy

Whether you’re trying to save a few bucks on your daily commute or planning out your cross-country road trip, the gas price is one detail you always should pay attention to. Since gas prices vary not just by brand but by region as well, GasBuddy hopes to help you locate gas stations near you that offer the cheapest gas prices in the region along with upcoming price hikes so you know when to fuel up. Apart from running daily promotions to give away $100 worth of free gas each day, the Pay with GasBuddy program guarantees that you save big on your gas bills.

10. Google Trips

Since you’re on an Android device, there’s a decent chance that you’re a Gmail user as well, which makes Google Trips an app you simply cannot afford to miss out on. Since all of you flight, hotel and other reservations are coming through your email, Google Trips automatically organizes your upcoming trips for you, with all of your flight and hotel bookings, car rentals and restaurant reservations mapped out. The app also offers valuable information on the places you’re visiting such as popular attractions and rated reviews from other travelers.

11. XE Currency Converter

If you’re big on international traveling, you’re going to find this app incredibly useful. Just like GasBuddy helps you find the cheapest gas prices around you, XE Currency Convertor makes sure you are getting the best value for your currency. Exchange rates keep fluctuating every alternate hour, so, it’s important to keep track of your currency’s value to keep exchange agents from duping you. The app also has Bitcoin support, shows currency history of the last 10 years, and offers international money transfer options with lucrative rates.

Download: Get XE Currency Convertor on Google Play

Which is your absolute essential travel app for Android that you simply cannot leave your home without? Be sure to let us know down below in the comments.