Must-have travel apps for iOS and Android

If you've followed my posts here, or picked up a copy of my book on the topic of 1-bag traveling for guys, you know I'm a sucker for apps that promise to make some aspect of travel easier or more fun.

And some apps do just that - promise - then fall short in actual practice. But a handful of apps are on my super short list.  Desert island, must-have, don't-leave-home-without-'em.

A recent blog post at Mashable sketched out 14 iOS, Android, and Windows which are contenders. Some of these were new to me, and a few (Gogobot, Roadtripper, and RadarCast) are downloading right now, ready for a trial run.

Share your favorite travel apps with me, I'd love to know what works for other minimalist travelers.

Here's my short-listed absolute favorite travel apps

• TripIt (integrates so sweetly with email and calendar functions)
• Spotify (paid version, so I can have offline access to tunes)
• New York Times and Boston Globe phone apps (the luxury of slowly making my way through every section of a good Sunday paper is a favorite on-flight treat)
• Pocket (for offline reading of longer blog posts)
• Kindle (obviously)
• Umano (offline quick listening to blogs -- yep, I said "listening." Professional readers zip through blog articles which I select and cue up for commuting or other travel)
• Google Maps (duh)
• Airbnb
• KayakPro
• TripAdvisor
• Viator
• Orbitz (hands down the quickest way to secure a car rental - literally from the time the plane touches down until they let you unbuckle, that's how quick I can knock out this last minute travel task)
• Yelp (for hiking trails - yes it's good for businesses but my favorite use of this app is to find local tips for great outdoor adventures)
• CamScanner (turns all my paper receipts on business travel into pdfs, with easy cloud access for later)

Check out other great hacks and tips for 1-bag travel in my  e-book right here.





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