I missed the keyhole.. again. ‘Hic’ concentrate.. you can do this.. ‘Hic’ maybe closing my left eye will help.. ‘Hic’ I missed the keyhole… ‘Hic’ maybe if I close my right eye I’ll get it.. ‘Hic’ I missed the keyhole… suddenly it dawns on me that I don’t have my left shoe, I kick off my right shoe to even it out and prepare for round eight with the door lock ‘Hic’ Ok, just breathe.. almost… I miss the lock.. oh fuck it.. DING DONG.. I ring the bell and ready myself for the disapproval that follows waking up my dad at 3am to let his inebriated son into the house. As I waltz down the corridor towards my room my dad asks ‘Where are your shoes?” I muttered something about setting them free and close my door. It’s at exactly that point that I realized something was missing.. I had left something important in the taxi.. SHIT! My phone! I’d left my phone in the taxi..! Panicking I checked my pockets and to my infinite relief I found that it was only my wallet was gone. Waves of relief wash over me, thank god it was only my wallet..!!

Hold on, what? I was actually relieved that i’d lost my wallet and not my phone. I have so much information in my phone from contacts to photos and beyond to the multitude of information I store and use everyday in my various apps and stuff. The stupid thing has basically become an extension of my brain. Funny how times change right? Anyway these digital extensions of ourselves have made our lives easier in so many ways and travel is no exception. My most recent two travel journeys have been far-more pain free due to having my trusty iPhone with me. I wanted to put together a list of the best travel apps that I’ve found and used. Some are location dependent others are great planning tools and others are just awesome guides, but at the end of the day they all make the lives of the modern traveller easier.

TripIt – Free – All Platforms
It’s unfortunately not a list the worlds best locations to drop acid… but rather it just might be the worlds most handy planning tool for travellers. No more digging through the old inbox trying to find confirmation emails, TripIt consolidates all travel related emails and bookings in the one digital based itinerary. Includes maps, directions and weather information, share itinerary details and even check into flights or book restaurants or activities from the one location, all done via emailing the details to the app and voila! sorted in order and in an easy to read format.

XE Currency – Free – All Platforms
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out why this one’s useful. Access to live currency data that works offline and the calculator feature is really handy to get direct foreign currency conversions. Remember that time after 4 mojitos you changed some money in Phuket for ‘zero commission’? well prepare to workout exactly how much you got ripped off.

Google Translate – Free – All Platforms
Again, no PHD’s needed to workout why this could be a useful travel app. There are currently over 60 different languages available to be translated all with voice input. It’s not as good as a Hitchhiker’s style Babel Fish but it’s currently earths best alternative. Mistranslations do happen so be ready for the occasional blank look of ‘WTF are you talking about’ but generally the app’s pretty accurate.

Urbanspoon – Free – All platforms
Search your current city for restaurants, cafes bars and any other eateries. Sort by price, reviews and ratings or location. Generally pretty accurate as far as reviews go and each listing has a wealth of information from location (with map of course) to menus, opening hours and average meal costs.

AroundMe – Free – All platforms
Looking for an cafe? A quick AroundMe search will display every one of them in your surrounding area listed by distance and gives you full directions on how to get there. From hotels to parking, pubs or theaters the app can find pretty much anything! Awesome.

Triposo – Free – All platforms
When a bizarre love child of a Pirate and a Ninja, eats a pizza, gets dipped in cinnamon and emerges dripping ‘shit yeh’ what do you get? Triposo, that’s what. The hand’s down most awesome Travel Guide for your pocket available right now. You might be able to tell that I like this app. Oodles of up to date data pulled from the best open source platforms online (from Wikitravel to DMoz and TouristEye) highly accurate information on over 8,000 destinations, offline access, phrasebooks, currency converter, weather information and more. Get it up ya.

World Clock Pro – $1.99 – Android+ iOS
If clocks apps were foods this one would be caviare. It displays every conceivable options for reading the global time in one place and even has a real-time daylight display and scrollable world map.

VALK – $4.99 – All Platforms
I hate flying. Yep hate it, something about thundering through the air in a 90 ton chunk of hollow metal and plastic propelled at 800 kph by explosions gets me every time  Apparently it’s safer than driving but i’m unconvinced. VALK is a great new app for people with aversions to flying, it’s your personal therapist in the sky and contains an amazingly large amount of information on just how safe air travel is, full explanations for all those ‘things that go bump in the flight’ as well as relaxation exercises.

Trip Adviser – Free – All Platforms
If you’ve somehow been living under a rock for the last 10 years Trip Adviser is the all seeing, all knowing travel booking engine millions of people have used globally to help with planning a trip and generally just help them on their way. Flights, accommodation, restaurants as well as reviews, tips, blogs, forums and guides all with the goal of making our lives easier on the road. Can I hear a HAZAR!?