Skyscanner
Whether you’re after a budget flight, cheap connection or the out-and-back legs of a long-haul big trip, this app will let you find flights from over 1,000 airlines and 1 million routes worldwide. You can also search for hotels and car hire through the app. The app itself is free and you can book directly through it without handling fees – with it connecting you directly to each airline, hotel or car hire company.Platforms: Android, iOS
Price: £Free
Viewranger
If you’ve got a smart phone, like the outdoors and maps, this app should be on the phone in your pocket. Viewranger effectively turns your phone into a GPS logging, navigating and route planning device that will still show you where you are on a map, even when there is no mobile phone signal. In-app purchases include OS and other topographic maps and OpenStreetMap and OpenCycleMap are included even in the free version.Platforms: Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Symbian, Kindle
Price £Free
viewranger.com
Packing Pro
Seasoned travellers will have made dozens of lists of ‘what to pack’ before they leave home – all of which are now on sticky notes long fallen off mirrors, or pieces of paper now hidden behind fridges. Packing Pro not only remembers each list for next time but will build lists of suggested items for you depending on where you’re going, for how long and who you’re going with.Platforms: iOS
Price: £1.99
XE Currency
When you’ve landed, bleary-eyed, in a foreign airport and the taxi driver is quoting you what sounds like a fortune in rupees or pesos, this app can convert the figure into pounds. Better still, no internet connection is required if you add your destination currency to the app’s Currency List before you go.Platforms: Android, BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, Windows Phone
Price: £Free
Hammerhead
This is a cycling navigation, logging and route-sharing app with a difference - in the form of a hammer-shaped accessory that you fix to the front of your handlebar. This device is like an indicator for the rider, with flashing LEDs on each of the hammer ends show which way you should turn to follow a pre-planned route. It knows where you want to go because it’s linked by Bluetooth to the app - which is safety in your pocket or pack.Platforms: Android, iOS
Price: App - £Free, Hammerhead - $85
Image it
This is the travel app built around the phrase ‘a picture paints a thousand words’, as it circumnavigates language barriers by helping you communicate via a combination of images and pictures in the app. The app contains over 450 pictographs in 10 categories in seven languages – English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic. There is no internet connection required, so you can use it off-line without incurring any roaming charges.Platforms: iOS
Price: 69p
Bike Doctor
Designed by blogger London Cyclist, this step-by-step bicycle repair manual is a great how-to reference guide to have in your pocket on any ride – long or short. Aimed at beginners, with the least amount of technobabble possible, repairs covered range from the simple (but essential) puncture, to bleeding hydraulic disk brakes and fitting a new bottom bracket. The repairs are illustrated with clear photos, and the app can be used off-line to avoid data charges.Platforms: iOS, Android
Price: £2.99
UNESCO World Heritage Sites
With over 650 images, location maps and the ability to search for sites by name, country or classification, this app is a comprehensive reference guide to all 911 UNESCO World Heritage sites. Great for planning or inspiring any big trip, you can bookmark specific sites and plot them on Google Maps, this is perhaps the ultimate ‘bucket’ list of the world’s most extraordinary places to visit. Published by Harper Collins with information supplied by UNESCO.Platforms: iOS
Price: £1.99
TravelSafe Pro
With a database of emergency phone numbers in dozens of countries, this app could well save your or a fellow traveller’s life when things go wrong abroad. Fire services, mountain rescue, coastguard, police or ambulance… you name it or need it and this app will put the right number to call at your finger tips without any need for an internet connection.Platforms: Android
Price: 99p
Jibbigo
This translation app is like having your own personal translator to hand. Supporting over 20 languages in speech recognition mode, where you simply speak into your smartphone or tablet and it speaks the translation back to you. Your words and the translation are also displayed on the screen as you go, and it has a vocabulary of over 40,000 words. It’s free to use on and off-line but for off-line use without need for an internet connection, languages have to downloaded before you go.Paltforms: iOS and Android
Price: Free
