Nowadays, the only real accessory that you’ll require on your holiday or business trip is a good luxury travel app. A crop of the latest of these is changing the luxury travel landscape, providing access to luxury hotel pools, reservations to exclusive restaurants, free Wi-Fi spot finders, and a host of other services and amenities that ensure your trip runs as smoothly as possible. Here are some of the best must-have luxury travel apps. You just cannot do your next trip without at least one of these.
GetMyBoat (Ios, Android)
If boating is your desired mode of transport while on holiday, GetMyBoat is your Uber for boats. The luxury travel app shows you the availability of boats near your destination for your arrival and departure dates. You can hire an array of watercraft other than boats like jet skis, yachts, and house boats to the most high-end, state-of-the-art super-yachts for your cruising pleasure. They also have yacht charters if you want to get from one destination to another via the sea, or if your destination is an island, you can reach it from the airport by way of a yacht charter. You can search, reserve, and rent over 64,000 boats across 171 countries, as well as list and insure your own boat.
The world’s largest boat rental marketplace is also the world’s floating version of AirBnB. Here you can either rent out your vessel or offer it as a floating hotel via the ‘Sleep Aboard’ feature in a ‘boat-and-breakfast’ type experience where travellers can stay aboard someone else’s boat without leaving the dock. Other services available includes fishing charters, water sports, paddle sports, tours, and lessons.
Luxe City Guides (Ios, Android)
Written and researched by of Luxe’s team of savvy travel writers, Luxe City Guides is the perfect luxury travel app companion. The reviews are short and sweet and provide you with everything you need to know about where you’re headed on a user-friendly interface. Learn about the best accommodation, activities, bars and clubs, dining, shopping, spa and beauty spots for your destination with links to websites, maps and directions for each. Take the brainwork out of planning your day by checking out the Luxe Day itineraries, create your own itineraries, or discover a city by roaming it using the ‘Around Me’ navigator to find recommended attractions near you. You can also avoid burning your roaming data by downloading the guides and maps in advance and use in full offline.
Packing Pro (Ios)
Once you’ve got your itinerary in place and your entire trip planned, it’s time to pack. Packing should be one of the most exciting part of a holiday, but for some, deciding on what to bring and coordinating it with what you have planned on your trip can be stressful. But never fear, Packing Pro is here, helping you pack your bags with a precise list of items you should take on your trip depending on your destination. You can find a list of predesigned trips; for business, camping and even for that weekend at the in-laws. You can create lists for yourself and others, share them, set reminders, and attach photos so you know exactly what to pack.
Flight+ (Ios)
If you’re a frequent flier, chances are, Flight+ is probably already on your device. This is because the app is the who, what, when and where of arrivals and departures. All flights worldwide can be tracked in real-time via an intuitive interface that also provides detailed weather updates, information from any airport flight boards in the world instantly, airline information, terminal and gate changes, delays, seating charts and pretty much anything else you can associate with flights. Track your flights and track the flights of others.
Field Trip (Ios, Andriod)
Hailing from the Niantic Labs project at Google, Field Trip gives you automatic suggestions for places to visit near where you are physically standing at any given moment. Yes, it does sound like Google maps, only it highlights just the places you’ll want to visit. When you find a place of interest to you that’s near where you currently are, you then simply go to it. It also tells you everything about that place from its history to secret venues. It runs in the background and pops up whenever something of interest to you turns up. It’s also compatible with Android Wear smartwatches – a very useful luxury travel app for when you’re on the go.
Transit App (Ios, Android)
Navigate more than 125 cities worldwide in this transport app that makes using public transport more efficient for travellers. With up to date departure times for all nearby stops displayed in high visibility colours and fonts, you can get around New York or London like a local. You can also check timetables, plan your trip in real time, view routes, set and receive reminders, and be notified of delays and disruptions. Handy features include being able to call an Uber from your location and comparing all your mode of transport options on one screen.
XE.com (Ios, Android)
It’s not really a new concept, but the XE.com app is a very useful one to have on your device when travelling. Convert more than 180 currencies in seconds with just a few taps. It provides up-to-the-minute exchange rates, historical charts, and even stores the last updated rates, which means running the application doesn’t require an internet connection. You can also personalise the app to your taste.
Google Goggles (Android)
Ever had a moment when you’re looking at something and want to know what it is but just can’t seem to describe it well enough for a typical Google search? With Google Goggles, you can simply take a picture of that item, painting, landmark or image and the app will provide relevant search results using innovative image recognition technology. This enables you to recognise objects, identify famous landmarks, products, artworks, and other images you may be curious about. It can also extract contact data from business cards and translate words in Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian and more.
Google Translate (Ios, Android)
Let’s face it, this luxury travel app is handy even when you’re not travelling. Google Translate lets you translate words and phrases across 90 languages easily and accurately. And you can choose from a variety of methods of translating like the in-camera translation of text in 26 languages, two-way automatic speech translation in 40 languages, and support for finger handwriting input if you don’t feel like typing. And now, you can point your camera at Japanese signs, menus and other things that contain Japanese words in print, and the app will translate it into English on the go (and vice-versa). But probably the most impressive feature it possesses so far is the Neural Machine Translation. This is where sentences at a time are translated rather than just word-by-word, resulting in less robotic and more contextual translations that’ll ensure you won’t get lost in translation during your travels.
OpenSignal (Ios, Android)
By using crowdsourcing, the OpenSignal luxury travel app tracks users’ mobile phone coverage across the board and makes the data available to anyone. You can test the strength of any Wi-Fi signal including your own network, find dead spots, and test the signal of networks so you can find the best provider in your current location. It has a multitude of features including a compass that directs you to the best wireless signal, a map that shows public Wi-Fi networks nearby, and a speed test tool for 3G/4G or Wi-Fi.
