Are you going on vacation? Well-deserved! You’re now just some sunrises and sunsets away from experiencing a little bit of peace and quiet in this hectic world. You’re only a few steps away, once you’ve done all the packing and preparation needed to make your vacation a success.
You might be focused on securing the itineraries, hotels, and plane tickets, but there’s one small thing that you might be forgetting that fits in your pocket. Your phone can actually be optimized to help you even further on vacation, especially when you’re in a pickle.
Before you leave the house, or any place with strong signals and WiFi, here are a few apps that you definitely must download before you leave. Doing so will help you enjoy your vacation to the max and help diffuse any tricky situations that you may find yourself in.
1. Cloud Service
You probably already have a system like Google Drive or Dropbox already, but do You probably already have a system like Google Drive or Dropbox, but do your due diligence and make sure that you have downloaded them to your phone. You’re going to be traveling all over the world, so you have to make sure that all the files you need will be accessible to you as you’re on the go.
Additionally, you’re probably going to be taking a lot of photos since it’s a vacation, so having the cloud service on your phone will immediately back up your precious memories once you have a stable internet source. Doing this will save you from possible future heartache and the panicked decision of deleting videos to free up storage space.
2. Offline Maps
Naturally, it would also be a good idea to have a copy of your destination so that it will be easy for you to navigate. Ideally, you would have already been familiar with your destination when you were planning your vacation in advance, but having a copy on your phone will help immensely whenever you sometimes have confusion in the moment.
Emphasis on the offline, because that map is as good as useless if it needs to be connected online. You never know what your signal is going to be, and even if you have coverage, you might not be able to get bars when you’re touring an ancient historical site. Just download it to be sure.
3. Offline Translator or Dictionary
Your travels could literally take you anywhere in the world, and that includes locations where you don’t understand the language. Though you could find time to learn a bit about the culture and some key words of the area, sometimes you don’t have enough time, and having access to these tools will help make the language barrier less daunting.
You could have an offline translator where you can type in or say the words, or even snap a picture to be translated, and you could also have a dictionary where you can search the word to find the meaning. Either tool will help you bridge the gap in different ways depending on what you need, but having just one of them will be immensely useful.
4. Bank App
Finances are often one of the most tricky points of a vacation, and you need to ensure that they always stay protected and secure. Therefore, having your bank app on-demand when you have a connection will be tremendously useful when you need to double-check your finances.
A banking app is useful even if you’re not in a vacation scenario, but maybe a vacation is the time that will trigger you to realize that you might actually need to have it. With things like checking your balance and transferring your funds, a bank app will make sure that you always have access to your money whenever you need it.
5. Offline Games
“Do you have games on your phone?” is probably a joke line that you’ve heard every so often, but it’s actually a very useful question when thinking about a vacation. Traveling is supposed to be a fun and exciting experience, but you cannot avoid having dull moments in between the fun.
This includes moments like waiting at the airport and the long lines. While you probably should stay vigilant whenever you’re in an unfamiliar location, it’s always a good idea to have a stock of games to help you pass the time in boredom. Think of it as your trail mix or bag of candy, some stuff to munch on while waiting for the exciting part.
There’s a lot that you need to prepare when you’re on vacation, but luckily, these five apps are just a simple download off the store to get you access to these. You don’t necessarily need these apps to have a great vacation, but it’s a great idea to have them on hand the next time you’re taking to the skies.
