By: Quita Jackson
Whether you’re traveling by plane or by car, every penny counts.
So take advantage of all of the free help you can get just by using your smart phone.
If you’re looking at taking a last minute trip try the HotelTonight app. It’s good for same-day hotel bookings only.
You can’t book until noon, but I found some awesome deals.
A Best Western Inn in San Diego will cost you $104 for one night using HotelTonight. Compare that to $152 on the hotel’s website.
I found an even better deal at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas — $33 for the night.
When I went to the hotel’s website the lowest rate was about $65, nearly double what you’d pay using the app.
Kayak is one of my favorite apps to find cheap flights, hotels, and cars. It compares prices of popular travel sites including Hotels.com, Hotwire and Orbitz, so one-stop shopping.
The Pocket app will help keep you busy on long drives or travel delays. It lets you save content, like web pages and videos.
Here’s the cool part… Once it’s on the app, it’s on your phone, tablet or computer and you can access everything without the internet. You simply go to the site you want, save it to your pocket and read what you want, when you want and it’s free. Once you’ve reached your destination, all you have to do is eat.
The Yelp app lets you search restaurants by average price per plate, type of food or what’s nearby. The best part is there are tons of customer restaurant reviews to help you decide.
Another food app is called Foodspotting . Just like with Yelp, there are real reviews and photos. You can browse the alphabet, category, rank and location.
The Gas Buddy app will help you if you’re taking a road trip. The app shows you the closest gas stations with the best prices. You can search by city or zip code to see a complete list.
The Packing List Lite app will help you coordinate what to bring for any trip. You can create your own list or you can use one of the templates for common trips.
That will save you from extra trips to the store for things you forgot.
Most of us don’t speak dozens of languages. The Google Translate app will help. It allows you to translate text between 57 languages and you can get translations simply by speaking into the phone for up to 15 languages.
No need to carry around tons of papers, like your itineraries and confirmation printouts. The TripIt app helps get you organized by keeping all of your information in one itinerary for you. You just forward your emails to your TripIt account and you’re set.
So no need to stress when planning your next trip; everything you need is right at your fingertips.