best apps for travel photos

9 Best Apps for Travel Photography (in 2023)

A Post By: Kevin Landwer-Johan

Your smartphone is one of the best travel photography accessories you own. When equipped with the right apps, your phone can save you time, put you in the right place for amazing images, and enhance the photos you’ve already taken.

But which apps are best for travel photography ? How do you pick the apps that are right for you?

Fortunately, whether you have an iOS or Android phone, there are plenty of apps perfect for travel shooting. Below, we share a roundup of our favorites – all of which are guaranteed to make your trip, and the photos you take, better than ever.

The best travel photography location apps

When you first arrive in a new location, it can be challenging to find your way around the area. That’s where location apps will come in handy, such as:

1. Maps.ME (for iOS and Android )

Maps.ME is a great mapping app that you can use without an internet connection. Once you have Maps.ME installed on your phone, you can download maps for pretty much any location.

These maps will provide you with turn-by-turn directions for each destination – and the app relies on open-source software, so it’s always up to date. 

The app will direct you to your hotel or any other specific address, and it can also help you find points of interest, trekking trails, etc.

Maps.ME is free for both Android and iOS devices.

2. Citymapper (for iOS and Android )

Most of us don’t have endless time at each location; the faster and more efficiently we can arrive at each location, the more time we have to be out and about. Citymapper is a clever little app that helps you make the most of your travel time.

With the Citymapper app installed on your phone, you can find the nearest bus stops and train stations. You can even book tickets and compare travel time and prices across different transport modes. And if you prefer to walk, scooter, or ride a bike, the app can help you with that, too.

Bottom line: Citymapper is a terrific app for navigating around larger cities pretty much anywhere in the world – and it’s free for both Android and iOS devices.

3. Spot (for iOS )

Casual photographers are often satisfied with snapshots of the most touristy places – but more serious photographers want to discover interesting locations that are off the beaten path. They know that these less-popular locations will offer the opportunity to capture unique photos that don’t appear on every other Instagram feed.

So how do you find these hidden gems? You can use apps like Facebook and Instagram to search through location-tagged photos. But in my experience, there are better ways to locate top-notch areas. For instance, you can use the Spot app!

This free app is like a social media platform that shows you the locations photographers love; in fact, the developers boast that their app will help you find “the best places in the world.” Users are able to upload photos and share the cool places they visit. The app also pulls data on locations based on discussions elsewhere on the web.

You’ll even get recommendations for nearby places to eat or grab a coffee. And the app offers a strong social aspect; you can follow other users, see places they’ve visited, and build your own lists to share. In other words, Spot is more versatile and diverse than just a location tracker.

Spot is only available for iOS devices.

The best apps for travel photography editing

Sharing photos on social media is all part of today’s travel culture. Naturally, these photos must look stellar, so editing must be done on the fly. 

Any rundown of the best apps for travel photography should include a selection of post-processing apps . Here are our picks:

1. VSCO (for iOS and Android )

Learning to use new editing apps, especially those that are very comprehensive, can be tricky. But not VSCO; you’ll notice how easy the app is to navigate as soon as you fire it up. 

There are plenty of quick and easy presets for enhancing the colors and contrast in your pictures. And once you’ve applied a preset, you can tweak it to match each photo you work on. You can also save your adjusted presets for later use.

There’s a free version of VSCO, but if you want more control over your images, consider grabbing the paid version, which offers extra tools and filters.

2. Snapseed (for iOS and Android )

Snapseed is the go-to photo-editing app for many professional and amateur photographers. It’s quick and easy to use, it offers a great selection of filters and presets, and you can create pretty much any edit you imagine.

The app offers tons of options for manual adjustments. The tools let you manage curves, apply vignettes, do selective edits, and so much more. You have a great deal of control over how your images look, and Snapseed even includes a feature that allows you to batch edit photos for a faster workflow.

Snapseed is free for both Android and iOS devices.

3. Lightroom Mobile (for iOS and Android )

If you already have an Adobe subscription, then this editing app is a must-have. If you don’t own an Adobe subscription, you can still use the app, but the functionality is (slightly) limited.

Lightroom Mobile is easy to use for both beginners and experienced photographers. It provides tons of tools and features that give you plenty of control over your wonderful travel photos.

Within the app, you have dozens of adjustment options; you can clone unwanted elements, correct exposure issues, enhance contrast, and reduce noise. And the split toning, masking, and sharpening options make Lightroom Mobile one of the more advanced photo-editing apps available.

LR Mobile is free for both Android and iOS phones with limited functionality. But you can unlock the app’s full functionality with an Adobe Photography subscription .

A few more handy travel photo apps

These three additional apps are bound to make your travel photography experience more enjoyable:

1. PhotoPills (for iOS and Android )

PhotoPills is like a toolbox for photographers. Take a peek inside, and you’ll be amazed at the array of features to help you make better travel photos. 

The app can help you calculate exposures , explore and manage the locations you want to visit, produce time-lapses, and much more. It’s basically an all-around photography assistant you can carry in your pocket. 

Do you need to know what time sunset is? Do you need to determine the phase of the moon? PhotoPills maps all of this out for you based on the date and location. It will help you plan your photos and execute them, too. 

PhotoPills is a paid app available for both Android and iOS devices.

2. WeatherBug (for iOS and Android )

WeatherBug isn’t strictly a photography app, but it’s one that photographers love – and it can certainly help you capture better photos while traveling.

WeatherBug helps you take the guesswork out of weather prediction. There’s nothing worse than heading to a sunrise location you’ve been wanting to capture for months only to find the sky obscured by clouds. Thanks to this app, you’ll know how the weather will pan out, so you can plan your shoots for the most suitable times.

WeatherBug will give you a forecast for up to ten days in advance. And it’s customizable, so you can tweak it to best suit your needs.

WeatherBug is free for both Android and iOS devices.

3. Phonto (for iOS and Android )

Phonto is a fun little app that lets you add text to your photos. It’s simple to use, and it’s a great way to enhance your travel shots with some fun text! There are tons of different fonts available, and you have the option to rotate, resize, and generally manage the text to get the effect you want.

In my opinion, adding text to your travel photos with Phonto will make them stand out on social media. Plus, it can let people know how much fun you’re having!

Phonto is free for both Android and iOS devices.

The best travel photography apps: final words

Hopefully, you found this list helpful – and you’re ready to download one (or more!) of our favorite travel photography apps.

The apps we’ve shared will ensure you find the right locations, plan your photoshoots, edit on the fly, and more.

So enjoy your travels! And capture some amazing photos.

Which apps do you plan to get? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Read more from our Tips & Tutorials category

Kevin Landwer-Johan is a photographer, photography teacher, and author with over 30 years of experience that he loves to share with others.

Check out his website and his Buy Me a Coffee page .

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7 Best Travel Apps for Photographers in 2024 (Updated)

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Travel apps for photography can help you with anything from finding the best photo spots to editing while on the move. Here are a few of the best apps for travel photography options you need to download before exploring beautiful destinations on your bucket list.

7 Best Travel Apps for Photographers

We list travel apps for both iOS and Android. And there is a mix of free and paid apps.

7. Snapseed

• App Type : Photo editor
• Price : Free
• Platform : iOS and Android

This is one of the best photography apps out there because of its features. It lets you do anything from color grading to adding all sorts of effects to make your travel photos look professional. Snapseed may be from Google, but it also supports iPhones . That means you don’t have to worry about any compatibility issues. And the good news is that all the tools it offers on Android are also available on the iPhone. Like any other editing app , Snapseed has all the basic tools you need, from adjusting exposure to correcting the white balance . But what differentiates it from the rest is the plethora of effects that it features. For instance, it has dozens of presets that let you create anything from retro film effects to classic black and white images . It also has advanced editing tools such as HDR . This lets you create vivid pictures even in challenging lighting conditions. Apart from the editing tools, Snapseed also includes frames and text tools to personalize your images. Using it allows you to create scrapbook-style images by adding borders and captions .

• Price: Free but has in-app purchases

While traveling, you don’t want to spend too much time on your phone editing your images. That’s why VSCO is one of the best apps for photographers because it’s so easy to use. Unlike Snapseed, VSCO doesn’t offer a lot of tools for advanced editing. Instead, it offers a streamlined experience. It lets you add presets and tweak basic exposure settings quickly. To use VSCO, all you have to do is tap a preset you like and adjust the sliders to alter the amount of effect you like on your images. You can also use sliders to change the brightness, contrast, saturation, highlights, and other exposure parameters. VSCO’s main selling point is its ability to recreate a film look . Its presets are based on real film stocks, making the result authentic. Apart from basic adjustments, you can also add fade and grain, among other effects, to help you customize the vintage style of your photo.

5. Pro HDR X (Discontinued)

• App Type : HDR ( high dynamic range ) camera and editor
• Price : $1.99

When you’re doing travel photography, a big chunk of photos are landscapes. And Pro HDR X is what you’ll need to make your images look more vivid and alive. HDR, or High Dynamic Range, is a technical term that describes the ability of an image to faithfully display shadows and highlights. Your phone cannot accurately capture the darkest and brightest elements, especially in bad lighting conditions. That’s why you’ll need Pro HDR X to make calibrations and ensure that your final image has rich blacks and bright whites. To create vivid landscapes, Pro HDR X captures three images with different exposures. It then automatically combines those pictures into one that has all the correct shadows and highlights. Just remember to only use Pro HDR X for static shots, preferably on a tripod . If you include moving subjects in your frame, they’ll end up blurry since the app sandwiches the three photos it takes into one image.

• App Type : Photo sharing and social media

Looking for the best locations when traveling can be intimidating, even for veteran travelers. When you’re in a place you haven’t been, it’s easy to get lost and miss the beautiful gems you want to capture. Spot helps you locate picturesque destinations while traveling. Consider it a social media platform where photographers can share the local spots they discover in the areas they visit. Apart from featuring well-known destinations such as Paris , Spot showcases places that other people may not know about at all. This cool app even has maps to help you locate where the photos were shot. It’s for planning your shoots, especially if you want to include unique places in your portfolio . Spot also lets you share the places you discovered on your travels. When you upload your photos to the app, you get to add locations and even include tips to help your fellow photographers track the exact spot where you took the pictures.

3. Citymapper

• App Type : GPS

When you’re doing travel photography, your ability to navigate places is just as crucial as your ability to take pictures. Knowing how to get there in the quickest way possible allows you to cover more areas. You can always use Google Maps to help you figure out where to go. But it doesn’t have all the information you need to get there. Citymapper shows you everything from routes to various transportation options to reach your destination. One of the biggest features of Citymapper is that it shows you the nearest train and bus stations. And it guides you on how to get there. It even shows the arrival and departure times, so you don’t miss your bus or train. Citymapper is available in major cities from Asia to Europe . The only catch is that it won’t be much use if you happen to be in lesser-known destinations. But if you happen to find yourself shooting around New York or Paris , this app is definitely for you.

2. PhotoPills

• App Type : Sun and moon tracker, photography assistant, and calculator
• Price : $10.99

Think of PhotoPills as your photography instructor and assistant. It has all the tools you may need, from taking photos of the stars to calculating your depth of field . One of its main features is the sun/moon/ star tracker . It helps you figure out where the sun or the moon will be at your location at any time of the day. If you want to know where the moon will rise and set, you have to get your phone out. What’s great about PhotoPills is that it uses augmented reality to show you where the sun or moon will be in a real environment. Even if you use the app in the middle of the day, you can see a digital rendition of the moon on your screen like it’s there. PhotoPills is also perfect for tracking the Milky Way . You can use it to figure out its location so that when the night comes, you can go to the exact spot where you expect it to appear. Apart from the tracker, it also has calculators for DOF, FOV, Hyperfocal Table, Long Exposures , Time Lapse and Star Trails . So if you don’t like fumbling around to get your settings correct, you’ll find this app useful.

1. Weatherbug

Weatherbug isn’t exactly photography-related. But you’ll find yourself using it a lot, especially in places with unpredictable weather. One of the best reasons to use it is that it’s free. And it offers a forecast for up to ten days. That means it’s perfect for helping plan your itinerary for more than a week in advance. Another advantage of using Weatherbug is that it has 18 weather maps. They include wind, temperature, and lighting models, among others. And it even has a Doppler radar that shows real-time snapshots of what’s going on without resorting to news updates. But what truly makes Weatherbug indispensable to photographers is that it features weather widgets that you can customize according to your needs. For instance, you can activate traffic updates in your area if you’re in a busy tourist spot. You can even keep track of pollen count and air quality if you are allergic or have a health condition.

When doing travel photography, you must have all the tools to capture the places you visit. And having good photography apps on your phone would allow you to do just about anything, even when you move around a lot. You should also include non-photography travel apps that you’ll find useful when navigating new places. Remember that as a travel photographer , you need to be as skilled at looking for the perfect destinations as you are with your camera. Check out our Next Stop: Travel Photography e-book to learn how to take print-worthy photos!

7 of the best travel photography apps for your smartphone

A Musement staffer/avid traveler/Instagram junkie shares her favorite photography apps.

If there’s one good thing about our smartphones, it’s that we don’t need to tote around a proper camera for our travels. Don’t get me wrong…I have nothing but the utmost respect for photographers and their art, and I do believe that nothing beats a real camera. However, I’m always up for lightening my load, and opting for my lightweight phone camera is always an effective way to do so.

As a proud iPhone owner, I am very grateful for the creative platform its camera has given me. iPhones produce decent quality pictures, is super light and has the capacity for something that takes my photos up several notches: Photography apps! And no, I don’t just mean Instagram …

In addition to Instagram, here’s a look at some of my favorite photography apps that I think every traveler or staycationer like myself should have.

1. Snapseed

I rarely post a picture on Instagram without first editing it in Snapseed. In addition to the expected editing options (yes, many of which Instagram has), there are plenty of other tools that will make your snap picture perfect. From blemish removing to white-balance adjustment to healing to cropping to “curves”, which lets you make image adjustments from multiple anchor points and more, you have a plethora of tools at your fingertips. You can even edit multiple photos pretty quickly by applying last edits to the latest photo. That being said, I’m not crazy about their filters, so that’s where VSCO comes in…. Download:  App Store , Google Play

View this post on Instagram La mia vera casa 🌊 . . . . #grottedelbuemarino #sea #amazingsea #summer #lovesardinia #sardiniaexperience #unionesarda #sardegnaofficial #calagonone #snapseed #nickpescettopresets #clearwater #leavemehere #home A post shared by alice. (@alicerocca) on Jul 14, 2020 at 2:45am PDT

Once I’ve edited my photo in Snapseed, I most likely go to VSCO for a “preset”, which is what they call filters. The free app has solid editing options–more than Instagram, but less than Snapseed–and comes with ten presets. F2 is my favorite, but I sometimes experiment with others. You can purchase more, which I did. Their all lovely, however, I do have one gripe: Deciding which one to use as they each add their own particular flair to the photo. Like Snapseed, you can save time with bulk editing by copying edits from another picture. Download: App Store , Google Play

View this post on Instagram Discover the diverse community behind the best tools and presets — explore the VSCO X collection to stay inspired and see how others create with #VSCOX. Link in bio. Image by VSCO Creator depetris (@mike.depetris) A post shared by VSCO (@vsco) on Dec 6, 2017 at 12:20pm PST

3. Pro HDR X

Dynamic range is the ratio of dark to light in photos. Yes, nowadays, our smartphone cameras do indeed have a built-in High Dynamic Range option. However, this app is quite dandy and well worth the $1.99 price tag. When you’re taking a picture, you have to be patient as it takes three different photos at different exposures to combine them into one, which you can then edit right then and there. Needless to say, this is great for night shots and photos where there’s a lot of light. Not so great for movement shots. Download:  App Store , Google Play

View this post on Instagram #sunset #Sheffield #sunsetsnow 3 AEB shots Merged #prohdrx #lightroom #mavicair #djimavicpro #dji #drones #drone #drone_countries #djispark #djiphantom3professional #djiphantom3standard #djiphantom4pro #djimavicpro #djiworld #djipilot #djiphantom4 #djiphantom3advanced #djisparkuk #goprohero5black #gopro #rothervalleycountrypark #rotherham #sheffield #arielphotography #arielview A post shared by Barry Butcher (@barry_butcher) on Feb 28, 2018 at 11:10am PST

4. TouchRetouch

Do you remember that time, say, you snapped a photo of spaghetti al pomodoro on a white plate?  You decided you’d post it later so you could eat the pasta before it got cold. Then later came and you noticed an unphotogenic splash of the tomato sauce on the rim of the bowl, and you wound up kicking yourself for not having noticed it sooner? If you did, you would have wiped it away with your napkin before snapping. Well, if you have TouchRetouch, all you have to do is upload the photo in the app, and you can correct it, removing that red splash for good. It’s also great for eliminating certain photobombs, like that lone swimmer who floated into your seascape. Download for $1.99: App Store , Google Play

View this post on Instagram Antes e depois do retouch A post shared by touch_retouch (@touch_retouch) on Mar 11, 2017 at 11:07am PST

5. NightCap Camera

Maybe you’ve been sprawled out on the cool sand at night listening to the soothing sound of the sea gently lapping against the shore. As you were admiring all the shimmering stars in the clear sky, you pondered how it would make such a gorgeous photo, but alas, you wouldn’t be able to capture it on your phone? Well, you can with NightCap Camera. Not only is this app good for night photography but also cityscapes, fireworks, sunsets and pretty much any type of night shot. As to be expected, there are lots of great editing features like long exposure and time-lapse. Download for $1.99:  App Store only

View this post on Instagram Captured the #ISS tonight with my iPhone, so impressed with how it turned out. #LongExposure #NightCappApp A post shared by @ london_astronomy on Aug 5, 2016 at 3:46pm PDT

6. Slow Shutter Cam 

Did you ever see those photos of Dubai at night from the top of the Burj Khalifa that capture the emirate aglow? Or the Eiffel Tower amid the motion blurs and light tails of the ongoing traffic? I  eventually learned that those type of photos were taken using a long exposure, whereby the shutter closes slowly, and Slow Shutter Cam app does that for you. This app is fun and feels a bit like magic making. Download for $1.99: App Store

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZcTYs6BTIk/

7. Lightroom Mobile

This is a photo-editing app from Adobe.  I honestly haven’t used it (yet), but everyone has such amazing things to say about it that I felt like I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention it. It’s free to download and most of the editing options are free, but you do have to pay if you want to unlock others. Download from App Store and Google Play .

View this post on Instagram #Lr_Moments photo by @into_theworld || Mountains can create striking shapes and reflect light so beautifully. Over the past few months, we've became more and more addicted to them. This image shows the famous and beautiful "Saxer Lücke,“ which we saw during a road trip through Switzerland. After hiking to the top, we were rewarded with a long, wonderful sunrise that casted some great light on the mountains. It made me forget about time and space. We are already planning to go back to this spot during the summer to see if we can get closer to the peak. • Share your favorite story by using #Lr_Moments for a chance to be featured. A post shared by Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (@lightroom) on Jan 25, 2018 at 9:19am PST

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Snapseed is the best app iv used. its my favorite app i use.

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7 Useful Apps Every Traveler Should Know About

By Harrison Pierce

All products featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Technology continues to make travel easier for millions of people around the globe. New apps offer travelers fresh ways to research a destination, connect with fellow globetrotters, communicate with locals, and track their flights. As a full-time digital nomad , I’ve learned the importance of having the right tools at your disposal when on the road.

Over the past few years, I’ve visited dozens of countries, flown hundreds of thousands of miles, and tested countless apps to find the ones that prove to be the most helpful. And while tools like Meetup, Google Maps, Google Translate, currency converters, and vacation rental , airline, and hotel–specific apps are in fact indispensable on most trips, I find that many of the best travel apps are still undiscovered by my fellow travelers.

Below, seven travel apps that make life on the go markedly easier (and more fun), from real-time flight trackers to photo-sharing gems—all of these apps are free, but some have paid pro versions worth considering. Don’t think these apps are only for full-time travelers—they prove useful for every type of traveler, whether you're in a brand-new destination or back for a return visit.

Discover the best apps for travelers:

Apps for flying, apps for exploring, apps for photo sharing.

My favorite app on this list is Flighty, a must-have for any frequent flier . The free version is fantastic, but I recommend splurging for the premium version, which gives you even more useful information and comes at a reasonable cost of $48 per year. The functionality it provides more than justifies the price.

The free version allows you to input all future flights plus past journeys you've taken within the last year. It provides updated information if any schedule changes occur to upcoming flights and allows you to track all the miles you’ve flown in one place.

The other main benefit is that it allows you to share your flight information with friends and family members who are also on Flighty. They will receive real-time updates about your flight without you having to text them. My parents love to make sure I’m safe so they appreciate getting detailed information about my travels—even while I’m in the air.

Flightradar24 is a favorite app among fellow aviation geeks. It lets you track almost any aircraft you see in the air throughout the day or night. You can track your own flight, a friend's flight, or any plane you see in real-time. It shares plenty of cool data, like the altitude, speed, arrival and departure airports and times, and tail number.

There are tons of eSIM apps on the market, but Airalo is probably my favorite, with digital SIM cards available for dozens of countries. I find it to be the most reliable and offers the best data packages. It can be a little pricey, but it is the best option if you’re only taking short trips. Holafly is another eSIM app that offers unlimited data and works well, but I find the app to be much more glitchy than Airalo and would recommend using the desktop version.

This one is for the planner of the group. Wanderlog merges the best of a bunch of different apps into one. Imagine an app that lets you plan a trip with ease: collaborate with friends as if you’re on Google Docs, manage expense tracking like Splitwise, and have a central place for your reservations, checklists, and more. Tripit is a similar travel planner app, so you can download both and get a feel for which interface you like better.

Been allows you to track the countries you’ve visited and make a wish list of places you can’t wait to cross off your travel bucket list . It gives you information like the percentage of the globe you’ve been to and shows you a world map of your trips. It’s always fun to add in a new country whenever I reach my destination.

This app was introduced to me by fellow nomads I met at a cafe in Montevideo, Uruguay . It automatically tracks your route across the world, allowing you to quickly upload pictures throughout your travels that can be viewed by anyone who has access to your profile. It’s an excellent way to share important moments with loved ones without needing to send photos to each person individually. Users can also create easily accessible guides filled with up-to-date information to help you plan your own trip.

Steller is another app that a friend recently introduced me to, and I’ve quickly fallen in love with it. It uses a combination of AI and user experiences to help you plan trips around the globe. From recommendations of things to see, like the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires or the Royal Palace of Naples, to full guidebooks created by users, you can get inspired, book experiences, and discover hidden gems within this app.

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8 Essential Apps for the Best Travel Photos

by Karin van Mierlo | Travel Photography , Phone Photography | 3 comments

Table of Contents

Photography Apps for Travel

For me, photography apps are my friendly little helpers and you can never have enough of those. Whether I’m traveling with my DSLR or I rely on my iPhone for my travel pics travel photography apps will help me to create the best images possible.

I’ve put together a list of travel photography apps I’ve come to rely on when I’m traveling to help you do the same. Some are specific for smartphone photography like the camera and editing apps. Others are for getting lost, planning, and sharing your adventures.

Planning Apps

Hi, I’m Karin

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I feel you and I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be this way . Join Photography Playground now for overwhelm-free training and creative empowerment!

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“Great examples were given to illustrate what we would try to capture via the prompts.  Most of all Karin and the other students were very supportive – a no-judgment zone.”

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by Karin van Mierlo | Travel Photography | 4 Comments

Travel Photography for Beginners Travelling is one of the greater joys in life. The pictures we take during our trips...

Hello! i have read your article, it is very helpful for me, but on the other hand, i am a little bit confused about the VSCO that comes with a built-in camera app because i read different things on other website that’s why I am confused. Kindly elaborate more thanks.

Hi Mark, I’m glad you’ve found it helpful. I don’t recommend using it because a dedicated camera app usually gives better results. Of course that’s just one opinion 😉 Hope this helps

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• The 6 Best Apps for Travel Photographers
• By Lisa Michele Burns

Photo Editing Apps + Handy Apps for Travel Photographers

Planning a photoshoot, capturing the shot and publishing the results are all components of photography. Having the ability to research, photograph and then share your work all with snappy little apps on your phone is pretty darn amazing if you ask me.

I’m not a huge app geek who uses an app for every single thing but…once you’ve discovered which apps work to help you achieve the results you’re after, it’s game changing.

Whether you need to calculate the best settings, check if the northern lights are dancing, schedule and publish your images, there’s an app for it. Heck, there’s an app for anything and everything now but the trick is narrowing it down to those of value that will help you and your photography.

So, without further ado below you’ll find a list of what I consider to be the best apps for travel photographers, if you have any other suggestions, please feel free to list them in the comments below!

Also, because photography is all about showcasing your work, if you use any of the apps mentioned below including Steller, Spot, Instagram or ImageBrief, feel free to leave a link to your account in the comments too so we can all see your work.

Read more: “How to Become a Professional Travel Photographer”

Okay, onto the apps…

Best For: Planning your trip, discovering new and interesting places to photograph

When you want to know where to shoot or visit based on other’s experiences, Spot is a great app to have in your kit! You can create lists of the best ‘spots’ within a city, suburb or even street providing images and info for others to view.

Their slogan is ‘The best places in the world according to the friends and experts you trust’ and this is spot on. Like what I did there 😉 It’s created by every day travellers recommending places based on their own experiences, you can also add friends directly from Facebook to connect, share spots and plan adventures.

One of the best features is that you can add your own tips and recommendations to other lists, in turn creating a collaborative hub of location tips. When you upload a spot you’ll automatically see recommendations of other places nearby that have been shared by other Spot users. If you’re logging in from a new location, it’ll highlight great places nearby to eat, shop or sights to see including maps showing the exact location. There’s something crazy like over 500,000 spots already on the app so chances are, you’re going to find somewhere new to explore and photograph!

To plan trips before arriving somewhere you can use the ‘Explore’ tab to search destinations around the world to see where and what people are recommending. I know I prefer to do some research beforehand so have found this feature to be really helpful in unearthing places I never would have considered. Once you’ve got your own profile created, you can then save spots and have an easy to access wish list of locations to photograph or visit.

Also soon they’ll be creating a Spot website so you can access all the info from your desktop too. You can create a Spot account by downloading the Spot app HERE .

Take a peek at the screenshots below to see both my personal profile and some of the layouts of Spot.

Photo Pills

Best For: Calculating the best settings and planning shoot locations

I’m not sure you’ll find an app jam packed with more photographer friendly tools than Photo Pills. It really has everything you could ever need to plan, prepare and photograph wherever you are in the world.

From Depth of Focus tables, Exposure calculators, Time lapse settings that tell you how much time, memory space and shots you require…it’s technically your best friend in the field.

One of my favourites is the ‘Star Trails’ tool, mainly because you can twirl your finger around the screen and choose how intense you want the trails to be. The app will then tell you how long you need to leave your camera clicking away or you can add the time you want to shoot for and it’ll give you the angle and assumed result. Fancy, huh!?

Their ‘Sun’ tool is created to make the job of finding a great direction to shoot by telling you when the blue hours are, sunrise, golden hour, astronomical twilight…it again is fancy. Not sure why I keep using that word but I really can’t think of a much better one to use. It’s fancy schmancy.

You can also use the app to upload your work and participate in awards within the Photo Pills community, plan shoots and join their academy…they also host photo tours around the world!

Download the Photo Pills app HERE and below are some screenshots of all the fanciness…

Steller + Article by Steller

Best For: Publishing your photography

If you’ve been reading The Wandering Lens you’re probably well aware of my love for the Steller app. It’s an app that allows you to create mini magazines from your trips, showcasing your photography and stories at the same time.

READ MORE – The 6 Best Social Platforms for Photographers

For creatives it’s a unique way to publish your work and rather than one photo at a time like Instagram, you can make a cohesive collection of images to tell a story. If for example you’ve just returned from Iceland, you can publish one full Steller story about the trip, or break it down into photo filled stories of each location. Because who really returns from Iceland with just one photo from each location!? It’s more like hundreds!

There are page layouts and font styles to choose between to create a story that’s uniquely yours, plus you can decide how many pages you want as you go.

What I love most about Steller is that it doesn’t feel as instant or forced as other social media apps can. People uploading stories to Steller are thinking about the process, planning how it looks and it shows in the published results. Also the community is really supportive and scrolling through stories based on topics you search will reveal so much talent you won’t know where to stop! Forget the algorithms and tricks of Instagram, Steller is still a genuine platform for sharing your images.

Also the team at Steller have created a second app called ‘Article by Steller’, it gives you even more options to create and publishes multimedia articles in a scrolling format.

Check out Steller HERE or download the new Article by Steller HERE .

The Best Editing Apps – Adobe Lightroom CC, PS Express + Snapseed

Okay so adding all three technically means this article should be called 9 apps for Travel Photographers however, you certainly don’t need all three. Pick your favourite and stick with it so you have a consistent editing style.

Adobe Lightroom CC and PS Express are mini versions of their parent programs and have all the tools available for you to adjust the basics. You can toggle with shadows, highlights, brightness, whites etc and also use a series of Presets to chance the colour and tone of your images.

Snapseed is quite a popular app for people who don’t necessarily use Lightroom or Photoshop on their computers and just want to make their photos look as good as possible. Snapseed actually has so many tools available within the app that it can really help you to create almost any look you like. My only hesitation with using Snapseed is that I find the toggle system a little hard to get used to. A big positive is that it’s got helpful tutorials accessible via it’s menu.

It’s really personal preference as to which editing app you prefer but having one on your phone definitely makes life easier as a travel photographer. Sometimes when you want to upload an image quickly to social media but are at the airport, or can’t get your laptop out, a quick phone edit works wonders.

Take a peek at some screenshots below to see the layouts and design of each editing app.

I’ll share a more detailed post about editing apps very soon…any questions just leave them in the comments below in the meantime 🙂

Best For: Scheduling and planning your social media posts

Ever wondered how some photographers have those perfectly styled Instagram accounts? Where all the images line up beautifully and it’s more like scrolling through either a rainbow of colour or a muted splendour of all things minimal?

Well they might just be using Later. Later is an app that allows you to schedule your social media posts and plan in advance which images to post and when. Now it doesn’t break any rules and you can’t post directly from the Later app, however, it will notify you when your schedule post is ready and you can then click ‘post’ and it will copy all the details across to the Instagram app and away you go from there.

The layout of the Later app allows you to see the images together and how they would look as a cohesive account, plus it gives you insights into how your accounts are performing. You can track which images perform the best with engagement via comments, likes and also see graphs on how they stack up against each other.

Having these insights are so important to tracking your growth across social media, especially if you’re growing them organically (if you’re scamming, please feel free to exit my website, thanks). There are of course so many scams and tricks happening right now that it’s hard to know who is genuine and who isn’t, all you can really do is look after your own account and produce high quality work. Apps like Later make it nice and simple to use statistics in order to proactively choose when to publish content and what content receives more engagement with your audience.

The first plan is free for users and links through to your Instagram account, if you want to opt to add other platforms like Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook, you’ll need to sign up to a premium account to do so.

Download the Later app HERE.

Aurora Alerts

Best For: Photographing the aurora!

So if there’s one thing most photographers dream of shooting it’s the aurora, am I right!? Those dancing green waves that appear across the sky in the darker months, glowing like brilliant strips of magic.

You can of course head north (or south for the Aurora Australis) to places like Iceland, Scandinavia or Greenland to capture them and hope for the best but…there’s also an app for that.

Aurora Alerts (called Aurora Australis Forecast & Southern Lights Alerts in the App Store) is an app that will allow you to get at least a little sleep during the aurora season. If you’re on the hunt for aurora, trust me in the fact that you probably won’t sleep much. Finding them becomes an addition and you know that at any moment when the skies are clear, the aurora could be dancing above you…it’s just a matter of patience and luck.

This app gives you a little relief in the patience department. With Aurora Alerts you can input your location and it will tell you a short and long term forecast for aurora.

There’s also forecasts showing the possibility and strength of the aurora both overhead and on the horizon. If the ‘overhead’ rating is anything about 24%…it’s worth running outside to check what’s happening because sometimes the app can be a little harsh on its judgement of what’s impressive and what’s not.

You’ll find more details about apps like this in my post ‘ Weather Forecasting for Landscape Photographers ’ , in the meantime though download Aurora Alerts HERE , even if you’re not going anywhere, it’s fun to see where it’s happening and how strong it is…or maybe I’m just a weather nerd.

If you want share on Pinterest for later here’s a photo for you…

So, that’s my pick of the six best apps for travel photographers! What do you think?

Do you have any to add? If so, I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.

Want to learn with The Wandering Lens? Online self-study courses – Discover your potential as a photographer!

Are you craving a creative career, struggle to know where to start as a travel photographer and need a little guidance.

These creative courses have been written for you and bring together over 17+years of experience and lessons from working in the industry. I want to see others share their talents and get published, sell prints, find clients – to have the confidence to achieve whatever it is you want to within the field of photography.

My three comprehensive photography courses are now available for self-study enrolments and upon signing up, I’ll be in touch with instant access to get you set up and logged into the learning portal! You’ll receive access to every workbook within the course program and can work your way through in whichever order you chose.

Which of the following sounds like you most?

#1 You want to find work as a freelance travel photographer? The Freelance Travel Photographer Course is open for enrolments! Learn more here.

#2 You need a creative boost and want to transform your photography? Start with The 3-Week Composition Reset and work through composition and creative challenges.

#3 You’re keen to start a business selling prints? The Print Store Launch Pad will guide you through the entire process from curation and logistics to marketing + sales.

Take a peek at the course options below, if you’d like to discuss which one will suit you, send me an email via [email protected] and we can chat!

Hello! I’m the founder and photographer behind The Wandering Lens. With 17+yrs experience as a professional travel and landscape photographer, all advice found on this site is from my personal experience on the road. I hope it’s useful for your own travels and would love to hear in the comments about your trips and experiences around the world.

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• 11 Comments

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Blog comments.

August 24, 2017 at 3:38 am

I love your articles, they are so helpful and full of details! Thank you for sharing all that valuable information! 🙂

thewanderinglens

August 24, 2017 at 3:39 am

So happy you find them useful Iris! Feel free to leave a link to your Steller or Instagram account so we can see your photos 🙂

August 24, 2017 at 6:11 am

I am so ashamed to admit that the only one I know is Later. But I rarely am using photos on my phone these days (just been busy working and doing nothing pic-worthy aside from playing with my dog!) I think my favorite app is Sky Guide. I think I may be addicted to it just in general being an astro-nerd… but it can be good for photography purposes as well, I am sure! 🙂

Great app list and I’ll have to check them out!

September 1, 2017 at 2:10 am

There’s always space for puppy photos on your phone! Thanks for sharing Sky Guide, that’s the one where you can point it at the sky and see stars and their names? So cool!

September 2, 2017 at 1:31 am

Your article about weather apps was really helpful so it’s great to now be able to see other ones for sharing photos.

September 4, 2017 at 2:11 am

Great to hear Tony! Do you have any weather or photo apps you use regularly? There’s so many to choose from so it’s always nice to hear what other people recommend too!

Laura Thomson

September 13, 2017 at 3:06 pm

I tried Spot and found it really handy for finding great cafes and sights. Interesting you use it for photo locations, really cool idea.

September 21, 2017 at 4:21 am

Thanks for sharing. This is a great post. I’ve not heard about spot before, but it sounds awesome. I’ve been using locationscout, but do not always find the spots I’m looking for. I also use the app blue hour, which is great to know when the sun rises and sets and set my alarm clock 😉

Britannia Cars

January 23, 2018 at 6:18 am

Wow!!!!! Wonderful Suggestions for travelers is given in the blog.Very interesting to read,great helpful post.

January 29, 2018 at 2:19 am

THIS IS AMAZING!!!! Stellar sounds like such a fun app for those of us who can’t stand the insta-fake and prefer telling stories. Is it a pretty active network.

And Image Brief? Heck yeah! I need to sign myself up to start selling some. I love that you can start small scale! I mostly just use IG (@thefamilyvoyage) at the moment, but I vastly prefer sharing images on my actual website.

February 2, 2019 at 12:32 pm

This article is so great and so helpful! I usually just happen upon good locations for shooting (as I’m sure you do as well!), however, I’m planning a trip to Europe in the spring and I think that location finding app is going to be super helpful for finding cool vantage points in cities like Rome and Athens. Thanks lovely! Looking forward to reading more of your articles.

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Explore > Company > News > Best photo apps for travel

Best photo apps for travel

As a travel blogger I take hundreds of photos a week and I’m always on the hunt for the best photo and video apps out there. While I still use Photoshop, Lightroom, and Final Cut Pro X, to edit photos and videos, the quality of the photo apps available on mobile devices has become so good, that I find myself relying solely on these apps to edit my photos right on my phone! Here are a few of my favorites that will help your photos go from amateur to pro.

You may have seen cinemagraphs popping up in your social feeds.  They are still images with one isolated section that moves like a video. To create cinemagraphs on the go, I recommend Flixel. It’s free to download and easy to use. The key to good cinemagraphs is to have a steady hand, so you may want to invest in a small tripod for your mobile device.  After your record your cinemagraph, you can select the section that you want to move. Export it and upload it to Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook.

Hands down one of the best photo apps for on-the-go editing is Snapseed by Google. It’s free to download from the app store and has some incredible features like “ambiance” which makes your images pop with just the right amount of saturation, exposure, and contrast. I also use “selective editing,” which allows you to select specific section of your photo and adjust the brightness, contrast and saturation. It’s one of the handiest tools I’ve ever come across in any photo app.

Cruisin’ on a Sunday afternoon… ✌🏼️🇪🇸 So excited to be exploring #Madrid for the first time! Check out the snaps for today’s adventures at @barcelo_emperatriz and beyond. 👻 ImCourtScott 👻 #puertadealcala #spain #barceloemperatriz #courtinSpain A photo posted by COURTNEY SCOTT (@court_scott) on Jul 24, 2016 at 2:28pm PDT

This photo from Madrid is an example of one in which I used selective editing to brighten the shadows that were cast on my face from the hat that I was wearing.

The VSCO app has some of the best filters that turn our average photos into highly stylized masterpieces. Some of my favorite filters are T1 for a matte, vintage look , and B1 for perfect black and white. Add your photos to the VSCO community, a great place to get inspired by other photographers using the app. VSCO is a free app!

Viewfinder Tip: Always make sure your horizon lines are straight. A crooked photo is a telltale sign of an amateur photographer. Snapseed has a handy auto-straightener tool that automatically senses the composition and straightens it for you.

Boomerang is Instagram’s new app that turns a burst of photos into a mini video that plays front and back. Whether you’re jumping from a cliff or taking silly selfies, the looping effect of Boomerang turns your ordinary Instagram moments into living captures. Once you have your Boomerang you can load it in to Instagram and add all of your favorite filters. Warning: This app is addicting. There’s no fee to download Boomerang. It’s free!

As the name suggests, Facetune was created to help enhance features on your face. It can do things that professional photo editors would spend hours perfecting in Lightroom or Photoshop. It can brighten the whiteness of your teeth with the swipe of a finger, reduce red eyes, and smooth out skin tones with ease. One of the features I use most, though, is the “details” tool. By just brushing your finger of a portion of your photo, it will make the level of detail on that specific section really pop. For example, I used the details effect on the palm trees and on my hair in this photo so they become crisper. It’s also a useful tool for when your photos are bit blurrier than you’d hoped. The current cost of Facetune is $3.99.

What’s your favorite photo app?

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Article: The best apps and tools for travel photography

The best apps and tools for travel photography

• Adobe Lightroom
• The Photographer's Ephemeris (TPE)
• Weather Underground
• Planit: Photo Planner

1. Pixlr: free photo editing app for professional photos at the touch of a button.

2. snapseed: intelligent image editing app from google., 3. afterlight: user-friendly photo editing app for ios devices., 4. adobe lightroom: complex tool for professional image editing., 5. photopills: indispensable app for landscape and astro photographers, 6 the photographer's ephemeris (tpe): app for planning the perfect outdoor shoot., 7. vsco: social network for image editing and inspiration, 8. weather underground: precise weather app for optimal travel photography planning., 9. planit: photo planner: ideal app for planning your photo shoots., 10. facetune: for perfect selfies and portraits..

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5 Best Camera Apps for Travel Photos

Quick ways to make your vacation pictures stand out.

5 Best Travel Photography Apps

Adobe Lightroom Mobile

Related tours, related blog posts.

Touching up our travel photos before they go out into the big wide world of social media is standard for most of us. A little crop, a light brush to enhance the colors and you’re ready to share that flawless vacation moment.

Nobody wants to spend ages working on their photos while there’s still so much to see and do on your vacation! So what are the best camera apps for travelers who want a quick and easy touch-up on the go?  

After speaking to our photographer, Matas Dauginis, I’ve learned how to take the best pictures in Iceland . Now, it’s time to step up our photography game and find out what magic we can do with photography apps you can download straight to your smartphone. 

As not much of an app user, I decided to experiment a bit. Over a few days, I tested various photo editing apps that work on both iOS and Android devices. I took a single photo from Iceland and touched it up with three of the most popular photo editing apps for semi-beginners. 

Meanwhile, Matas touched up the same photo with his own tools. Let’s see what is the best camera app for travel photos!

The original image - taken with iPhone XS

I used VSCO to sharpen and crop the picture

This app is easy to navigate and doesn’t take much time to crack , even if you’re using it for the first time. VSCO has a selection of presets that change the contrast and colors of your pictures. You can also decide how intense the preset should be. Simply choose a style and it’ll be saved in your history, so you don’t have to scroll forever the next time you want to use the same tones. 

The editing options are quite basic but include all the main tools : adjustment, contrast, white balance, etc. You can purchase a membership to unlock even more tools, such as borders and HSL ( hue, saturation, lightness ). 

One of the more interesting features on this app is the recipes . VSCO allows you to create a recipe based on your past edits, making the process even quicker, as it remembers all your most-used presets .

What Has Been Done to the Picture? I used one of the presets, slightly sharpened the picture and cropped it.

How Long Did it Take to Edit the Picture? About as long as making a cup of coffee.

How Easy Was the Process? Easy! It’s more complicated when trying to find out how to edit night photos with VSCO, but that’s something for next time.

How Much Is the App? It has a free version, which is pretty cool! It seems to have enough editing features for a quick touch-up. 

If you want to unlock more tools and filters, you need to sign up with a monthly subscription fee. They offer a 7-day free trial to help you make up your mind.

Snapseed offers to add some "Glamour Glow" to your shots

For a quick fix, this photography app offers a selection of different styles that change the colors of your photo. Looking for something more elaborate? Go into tools and choose from a number of features, including curves, grainy film, vignette, and double exposure. 

To make your picture more fun, the app offers to add “Retrolux” and a “Glamour Glow.” It even has a “Drama” button that allows you to choose from different filters to create a more dramatic effect . You can also add text and a frame to make your pictures fun and lively!

What Has Been Done to the Picture? I applied one of the styles, cropped and used the “Heal” function.

How Long Did it Take to Edit the Picture? Snapseed has more tools so it took me slightly longer than editing on VSCO. While I wasn’t sure what they all were at first, it took me only a minute or two to press on each and see what they did to the photo. Overall, no more than five minutes in total.

How Easy Was the Process? It wasn’t too hard, but it requires some time to get familiar with the tools .

How Much Is the App? Free to download.

Played with Instagram to create a more dramatic effect

If you only know one photo editing app, it’s probably this one. You can do more than just edit your photos on Instagram, it’s also a social network people use to share their pictures. It has many basic features like filters, color adjustments, and shadows. 

If you post your image as a story, you can edit it further with different text styles, drawings, and funny face filters. You can also film and edit videos on this app. It’s definitely a must have photography app.

What Has Been Done to the Picture? I added the “Ludwig” filter, cropped the photo, and slightly changed the saturation. I also adjusted the brightness and contrast to make the colors more dramatic.

How Long Did it Take to Edit the Picture? Less than two minutes, but to be fair, I’ve used this app before. However, even a first time user will figure the app in no time.

How Easy Was the Process? Very easy.

How Much Is the App? It’s free and some people even manage to make money.

After Adobe Lightroom Mobile

If you want more options than just changing your pictures into a black and white image, try Lightroom. One of its best features is that you can remove unwanted objects , for example, that tourist who photobombed you with his pineapple cocktail! This app is perfect for more experienced users who already know what to do with raw photos. 

Lightroom offers professional tools such as color tone curves, split toning, and masking that plays with sharpening the picture. The mobile app synchronizes with Lightroom desktop software, so you can use it on both your phone and computer .

Since I’m not an experienced user and certainly don’t know what to do with raw files, our photographer, Matas Dauginis, came to the rescue and used Lightroom to edit this picture.

What Has Been Done to the Picture? Matas used the healing brush to delete the person in the red jacket from the photo. He then cropped and slightly rotated the photo because the horizon wasn’t 100% straight. 

He added a Color Profile and adjusted the Color Panel as well as the Light menu by increasing exposure, adding contrast, and slightly lifting black colors. 

Tapping into the Remove Chromatic Aberration and Enable Lens Correction tools, he also changed the texture, sharpened the picture and corrected the optics.

How Long Did it Take to Edit the Picture? It took him around 10 to 15 minutes, but it wasn’t the first time Matas had used the app.

How Easy Was the Process? Fairly easy for a professional photographer who has used it before. Difficult for someone who’s only ever used Instagram filters, but nothing a few hours of practice wouldn’t fix.

How Much Is the App? Some of the tools on Adobe Lightroom are free. To get more features, the app can be purchased together with a Creative Cloud Photography plan .

It took 5-10 minutes to edit the picture with Darkroom

This app is one of Lightroom's main competitors. Darkroom is easier to navigate , even if you’re not a pro photo editor (yet!). It has slightly fewer tools, but all the major editing features are available . Darkroom is one of the best photo editing apps for iOS devices.

What Has Been Done to the Picture? First, Matas applied a color preset and changed the opacity. Then he adjusted the brightness, contrast, highlights, shadows, saturation, vibrancy, and white balance, and added fade, grain, vignette, and sharpness. The result is a photo that will make everyone jealous of your holiday in Iceland!

How Long Did it Take to Edit the Picture? Matas has used this app before and it took him 5-10 minutes.

How Easy Was the Process? It’s user-friendly and easier to use than Adobe Lightroom Mobile — just with fewer tools.

How Much Is the App? The app has a free basic version with limited features. More tools such as color adjustments and curves are available as in-app purchases.

After all the careful photo editing, I can confidently say that I wish I had known about these apps earlier! Even a light color adjustment can make a big difference and turn your casual picture into a pro-looking photograph you’ll want to hang on your wall.  

So what’s the verdict? When it comes to the best travel photo editor to use on the go, my personal favorite is VSCO . I also find it to be one of the best photo editing apps for Android. 

It only took a few minutes to brush up the picture, plus it was easy to use and had many tools to pick from , but not so many you’d get lost. When you’re on the road and want to hurry and get your shiny photos up on your feed fast — it’s one of the best phone photography apps. 

Try out these and other apps for yourself! Let us know which photo editing app you prefer for your holiday photos in the comments.

After all this careful photo editing, I can confidently say that I wish I had known about these apps earlier! Even a light color adjustment can make a big difference and turn your casual picture into a pro-looking photograph you’ll want to hang on your wall. 

So what’s the verdict?

When it comes to the best photo editing apps to use on the go, my personal favorite is VSCO. It only took a few minutes to brush up the picture, plus it was easy to use and had many tools to pick from, but not so many you’d get lost. When you’re on the road and want to hurry and get your shiny photos up on your feed fast — here’s an editing app that won’t disappoint. 

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12 Incredible Photo Editing Apps For Busy Travel Photographers

Post Summary: photo editing apps for travelers + tips to edit quickly on the go!

Let’s face it, there’s a high chance you’ve taken pictures on your latest vacation.

And we totally get it – those sandy beaches, tall mountains, or bustling cities are too good not to share. Berty and I have even made a full-time job out of sharing beautiful travel photos!

Normally for us, editing photos require a computer, multiple hard drives, essential photography accessories , and fast wifi. However, we’ve done our fair share of testing mobile editing apps so that we can be more efficient on the road.

Berty and I have experimented with so many and we’ve FINALLY found our favorites!

If you’ve stumbled upon this post for easy travel photography solutions, you’re in the right place.

In this post, we’re sharing the 12  best photo editing apps for travel photography , and additional tips on how you can stay organized and share on the go.

This is our master list of the top photo editing apps, scheduling, and sharing tools for travel photographers.  

This post covers everything from editing photos on your mobile phone to sharing them on social media, and finally, scheduling them out for those times that wifi is unreliable.

As new photography apps come, we will try to update this post with the latest and greatest!

To the best of our knowledge, all these apps listed below are available on both iOS and Android smartphones. We’ll make sure to note if that’s not the case!

1. Instasize

( download instasize here. ).

Price: Free Trial // $4.99 monthly for Premium (to unlock all the tools)

Instasize is an all-in-one photo and video editing app for creative photographers. Basic stories are out – take your creativity to the next level and make one-of-a-kind stories and static images to showcase your unique style!

With over 130 filters for photo and video, it’s one of the most comprehensive photo editing apps on the market. Resize your images, add borders (they are the OG for the Instagram white border trend!), make custom layouts, and even retouch your photos in one powerful tool.

We feel like they are constantly coming out with new features! Our next goal is to use their video editing tools to make engaging Reels for upcoming Instagram stories.

If you’re looking for one app to use for both image editing AND short form video , Instasize is definitely for you.

• Pros:  Really intuitive design, easy to use. A huge platform of features, for both photo and video editing.
• Cons:  Limited use in the free version. You need to get Premium to make the most of this tool!

2. Adobe Lightroom CC (Best app for professional photographers)

( Download Adobe Lightroom CC Mobile Here. )

Price: Free (To access Adobe Creative cloud storage , you pay a subscription)

Adobe Lightroom CC is one of the most powerful mobile editing tools out there for professional photographers .

With the ease of use from desktop to mobile versions, you can download your own presets on both devices and get the same editing results wherever you go.

Along with custom preset creation, Adobe Lightroom CC has several advanced photo editing tools like tweaking tone curves, gradient, and effects to make a photo exactly how you want.

Become an experienced photo editor right from your phone!

Note: We don’t generally use Adobe Photoshop in our current work, but there are mobile versions available.  Click this link to see the whole Adobe Photoshop series.

• Pros:  Professional photography editing capabilities, easily transfer work from desktop to mobile (with subscription).
• Cons: Can be difficult to make precise changes on mobile, a steep learning curve if you are new to Adobe, subscription use only.

( Download VSCO Here. )

Price: FREE (with in-app purchases)

VSCO is loved by everyone from amateurs to photographers to designers!

VSCO’s incredibly on-trend filters and presets will have your photos insta-worthy in a matter of seconds. This photo editing app also has the option to purchase limited edition filters, so you can use one for each of your travel destinations.

VSCO also has a highly involved community that supports artists and their work! You can submit your own creations to their journal and have your own curated feed as another social platform to share your photographs.

We find that this is a great app to discover new artists and photographers.

• Pros:  User-friendly, simple interface, able to copy and paste presets for multiple images.
• Cons:  Limited use until purchasing more filters.

4. Snapseed

( Download Snapseed Here. ) (Only available for iOS)

Price: FREE

One of the best free photo editing apps for its wide array of capabilities. It has sophisticated photo editing and social media sharing all in one app!

Snapseed (owned by Google) has an easy-to-use interface with quick and simple image adjustment tools like crop, saturation, and sharpness. You also have the ability to tweak more advanced details like colors, hiding blemishes, double exposure and more.

Snapseed provides everything from ready-made filters to tweaking every detail possible. So whether you’re a beginning photographer or a professional, try this free photo editing app!

• Pros:  Huge array of photo editing features and filters. Ability to save your editing preferences (like presets) so your feed and aesthetic looks consistent. The app is completely free.
• Cons: So simple it’s confusing sometimes. It can a while to test all the features to see what exactly they do. You can only upload and edit one photo at a time.

5. TouchRetouch (Best Photo Correction App)

( Download TouchRetouch here. )

Price: $1.99 In Apple Store

Say you’ve taken a photo, loved it, but later realized there’s an irritating telephone wire across your serene mountainscape. Do you bag the whole picture? No!

TouchRetouch makes it  easy to remove objects from a photo by using your finger to erase those blemishes out.

We use this tool for quick fixes and last minute observations in already-edited photos. We commonly use TouchRetouch to edit out logos, and things like garbage cans or signs.

The app makes it easy to erase and allows you to zoom in and use a “magnifying” tool for incredibly accurate precision.

You can also get creative with this app and come up with quirky and fun ideas like floating people or oceans in a jar!

• Pros:  Tutorials provided in-app, intuitive user experiences, quick fixes for obvious photo eyesores.
• Cons: Takes some practice for precision, not free (but worth the price).

6. CannonConnect

( Download CannonConnect Here. )

If you own a Canon camera with wifi capabilities, which is basically everything newer than a Canon 5D Mark III (even the new entry-level  Rebel T6 has it!), you have the ability to transfer raw photos directly from your camera’s memory card to the camera roll on your phone .

Berty and I use this app very heavily while traveling . We love to pull photos from the memory card to edit and share with our Instagram followers in as close to real-time as possible.

CannonConnect also acts as a live viewer if your camera is on a tripod. You can snap the shutter from your phone, or even use it to capture the perfect selfies!

• Pros: Immediate access to photos, the ability to transfer files without an intermediary device.
• Cons: Photos can quickly take up memory on phone because of huge raw file image sizes, only for Canon users.

The Best Photo Scheduling Apps

( Download Later here. )

Price: FREE for 30 day periods, monthly plan for extended use.

Later is not a photo editing tool, but rather a photo scheduling app. Once you’ve edited your photo to perfection, what’s the use if you don’t share it? 😉

This app allows you to manage your time for minimal planning and more time for other productive activities.

There are options to auto-post to Instagram, reminder notifications to post, and tools to draft up several pieces of Instagram content all in one app!

More Features:  Later has a super helpful blog with productivity and marketing tips. They also have a desktop version that provides more features. On a computer, you can now easily reply to comments!

• Pros:  convenient auto-posting feature, downloading unlimited quantities of photos, has a desktop version available.
• Cons: Difficult to see feed preview before it goes live,

( Download Planoly here. )

Price: FREE for 30 uploads per month, monthly plans after that for extended use.

Why another scheduling tool?

For starters, the free plans for Later and Planoly only allow one account – after that, you’ll have to pay for it.

Therefore, we use one tool for each account @themandagies and @emilymandagie to save a few bucks and keep it free. Marketing hack!

We really like to use Planoly because we are able to see our Instagram feed before it goes live.

We can upload photos we want to publish, then drag and rearrange them in different combinations until we like the way they all look together.

If you’re into feed aesthetics and making things look cohesive, you’ll definitely benefit from this photo editing app.

• Pros:  Easily arrange your Instagram feed before it goes live, auto-posting, in-app stats for top performing photos.
• Cons: No ability to tag photos before they go live, limited use of the app without paying for the subscription.

( Download Buffer App Here )

Price: FREE for the first 3 channels. (Subscription to add more)

Not all content does well across all social channels. This is why we like to use a split-scheduling tool called Buffer.

Buffer is a one-stop shop for photographers who want to share their images across multiple social channels without having to open 5+ apps on their phone.

For each channel, you can customize what content goes out and when. Example: We like to share a mini-photo album on Facebook , maybe two on Twitter with some hashtags, and one on Instagram .

With Buffer, you can easily personalize your captions and content for each social profile.

• Pros: One app does all the scheduling, easily view what goes live and when, customizable for each account.
• Cons: Limited to three channels unless upgrading to the paid version.

Best Photo Design Apps Smartphones

10. canva (best user-friendly graphic designer app).

( Download Canva Here. )

Price: Free. (Option to subscribe monthly for more tools)

Canva is our #1 tool for creating images with a text overlay.

We especially use this for the pins we share on Pinterest.  Canva just had a huge upgrade, so there are tons more free fonts, images, and graphics to use in your designs.

Note: There is a paid version, but I wouldn’t bother with it unless you will be constantly using it for graphic design. You essentially just pay for shortcuts, the ability to download fonts and resizing images quickly.

In our opinion, the subscription isn’t worth the simple tools it provides if you are just using the app occasionally.

• Pros:  Ease of use between the mobile app and desktop, ability resize images for any social platform.
• Cons:  Mobile version is a little more difficult to navigate, requires wifi.

11. Unfold (Best Instagram Story Sharing App)

( Download Unfold Here. )

Price: FREE with in app features for purchase.

Unfold is a story creation & design tool , mostly used for Instagram stories but the app can also be used for Snapchat too.

Unfold has tons of creative effects to make your stories ultra-cool, engaging and stylish.

Some new filters and updates include polaroid frames, ripped paper layers, and computer crop frames. They occasionally have limited editing frames for unique story designs.

With this app, you can create one-of-a-kind social stories and share everything from video, collages, and professional photography galleries.

There are endless creative ways to use this app!

• Pros:  Easy to use, extremely customizable, makes Instagram stories look professionally created.
• Cons:  Basic templates until payment for more, clips shorter than 15 seconds repeat over.

12: *Bonus: Instagram (Best Social Media Photography App)

It’s no surprise that Instagram is the largest photo sharing app out there.

With over 1 billion users on Instagram , you have the opportunity to share your work with the world. 

Not only is this a great tool to connect with other like-minded photographers, with the help of Instagram and these photo editing apps, you can also share your best pictures online!

For more photo editing inspiration, follow us at @themandagies to see how we edit, share, and schedule our photographs!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Modern technology has made it easy for the average smartphone user to become a travel photographer. 

Smartphones can sometimes be as good as their camera counterparts, and the average consumer now has access to creating beautiful photography in the palm of their hand .

We hope this post can inspire you to take what you have and simply start creating!  One of the hardest parts of growing as a creative photographer is just beginning.

We encourage you to take these simple mobile tools and use these as stepping stones in your journey.

Do I need all of these photography apps to be a good photographer?

Absolutely not! Many of these apps have similar features and capabilities, so try experimenting and see which photo editing apps work best for you!

What are some of your favorite photo editing apps? Let us know in the comments below!

More travel & photo tips.

8 Easy Tips To Capture Amazing Travel Photos

10 Road Trip Tools and Planners For Your Next Trip

12 Crucial Tasks Photographers Should Do During Slow Season

Our Complete List Of Travel Photography Gear

How To Shoot A Doors Off Helicopter Flight In NYC

20+ Of The Best Instagram Spots In NYC

The Photography Guide To Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio

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7 Travel Apps You Need To Download To Document Your Travels

Posted by Emily Franceschini | Dec 7, 2021 | Travel Tips

Travelling is all about making memories and experiencing new things but the best way to keep track of all of your memories is to document your travels. I love taking photos, videos and making notes of the places I've been so I can look back later and attempt to relive my experiences in Europe and Australia . Carrying around a camera to every single place I visit on my travels was getting annoying so I decided to invest in a newer iPhone and search for some apps to use. There are so many different ways to document your travels so today I'm sharing a few of my favourite travel apps that I used to document my trips.

1. Instagram

Perhaps the most obvious on the list but definitely worth a mention is Instagram . Instagram is the BEST way to share your travel photos and videos with all of your friends. I especially love Instagram's highlights feature.

If you're visiting multiple countries, you can create highlights for each country and share your stories here so you can go back and relive your travels.

IGTV is also a great way to document your trip. With IGTV, you can upload videos that can be up to an hour long. You can create a full video of your trip and upload it to IGTV for your followers. I also suggest creating your own travel hashtag and using it in your photos so you can look back through the hashtag later and see all of your travel photos in one place. For best results use a third-party Instagram story maker .

2. Evernote

It's great to have photos of your trips but I also think it's important to write stuff down. It's so hard to get lost in all of your experiences and forget the little details.

I use Evernote as a travel app to write down my itineraries, the places I've visited, the restaurants we try out, the food we liked, and anything little thing I want to remember.

You can also use Evernote email forwarding and Web Clipper to keep all of your important information in one place. Not only is this great for my own memories, but I've also used my Evernote notes to share itineraries with friends travelling to places I've been to. If you have a blog and plan to write blog posts about your travels, Evernote will be your best friend.

Voted one of the best new apps by Apple, Journi is the best way to document your travel with photos, notes, and maps. You can even turn them into printed photo books. These stories can be private to you or you can share them publicly or with a specific audience.

The best part about this app is that you can create stories with your travel partner. You can both capture photos and take notes and store them in one story so you can create the memory book together. They also allow you to search other stories around the world so you can see what other people are doing on their travels.

This is a great way to find travel inspiration or look for suggested spots to check out during your trip.

4. 1 Second Everyday

Make a quick and memorable video of your travels by recording just one second every single day. I have loved using the 1 Second Everyday app to document my travels so far this year. I decided to use it a little differently and I export videos after each country or trip.

This way I have a quick video of each place instead of one longer one of my entire year. I love to take videos of the exciting things I see on my trip so most days I have a lot more than one second in my video and that's okay! The app is easy to use and it will even remind you to add a video for the day.

There were definitely days that I missed my one-second clips but that didn't matter the video still turned out awesome and I'm really happy I found this app!

5. ChatBooks

Chatbooks is a great app to use if you want a hard copy of your travel photos. These photo books are a great keepsake and couldn't be easier to put together. The easiest way to create a photo book is by using the hashtag I mentioned earlier. When you use the Chatbooks app to create your photobooks, simply select the hashtag and all of your travel photos will be in one place.

Then you can pick and choose the ones you want to include in your book. You'll also have the option to edit any captions and add your own text to your book. If you're interested in getting regular photobooks sent to you, you can create a subscription and for every 60 photos posted on your Instagram, Chatbooks will send you your customized photobook.

6. Tripcast

My parents love to be able to see what I'm doing while I'm travelling but constantly sending them photos and explaining what they were looking at got annoying real fast. Enter Tripcast .

This app is the best way to share your trip with your friends and family. Upload your photos to Tripcast and invite your friends and family to follow along. You can easily make updates and your followers can ask questions or leave comments. Photos are automatically added to your trip map so your friends and family can see exactly where the photo was taken without having to ask.

7. Google Photos

Download Google Photos and set it up so that whenever you're connected to Wi-Fi all of the new photos on your phone are transferred to Google Photos. Not only is this great to ensure you never lose your photos, but the Google Photos assistant will also enhance your photos, create animations, create location/time-based albums, and show you memories from previous years.

I know everyone is talking about getting off your phones and enjoying the moment as you're living it but taking photos and videos make me happy and I love being able to share those memories with my friends and family. If I'm going to spend all of this money travelling around the world, exploring new places and experiencing new things, I don't want to rely on just my memory.

Memories fade but photos and videos last forever. I want to be able to watch a video and be reminded of how I felt at that moment. I want to look at my photos and tell the stories of each for years to come so I am very thrilled to have access to all of these amazing applications in the palm of my hand. Documenting my travels has never been easier.

About The Author

Emily Franceschini

I am a current nomad, former full-timer and lover of all things purple. I am currently pursuing my travel dreams while working for Our Crater. In the past I used to work as a marketing manager and spent my free time searching for the perfect cup of coffee. Now all of my time is free time and I am spending it exploring the world.

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30 essential travel apps every traveler needs before their next trip

When it comes to planning and taking a vacation, travelers rely on their phones now more than ever.

Travel apps are a source of inspiration and are extremely useful for booking and managing logistics — even making restaurant reservations or finding a great fitness class wherever in the world you're flying next.

From apps that help with everything from day-of hotel bookings and last-minute flight changes to those that serve as guidebooks and foreign-language dictionaries, travel is infinitely easier thanks to technology.

Apps can help you navigate a new city, make currency conversions, pack a perfect suitcase and even provide on-the-ground local expertise. Whatever you need when you hit the road, there's an app for that.

We've rounded up the most-loved apps here at TPG. Some may be obvious, and others more obscure, but either way, get ready to download.

Best apps for researching and booking trips

In addition to the apps for the airlines you fly most frequently and your favorite hotel brands, these apps can help you save money on flights and accommodations.

Hopper has changed in recent years from just offering a price prediction tool for flights to being a true online travel agency. The app helps travelers find the cheapest flights, hotels and rental cars.

Of course, Hopper also still offers its signature price prediction technology to help you plan out when to book, as well as travel protection options and a price freeze to help you lock in the lowest possible price on hotels and flights.

Kiwi is used mainly to book flights, but it also helps you book hotels (using its partnership with Booking.com) and car rentals (using its partnership with RentalCars.com).

Some of the app's most interesting features include the "Deals" section, which pulls in discounted flights, and the "Travel hacks" section, which includes options for hidden city ticketing, throwaway ticketing (making one-way flights more affordable) and free price alerts.

Hotel Tonight

A dream for last-minute travelers, Hotel Tonight ( now owned by Airbnb ) lets you book stays for the same evening up to a few months in advance in thousands of cities worldwide. Available hotel rooms are categorized into sections like basic, luxe, hip, charming and solid, so you can select what works for your vibe. Take advantage of the daily drop feature, where you swipe to find a personalized deal with a special price only valid for 15 minutes after unlocked.

At TPG, we love a good loyalty program, and HT Perks, the app's nine-level reward program, is extensive. Not unlike a video game, you "level up" by reaching specific spending thresholds on the app, and you'll gain access to perks like discounts, VIP customer support and credits. Also, your levels never expire, so you can only continue to move up.

To book home rentals instead of hotels, use the Airbnb app. After entering your destination and dates, you can filter results based on the home type, price, requisite amenities and more. If you find something you like, you can book directly through the app.

The app is ideal for managing your trips while on the road — you can access all your bookings under the "Trips" tab, where you can view your reservation (and the address or directions), contact the host or change your reservation. Once you have a booking, you can also explore and book local experiences in your destination, such as wine tastings, kayak tours, hikes, shows and concerts.

We can't talk about travel apps without mentioning the TPG App. Use it to track your credit card, airline and hotel points balances; earn points and miles efficiently through using the right credit card ; and research how many points or miles you'll need to book your dream getaway. You can even curate your own news feed so you see the news and advice that matters most to you first.

The TPG App is available for download on iOS . Android users can join the waitlist here .

Related: The TPG App has arrived — here's why you should download it now

Best apps for organizing a trip

From keeping all your documents in order to perfectly packing your suitcase without forgetting a thing, these are the best apps for organizing travel plans.

TripIt declutters your itineraries and documents by keeping them organized in one place. You can set your reservations to automatically send to TripIt, which lets you view travel confirmations, flight itineraries, tickets, hotel and Airbnb booking information, rental car reservations, ferry tickets and driving directions without ever leaving the app.

TripIt also makes it simple to share your trip plans with whoever picks you up from the airport or train station or anyone else who may need to coordinate with you. TripIt Pro subscriptions cost $49 per year and include extras like real-time flight alerts, security wait times, baggage claim information and updates on your loyalty reward programs.

Roadtrippers

Perfect for organizing that epic road trip you've always wanted to take, Roadtrippers plans out your driving route and lets you book hotels and activities along the way. The app is especially useful for finding interesting and off-the-beaten-path roadside attractions, cool restaurants and can't-miss landmarks you can bookmark.

A Roadtrippers Premium membership includes offline maps, live traffic information, overnight RV parking and more for $59.99 per year. For those looking to only venture on a few road trips per year, the app also offers a Pro ($49.99 per year) and Basic ($35.99 per year) membership.

PackPoint takes all the stress out of packing . The app shows you what to bring based on the length of your trip, the weather in your destination and any activities you're planning along the way. If you have access to laundry facilities at your destination, PackPoint even allows you to account for washing your clothes and wearing them multiple times.

Just download and install the app, type in the city you're visiting and plug in your travel details. So, stop waiting until the day before your trip — or the hours before you have to leave for the airport — and start packing now.

Best apps for navigating the airport and flights

Track flights, navigate airports and find airport lounges with these apps.

LoungeBuddy

LoungeBuddy offers access to premium airport lounges around the world, regardless of the airline or class you're flying. When you create a trip in the app and type in the credit cards you currently hold, it will tell you which lounges you have access to based on the airports you'll be transiting through and how to purchase access if you don't already have it.

You can purchase access on the day you're traveling or up to two months in advance if you're the plan-ahead type. If you prefer to search by lounge or lounge program, the app will tell you exactly what is needed to use them.

Priority Pass

Priority Pass offers access to more than 1,300 lounges worldwide and provides meal vouchers at select airport restaurants across the world for an annual fee starting at $99.

Several cards, including The Platinum Card® from American Express , the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve , offer Priority Pass memberships for all cardholders (enrollment required). Otherwise, you'll have to pay an annual fee to be a member and, depending on your membership tier, a fee to enter each lounge on top of the annual fee.

To use the Priority Pass app, enter the name or code of the airport you're in, and Priority Pass will pull up the lounges or restaurants that you have access to, including photos, hours, amenities and specific location information. For more information on the Priority Pass Program and how to gain lounge access, click here . Enrollment is required for select benefits.

Related: The best credit cards for Priority Pass lounge access

FlightAware

The FlightAware app allows you to track flights online, see a live map of a flight and check on delays, cancellations and gate changes. This app is especially helpful if you have a tight connection or want to track your flight.

It's also useful when picking up friends and family at the airport, as you can track their flight and see updated landing times or delays. AvGeeks will enjoy digging into flight statistics, flight maps and community aviation discussions on the app.

Best apps to use during your flight

Timeshifter.

What better way to cure jet lag than with an app? Timeshifter actually helps you avoid jet lag long before your flight takes off and also offers inflight and post-flight suggestions. The app relies on neuroscience research about sleep and circadian rhythms to provide personalized recommendations, taking into consideration your age, gender and normal sleep patterns — as well as specifics about your trip and travel plans. Timeshifter maps out when you should avoid or seek light, take a nap or try to stay awake. It even tells you if you should consider supplementing with melatonin or caffeine.

Your first jet lag plan is free, then $9.99 per plan, or you can enjoy unlimited plans for a year for $24.99.

Flying can cause anxiety — or provide a welcome relief from constant contact with our digital devices. Either way, use travel as an opportunity to relax, meditate or listen to soothing sounds that will lull you to sleep or a deep, relaxed state. Or, perhaps, you'll simply find it helps pass the time during a long flight.

Calm offers meditations on topics such as self-awareness, calming anxiety, breathing, lowering stress levels and happiness, among others. The app also has music options for focusing, relaxing and sleeping, as well as stories for adults and content for kids.

A limited selection of meditations and music is available for free (which you can download to use when you're offline or in flight). The premium version of the app costs $14.99 per month or $69.99 annually.

OK, so Netflix isn't really a travel app, but it can be a lifesaver during a long flight on an aircraft without seatback inflight entertainment or at the airport during an unexpected flight delay or boring layover. If you have a Netflix account, the app allows you to download your favorite shows onto your device to watch offline.

Just make sure to download your shows while connected to Wi-Fi before flying and check them again preflight to make sure they haven't expired (you can usually renew any expired downloads, but you must be connected to Wi-Fi or data to do so). Monthly prices vary depending on the plan.

Another app that's not really a travel app, Spotify can still be incredibly useful during tedious travel moments — just pop in those noise-canceling headphones and listen to your favorite music, meditations, podcasts and more.

The app's Premium plans (prices vary) allow you to download all your content offline on your phone, so you'll have it during long flights or when you don't have data or Wi-Fi access. Whether you want to take a morning jog in Bali to your favorite tunes or pass the time with a podcast on the metro in Barcelona, Spotify has it all.

Best apps to use in your destination

From exchanging money and sightseeing to communicating and knowing all the local tips and tricks, you don't want to land in a foreign city for the first time without these key apps.

XE Currency Converter

The XE Currency Converter app quickly provides live, up-to-the-minute currency rates, then allows you to store and view them even when you're offline. You'll never need to wonder if you're really getting a good deal in another country if you have this app.

Google Translate

Google Translate is a translation app that allows you to do it all — translate into more than 100 languages by typing, access 59 languages offline, translate via photo, translate bilingual conversations and even use the handwriting tool to translate.

The app is simple to use, too, with icons at the top you can click on to draw, take a photo, speak or type.

Not quite sure how much to tip when traveling internationally? GlobeTips will advise you on how to tip appropriately in more than 200 countries. It also offers a tip calculator for easy math. Globe also has apps for currency conversion, unit conversion and more that may be useful for travelers.

Related: The ultimate guide to tipping while traveling

For travelers globe-trotting with friends and family members or simply splitting the cost between groups, Tricount calculates shared costs and splits bills so you don't have to think twice about who owes what. Just enter your trip and currency and invite your travel mates to join your trip.

Each time someone pays for something, you enter the amount in Tricount, and the app splits everything up. You can also snap and store photos of receipts in the app. At the end of your trip, it will show the balances of who owes who what, making it easy to settle up.

Metric Conversions

Never be baffled by Celsius temperatures or suitcase weight in kilograms again with the Metric Conversions app . Whether you're measuring flour to cook at your Airbnb, figuring out distances for your Europe road trip or deciding whether to take a sweatshirt with you during your walking tour of the Great Wall of China, this app has you covered with easy conversions in volume, weight, temperature, area and more.

Google Maps

Google Maps is essential when visiting a new city (or even for getting around your hometown). You can map locations, get directions (walking, driving, public transportation, ride-hailing services and beyond) and see how crowded your subway will be in select cities .

You can make restaurant reservations, save your favorite spots and read and write reviews of attractions, eateries, shops and more. Make sure to download specific city or area maps ahead of time for offline access if you know you'll be without internet at your destination. For obvious reasons, the app works best when your GPS is turned on.

WhatsApp is a handy messaging service for travelers abroad as it uses an internet connection to avoid SMS fees.

It works like most other messaging apps: You start by creating an account, then add your friends and family members to contact and voila! You're able to call, video chat and send messages, images, voice memos, gifs and files just as you would in, say, iMessage (but with Android users too). You can also download WhatsApp on your Windows or Mac computer.

Best apps for planning activities

Traveling is about more than just getting from point A to point B. If you're looking for activities to add to your itinerary, check out these apps.

Meetup is an app designed for interacting with locals and other travelers who have mutual interests or shared hobbies. Whether you're traveling or at home, take what you love and do more of it with Meetup.

The app shows you groups that are formed around particular interests in your city, including yoga, photography, cooking, wine tasting, hiking, cinema and other activities. You can join groups to get updates on particular events you may want to participate in. The app can even help with networking, as there are many groups dedicated to business and technology. You might even be able to join a coworking group. Travelers with kids can participate in family-friendly meetups, and it's a great way for solo travelers to make friends and connect with others.

TheFork is one of the most useful resources for making restaurant reservations in Europe. Similar to OpenTable or Resy, the app lets you browse different restaurants by category and make reservations. TheFork features more than 60,000 restaurants in cities like London, Madrid and Geneva, as well as spots outside of Europe like Sydney, Australia.

The biggest perk is that many restaurant reservations come with discounts — in some cases, you can get up to 50% off your meal just by reserving a table through TheFork. Since we here at TPG are always down for earning rewards, make sure to monitor your YUMS — TheFork's reward system. You'll earn YUMS with each reservation, and when you hit 1,000, you receive a discount on your bill. Foodie travelers should also consider downloading these apps , too.

Happy Cow helps vegan and vegetarian eaters locate more than 180,000 restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, farmers markets and grocery stores in over 180 countries around the world. The app allows you to filter by not only vegan and vegetarian but also gluten-free and cuisine types. You can also read reviews and get recipes on the app as well.

The app does cost $3.99, but it's a one-time expense.

TripAdvisor

Besides reading reviews of restaurants, hotels and attractions, you can book almost anything on TripAdvisor, from vacation rentals and restaurant reservations to tours and tickets.

The app has grown to include almost all things travel, allowing you to search by destination or interest (like the outdoors, food and drink, family or by the water, for example), which can give you inspiration for a trip or help you get your activities, meals and accommodations organized before traveling or on the fly.

With over 400,000 curated trails, AllTrails can help you find the hike or walk perfect for you and your group. It's not just mountain trails — AllTrails offers city walks, too, like easy meanders through the Marais district in Paris or peaceful strolls through Bangkok's Lumpini Park in Thailand.

See photos, updated weather predictions and key information about each route and connect with other travelers through reviews and forums. Access to AllTrails+ is $35.99 per year, which offers perks like offline maps and wrong turn alerts.

Best apps for staying safe

Use these apps to stay safe when traveling.

Smart Traveler

Smart Traveler is a free service that offers tips and information specifically for U.S. travelers. You can see what visas and vaccines you'll need before traveling and where to find help if you need it during your trip.

Register your trip on the app, which gives your information to local embassies and consulates in your destination. If there's any kind of disaster or tragedy, the local embassy can contact you to see if you need help.

TripWhistle

Another app dedicated to keeping you safe, TripWhistle maps your location and allows you to easily text or send your GPS coordinates or location. It also provides emergency numbers for firefighters, medical personnel and police in nearly 200 countries. After all, 911 is only for U.S.-based emergencies: Each country has its own specific emergency number.

Yes, Uber (or any local ride-hailing service app) is convenient, but it may also keep you safe. Using this app when traveling means you'll never get stuck wandering around in an unfamiliar area late at night or have to deal with unscrupulous taxi drivers trying to scam you. Uber also has in-app safety features such as an emergency assistance button which will allow you to call local emergency services right in the app.

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22 Best Travel Apps Every Traveler Should Know About

From tracking flight delays, finding last-minute accommodations, and even locating the nearest public restroom, these are the most helpful travel apps to download before you travel.

Using the right travel apps can help you save both time and money , while making the journey much less stressful . Many of these apps also provide local recommendations and hidden gems tourists don't often get to see — and some are completely free.

Whether you're looking for an app that will give you discounts for popular local events, offer a last-minute booking at a fraction of the price, or help you breeze through the airport , these are the 22 best travel apps to download before your next trip.

Citymapper helps travelers find the speediest route to their destination, providing step-by-step instructions on where to find the nearest bus and train stations. You'll be able to see when the next arrivals are, and real-time routing means you'll get updates every minute. The app also has a chat feature that allows you to update friends and family on your E.T.A. wherever you are.

Available on iOS and Android .

PackPoint takes the hassle out of packing by creating a customized list of what you'll need for your getaway. Enter your destination, travel dates, length of stay, and activities that might require special gear, like hiking or swimming, and the app will create a custom packing list you can save for future use. Besides checking weather conditions for you, the app also allows users to share their packing lists with fellow travelers.

The beauty of Rebtel is you don't need an internet connection to call friends and family back home. The app connects to local phone lines to provide you with cheap calls in 51 countries around the world without having to deal with the hassle of getting a local SIM card or racking up your phone bill.

If you're looking to get outdoors, this app will provide you with the area's best hiking, biking, and running trails. In addition to details on length, starting location, and trail quality, AllTrails includes reviews and photos from a community of hikers and outdoor enthusiasts. You'll find useful information like what to pack, obstacles you'll find along the route, and the best scenic spots to check out.

If you find yourself in the middle of a long layover, Dayuse can get you into a hotel room for a few hours for up to 75 percent less than what the typical overnight rate would be. The app features 5,000 hotels in 23 countries, and allows you to make free cancellations at the last minute, in case you manage to catch an earlier flight.

Selections include everything from business hotels to wellness accommodations, with payments made directly when you arrive. You also get full use of the hotel's amenities for the duration of your stay.

The prices of flights can fluctuate, making it tricky to decide if you should book right away or hold off. That's where Hopper comes in, predicting the best time to find the cheapest fares, saving up to 40 percent. The app also has a price-monitoring feature so that you can select a particular flight and receive alerts if the price drops. Through Hopper, users can also compare the prices and amenities of more than 250 airlines and get alerts about airfare flash sales.

RV Parks & Campgrounds

This camping app helps you locate prime RV parks, campgrounds, rest areas, and gas stations across North America. With more than 40,000 facilities, the app sorts locations based on ratings and includes both privately-owned RV parks and public parks to choose from.

Nike Training Club

Hitting the gym while you're traveling can be tough, but with Nike Training Club , you'll feel like you have a personal trainer right in your pocket. That's because you can access hundreds of free workouts from Nike Master Trainers and celebrities like Kevin Hart, Serena Williams, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Audio and video clips help you make sure you're on top of your technique, while personalized training plans will keep you on track.

If you don't have much time to spare at the airport, Grab allows you to check out what food selections are near your gate, and gives you the option to pre-order your meal so you can pick it up on the way. The app currently operates at over 60 airports worldwide, giving you plenty of bites to choose from on your next trip.

GasBuddy is the app you'll want if you're taking a road trip. GasBuddy tracks down where to find the cheapest gas prices, allowing you to filter by price, location, brand, and amenities. It also provides you with deals at nearby convenience stores and price hike alerts so you can nail down the best prices every time.

Want to know what local events are taking place at your destination? Headout will show you the top attractions, shows, tours, and experiences in popular cities like New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orlando, Hawaii, Dubai, and more.

Activities range from catching a Broadway show, yoga in the hills, or taking a helicopter tour, with exclusive last-minute offers that can be up to 80 percent off.

If you need to access the internet during your travels, chances are you'll have to connect to public Wi-Fi, which can be sketchy. TunnelBear allows you to connect privately and securely by providing you a VPN (virtual private network) that will encrypt your browsing data to keep your information hidden from hackers and advertisers. The app comes with 500MB of free browsing data each month, or you can opt for unlimited data at a low monthly rate.

Hostelworld

Hostelworld is where you'll find more than 17,000 hostels, hotels, B&B's, and communal spaces in 178 countries. The app is great for solo travelers looking to meet fellow vacationers during their trip, including a Noticeboard that highlights events and meetups, and a translator that will help you communicate in up to 43 languages.

WeatherBug provides forecasts for millions of locations around the world, with current, hourly, and even 10-day options. The app also has specific weather maps to track everything from lightning and wind to pressure and humidity, and makes staying on top of changes to the weather easy with instant alerts.

Eatwith allows you to dine with locals, in their homes, all over the world. Menus are posted for you to see, while hosts will typically list what they cook, the languages they speak, and any alcohol pairings they'll be serving. Not only does the app give you a chance to meet locals and get superb dining recommendations, but it also allows you to enjoy a high-quality meal for less than what you'd typically pay at a restaurant.

Available on iOS and Android.

Trying to locate a public restroom can be tricky, especially in a new destination. That's where Flush comes in. The app has a database of more than 200,000 toilets, and quickly provides travelers with nearby bathrooms. You can search without an internet connection, and the app will also notify you if a restroom requires a fee.

While banks may charge you a fee for transferring money abroad, Wise allows you to make a transfer based on real-time currency exchanges, so you can send money at rates the company says are up to eight times cheaper than what you'd find at traditional banks.

TripIt makes it easy to put together a cohesive travel itinerary. Simply forward your confirmation emails, like your hotel and flight reservations, or your rental car reservation, and TripIt will build a full itinerary to help you stay organized with all of your plans.

With real-time alerts, you'll know if your flight is delayed or canceled, while the flight finder can help you book a new option should a cancellation occur.

Another good app for the road, Waze gives you community-based data about traffic jams, and information to locate points of interest like the cheapest gas stations and the fastest routes to your destination. Live maps include voice-guided navigation to easily guide you.

Xe provides live exchange rates and charts to keep you on top of money matters during your travels, easily allowing you to choose between different currencies you'd like to convert. It also has a rate alert so that you can monitor your favorite currencies — and it can be used offline.

Timeshifter

If you're sick of the jet lag battle that inevitably comes with travel, check out Timeshifter , an app that helps you to avoid jet lag long before your flight departs. Thanks to neuroscience research on circadian rhythms and sleep, the app provides personalized recommendations that take into account your age, gender, typical sleep patterns, and specifics about your trip. The app will tell you when you should avoid or seek daylight, and when you should stay awake or take a nap. The result? A gentle jet lag experience, which translates to more time exploring your destination.

FlightAware

If you have a tight connection or are picking up friends or family from the airport, look to FlightAware for help. The app tracks flights in real time, so you can see exactly where the aircraft is at any given moment. In addition to providing arrivals and delays, you can also see if weather will have any affect on certain locations.

Evie Carrick is a writer and editor who’s lived in five countries and visited well over 50. She now splits her time between Colorado and Paris, ensuring she doesn't have to live without skiing or L'As du Fallafel.

10 Best Travel Journal Apps to Organize Your Travel Memories

As a digital nomad or frequent traveler, you likely want to keep a log of your travel activities. But what and how you record is a very personal experience.

You may want to write extensively about your experiences and feelings and keep them private. If so, you are probably better off with a paper journal and a pen.

Or maybe, you want to log the most important moments, photos, and travel routes and share them with your family and friends. In that case, a digital travel journal makes more sense.

Perhaps you’re an Instagram Influencer or blogger and want to keep copious notes for future posts/reels.

No matter your reason, if you’re looking for a travel journal app to maintain a digital log, this list of the 10 best travel journal apps will help you find the one that suits your needs.

Let’s start!

Table of Contents

10 Best Travel Journal Apps

1. day one journal.

With a Twitter-like interface, the Day One Journal is about capturing the important moments of your trip. The app can collect data such as location, weather, and music, for your travel photos and videos.

You can use this app as a digital diary and write using your finger or Apple Pencil and quickly comb through the entries using photos, timeline, or calendar. It even accepts voice commands.

This travel journal app can record fine details such as temperature, moon phase, weather, address, etc.

A free version is available, but upgrading to the premium version gives unlimited journal entries, photo storage, cloud sync, audio recording, and 25% off on book printing (if at some point you’d love to create a printed book of your adventures).

Platforms Supported:

• Apple Watch
• Safari and Chrome browser extensions

Cost: $2.92 per month billed annually.

Perfect for: Anyone looking for an online version of a standard journal that can also include images, voice recordings and track your locations

2. Find Penguins

One of the top digital travel journals, Find Penguins uses GPS tracking and AI to automatically track your journeys.

It also updates temperature, weather, altitude, etc., giving you a quick snapshot of the conditions on a particular day.

All the data that the app gathers is then displayed in a fun way on an interactive map as a trail and posts.

Find Penguins refers to those posts as footprints that are essentially blog posts where you can attach photos, videos, and texts as diary entries.

If you want, you can order a printed photo journal complete with maps, photos, and footprints.

Cost : Free with in-app purchases. You can buy a monthly or yearly subscription for $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year respectively.

Perfect for: Anyone who needs the best travel journal app for automatic journey tracking.

3. Polarsteps

If you need a completely free travel journal app that not only helps you to plan and track your journeys but also doubles up as a digital travel diary, Polarsteps is one of the top travel diary apps you can find.

It comes complete with an editable itinerary planner and transport planner. It even plots and automatically tracks your path on a digital world map.

You are free to add thoughts, videos, and photos. If you want, you can leave tips for the traveling community, or retrace your steps by scrolling through your travel stats, photos, and places.

The app also supports printing a hardcover travel book with just a touch of a button. The best part? It works offline and allows you to manually add journal entries that can later sync when the internet is available.

Perfect for: Anyone looking for a free travel tracker app that can track the travel route and keep the family informed!

Momento is more than just a travel journal app. It can double up as a project/work journal, pregnancy journal, or private journal.

This app can organize and streamline your social network activities from 11 social platforms. You can add photos & videos, tag your fellow travelers and places you visit , and even record your pregnancy journey!

Momento can also give daily, monthly, or yearly visual summaries, and allow you to explore past timelines.

Cost: Free with in-app purchases for paid upgrades.

Perfect for: People who need a multi-purpose digital journal that works not only as an online travel journal but also as a private and/or work journal.

5. Journi Blog

Journi Blog is a unique photo journaling app that you can use to record your travel experiences as timelines and maps or even have them printed as a photo book to show off to your friends and family members.

Whether you have a travel blog where you write about your vacations and travels, or whether you are maintaining personal travel diaries or recording your kids’ photo album, Journi Blog helps to capture all the moments and stories.

With this travel diary app, you can create a public travel journal or create a private journal entry.

Cost : Free with in-app premium membership purchase options. Membership costs €9.99 for one month, €43.99 for 6 months, and €53.99 for one year.

Perfect for: Those who want a photo journaling app.

Penzu isn’t particularly designed to be a travel journal app. In fact, it is more of a reflective journal meant for note-keeping and milestone tracking. However, it can be used as a pregnancy journal, a food diary, and even a travel diary.

It will give you the feel of maintaining an online travel blog with the ability to add images, add photos, and write your travel stories. You can use custom tags to categorize your travel logs.

Penzu has an incredibly simple interface where you can record beautiful memories of your entire trip.

Cost : Free, Pro for $19.99 a year, and Pro+ for $49.99 a year.

Perfect for : Anyone who needs a private online journal or a digital diary with syncing ability across the web and multiple mobile devices.

7. Tripcast

Tripcast is one of the favorite travel journal apps for many users worldwide. The app is perfect to keep your friends and family members updated about your journey.

With Tripcast, you can create shared photo albums where your fellow travelers can upload and share photos they click and store them in a single place.

The app uses photo geotagging to create a map of the places you visit.

Cost: Free!

Perfect for: Those who are on a group vacation, or participating in volunteer projects.

8. Journey: Diary, Journal

Journey was listed as the Google Editors’ choice in the best travel apps category. Just like other travel diaries, Journey will help you to maintain a travel journal complete with texts, audio files, images, and videos.

You can also use this dedicated app to add location and weather details to all your journal entries.

If you want, you can download and keep your entries private on your computer. Alternatively, you can export them as PDF or DOCX files for easy sharing.

Journey is not just a simple travel journal app. It is a multi-purpose app that allows users to record anything they want such as a stress management journey, sleep journey, better habits development journey, and so on.

Cost : Journey is a free app, but there is an in-app membership purchase option for $3.99 a month or $29.99 a year.

Perfect for: Those who need a multi-purpose journal app that can also be used as a digital travel diary.

Diarium is another great app that allows maintaining a travel journal using a calendar interface.

You can quickly attach texts, audio files, and images, and even tag multiple entries in a single day.

There is an option of adding a sitemap with location info. Plus, the app will display a wide range of data including your fitness data, weather info, and calendar events.

You can easily export entries in HTML or DOCX formats. Journal entry is possible using a laptop, PC, mobile, or tablet.

Cost: Diarium is free, but offers in-app purchases. You can purchase a lifetime pro version for $5.99.

Perfect for : Those who want a travel journal app without committing to a monthly or yearly subscription.

10. Worldee Trip Planner & Journal

Worldee is a popular digital travel diary that not only allows you to organize and store your travel memories.

You can mark the countries visited on an interactive world map, add timelines, photos, and maps, and even share your trips.

You can share your stories with other travelers or you can keep everything private. The app will also help you to plan your next trip using the integrated trip planner.

With the trip planner, you can set your itinerary and travel map on the same screen and then share your trip details with your travel partners.

Cost: The app is completely free to use.

Perfect for: Those who want a completely free digital travel journal.

More Journal Apps to Consider

1. trotter it.

Trotter It is a digital travel journal app that allows you to create and share travel stories with travelers across the world. It also doubles up as a social networking app for travelers. The app is available only through Google Play Store and is completely free to use.

2. Jauntlet

A mix of a travel journal and a free travel blog, Jauntlet allows you to present your trips in a neat timeline. The app connects with Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and imports photos from different profiles.

You can add the location to a post to add it to the map and write your story. Jauntlet is a web application that offers a platform-independent mobile site.

3. Esplorio

A beautiful and interactive travel journal app, Esplorio can record trips even without a data connection. You can choose what to share publicly and what to keep private.

It easily integrates with social platforms to retrieve previous journeys. The app is free but there is a pro plan available for $49.99 per year. It is available on iOS devices and through a web app.

4. Traverous

Traverous is an automated travel journal application that uses GPS data to track and record your trip. It also records media and location to create a personalized animated travel diary. The app is free to use but to unleash its full potential, you will need a premium account that costs $4.99 a month or $54.99 a year. The app is available for both iOS and Android devices.

How to Choose the Best Online Journal App

Choosing the best online journal app can be tricky. They’re all so good and you need to pick one that does everything you want it to.

Here are a few tips on choosing the best online journal app:

• Ease of use : The app you select should be straightforward and easy to use. An overly complex app will only make your life difficult.
• Mobile apps : Since you will mostly be traveling with your phone or ipad, the app must have versions for either iOS or Android or both. However, digital nomads traveling with laptops can always use web apps.
• Social features : The app you select must be able to integrate with social platforms. If the app has a built-in community feature, it is even better, especially for group tours and backpackers.
• History : The company developing the app must have a proven history of offering digital journaling services. You will not want to use it only to see that it is no longer under development.
• Cost : The app you select must be cheap. Expensive subscription plans can put budgetary pressure.
• Security: If you want your journal entries to be private you need to ensure the app has end to end encryption services.

Best Travel Journal Apps FAQs

Is there a free journaling app.

Yes, there are a few free travel journal apps available today. While some are dedicated digital travel diaries, others are all-purpose digital journals that can be used for keeping travel records.

Day One Journal has a free version, Polarsteps is completely free, Penzu has a free version and Tripcast is free. Try them out and see which one you like the best!

What’s the best app to track everywhere I’ve traveled?

Most of the digital travel diaries listed above can track every place you have traveled . Apps like Day One Journal and Find Penguins can not only track the places you visit but also add additional data like weather, temperature, altitude, address, and more.

Best Travel Journal Apps Summary

Digital travel diaries or journal apps are immensely beneficial (and fun) as they help to organize your travel experiences and keep your memories stored in a single place.

They will allow you to add written notes, images, videos, audio files, tags, etc., and help you to easily share your experiences with friends and family, or other users.

For digital nomads or influencers, some come with customizable layouts for enhanced personalization and some will even allow you to blog automatically and share moments of your trips with your readers.

Try a few out and select the one that is within your budget and meets your needs the best. Hopefully, this list of the best travel journal apps will assist you in finding an awesome journal for your travels! 🙂

Disclaimer: Please note this post may contain affiliate links, from which, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. Also as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I only recommend products and services I’ve used or would use myself. If you choose to purchase from any of my links, thanks so much for your support! 😊

Packing Light; 24 Expert Tips to Travel Light (From a Fellow Traveler)

35+ hilarious road trip games for couples & digital nomads.

9 Best Photo Book Maker Websites

Print your favorite photos and don't let them go to waste.

We've been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more about our review process.

Best Overall Photo Book Maker

Shutterfly photo books.

Best Value Custom Photo Book Maker

Walmart photo custom photo books.

Most Aesthetic Photo Book Maker

Artifact uprising photo books.

Best Themed Photo Book Maker

Mixbook photo books.

Best Photo Book Maker for Beginners

Printique photo books.

Best Photo Book Maker for Amazon Prime Members

Amazon prints.

Best Photo Book Maker for Young Kids

Pinhole press photo books.

Best Photo Book Maker for Google Photos Users

Google photo books.

Best Photo Book Maker for Families

Chatbooks custom photo books & albums.

The product analysts and experts in the Good Housekeeping Institute Media & Tech Lab continuously test everything from photo book maker websites to the best wedding photo albums , printers and much more. When making our selections, we reviewed each product for factors like ease of use and intuitiveness of the website and app, if applicable, photo quality, speed of delivery and extra features like templates, cover options and style. These are the best photo book maker websites of 2024, according to our pros.

Shutterfly offers basic photo books at an affordable price. You can choose from a wide selection of themes, like birthday, travel or wedding, or neutral styles , such as modern or rustic. You can also create your own book and choose the book size, cover style and page style, then embellish it with Shutterfly's extensive library of stickers and ribbons to make your book extra special. We appreciate how easily users can edit within their chosen template and the brand's high-quality photo book paper, making Shutterfly a top pick.

You can also opt for one of its 6" x 6" Instant Books , which let you add photos from your phone, tablet or computer in minutes. These mini photo books have only 20 pages, but they're a great place to store goofy candids or Instagram posts you never want to forget. The possibilities are essentially limitless, though the vast array of options could be overwhelming for those getting started.

If you don't want the pressure of deciding on a layout, the brand offers a convenient Make My Book option, in which Shutterfly's professional designers curate your photos and design the book for free. Plus, you'll still have the opportunity to put finishing touches on it before it gets printed. Whether you opt for 50 or 800 photos (the maximum), you'll receive an email notification within 24 hours that your book is complete.

Crunched for time? Design your photo book online and pick up select styles at a Walmart store near you in as little as one hour. Photo books picked up in one hour can have 15 single-sided pages and a linen cover, while same-day pickups (ready in a few hours) can have up to 20 double-sided pages and the option of a hardcover.

On top of the speedy turnaround, Walmart has a great selection of styles : You can choose everything from the photo size and layout to the type of cover, including hardcover glossy or matte, linen, leather and lay-flat glossy or matte. If you need help narrowing down the choices, there's also the option to shop by occasion, whether you're looking for a one-year anniversary or 15th-year anniversary gift .

Despite the fast shipping and variety, our expert tester, Rachel Rothman , former chief technologist and executive technical director at the Good Housekeeping Institute, did note that the quality is not as high as the options offered by other photo book makers on this list — but that may be expected considering the bargain price tag. Regardless, these photo books still make a superb present that can cost under $10 without compromising on sentimentality.

No matter the occasion, you can't go wrong with one of Artifact Uprising's high-quality photo books. There are numerous design options, including preset books to celebrate the birth of a new baby or commemorating a marriage. You can choose from lay-flat albums, books with photo strips and even softcover Instagram Friendly Books for the influencer in your life. The company even has an iPhone app that lets you create a photo book right from your smartphone. However, Rothman found the app to be glitchy at times and noted there's room for improvement with the software. Still, the books come out on top for elegance and simplicity .

One online reviewer wrote, "The fabric cover is beautiful. The photos are amazing quality and look amazing even though the photos were taken on film and therefore are a bit grainy." The overall 4.6-star rating (out of 5) backs up that review. Quality and elevated designs come with a higher price tag, but there are options for $20 or less if you're shopping on a budget.

If you have a special project and a little more money to spend, Artifact Uprising offers Design Services , which allow you to work one-on-one with an expert to bring your special moments to life. Just note that the design fee is rather steep at $119 and requires an additional $100 album deposit.

When Mixbook says it has "custom photo books for every occasion," it really means it. There are 374 different themed templates to choose from, including everything f rom travel and sports to weddings and recipes. But that doesn't mean you have to give up creative control. You can still customize the look to your liking, from fun backgrounds to stickers to text using the Editor tool. Plus, there are plenty of paper varieties, from semigloss to ultra-thick matte.

Rothman appreciated the nice balance between good photo editing and price, but she did experience issues with the lay-flat option, in which the photos bled into the crease. You can also use the iPhone app to organize your photos with a tool that the brand calls "Automagic": Simply choose the images you want and select a theme. The goal of Automagic is to help arrange your camera roll so your photos are in order when it comes time to add them to your photo book.

If you're not sure where to start, our pros love Printique because it's super easy to use. You can select one of the many predesigned layouts or create an entire photo book from scratch. Choose among portrait, landscape and square orientations, as well as hardcover and softcover options. You can even store your memories in a genuine leather or vegan leather book or pick from five different fabric colors. Although you can't choose the color for a hard- or softcover photo book, you can still customize the shape, size and paper type.

Looking for something more advanced? There'sa tool for professional photographers to design and create their own photo books. But if you want to keep things simple, consider starting with one of Printique's 4" x 4" Mini Softcover photo books , which have a maximum of 40 pages and come in three sizes.

Is Amazon Photos already your preferred destination for uploading photos? Then creating a photo book through its interface is an easy solution. Similar to other photo book makers, you can create by occasion and size, or choose its 8" x 8" Premium Photo Book for a versatile option that has a laminated cover and lay-flat binding. There's also an option with standard binding at a lower cost, and all Amazon Prime members get free shipping . (Everyone else is eligible for free shipping with a minimum order of $15.)

In addition to photo books, you can shop large prints, calendars, cards and metal tabletops. There are fewer size and style options than most services when it comes to photo books, but the other photo product choices make up for the lack of available styles. After all, sometimes it's easier and quicker to have fewer options to choose from if you need to pull something together by a certain date, like a last-minute gift for your boyfriend .

RELATED: 37 Best Personalized Gifts You Can Find on Amazon

With Pinhole Press, you can choose from various photo book styles ranging from board pages to softcovers to accordion-style setups. Upload your photos and let the system do the work, or manually place the photos into the layout yourself. Rothman says her kids love the Custom Board Books , which have themes such as " Count With Me ," " Healthy Habits " and " I Can Be Anything ." These photo books aren't just visually stimulating, but they can also educate and entertain kids for years to come .

"I got my daughter the ' My First Photo Book ' as a toddler and made it all about her — like pictures with family, doing things she likes, her favorite toys, at the playground and beach, etc. — and she still is obsessed with it," says Lexie Sachs , executive director of strategy and operations at the Good Housekeeping Institute.

Rothman also notes the custom Photo Puzzle is a fun option for kids, and the Itty Bitty Books are easy to tote around in a work bag for on-hand entertainment. There's less variety in some categories, including Itty Bitty and hardcover books, but with so many additional photo categories other companies lack, there are still plenty of great options for kids.

RELATED: 12 Best Personalized Books for Kids

If you store your snaps in Google Photos, then Google's very own photo book maker might be the most convenient option for you. Even though there are no fancy designs, the process is seamless. Choose from two options: a 7" x 7" softcover photo book or a 9" x 9" hardcover photo book. You can include between 20 and 140 pages, and you have the option to add a spine title if you hit more than 48 pages for a softcover or any number of pages for a hardcover.

Another hallmark of Google Photos is that you can make one photo book and order multiple copies to give to family members and friends who are also pictured in the photos. Since they come at an affordable price point, you could give everyone on your gift list a copy, whether you decide to create a collection of candid photos for your closest friends or a tangible memento of a fun family trip. Though there may not be as many designs and styles to choose from, that can make the customization process less daunting.

RELATED: 50 Trendy and Most Popular Gifts of 2023

Chatbooks Custom Photo Books & Albums

"Set and forget it," Rothman says about the ease of using Chatbooks, which markets itself as "ridiculously easy." You can upload images from Instagram, Flickr, Dropbox, Facebook or your computer and edit them on your desktop or via the app . The service's Custom Photo Books & Albums option is great for families looking to personalize a family vacation , as you can choose colors, layouts, cover styles, collages, captions and more. Peruse its vast collection of more than 300 unique book covers, or shop the premium lay-flat and special occasion photo books.

You can also have fun with the Instagram and Facebook series — a 6" x 6" or 8" x 8" book with 60 pages — that lets you store your favorite social media posts in a tangible place to look back on for years to come.

Unique to Chatbooks is its subscription service, which allows you to receive a softcover, hardcover or mini photo book each month. If you and your family love taking photographs of walks in the park, weekend road trips or vacations, this service is ideal for getting your photos in your hands ASAP. One thing to note about the subscription option is that there are only two sizes available (5" x 7" and the monthly mini).

How we choose the best photo book makers

At the Good Housekeeping Institute , our pros in the Media & Tech Lab have been testing photo book makers for more than a decade . For this article, we referenced a robust test of photo book makers completed in 2009, examined updates to apps and ordered new products to test in 2023.

When choosing the best photo book makers, our Lab experts consider ease of use, performance and appearance . That means our pros take an in-depth look at a wide range of features, such as how easy it is to navigate the interface and add photos and text to the book; upload and delivery time; the number of styles, covers and templates offered; and the photo, paper and binding quality.

What to look for when shopping for the best custom photo book maker

Keep the following features in mind when choosing the right photo book maker website for your needs:

✔️ Size: Whether you're looking for a small photo book for kids or a much larger album to house snapshots from a long family vacation, there are regular, large and miniature photo book sizes available. It's best to think about how many photos you want to include and where you plan to store the album (i.e., will the book be too tall for your bookshelf or just right on top of your coffee table?).

✔️ Shape: Most photo books are rectangular or square in shape, but some companies also offer photo puzzles, calendars and tabletops to choose from too. The shape is really about aesthetic preference and the orientation you prefer for your photos.

✔️ Page count: Are you compiling 20 photos from your daughter's first-birthday party? Or are you putting together an anniversary album of pictures of you and your partner throughout the years? The number of pages determines the number of photos you can include in an album, so you have enough space to include everything.

✔️ Paper quality: This is probably a no-brainer, as the quality of material your photos are printed on is as important as the quality of the photos themselves. Although companies with higher-quality paper, like Artifact Uprising , may have a higher price tag, the extra money goes toward paper that won't lead to photos bleeding into the crease. But there are still services that are affordable and offer good-quality products, like our best value pick, Walmart Photo .

✔️ Binding quality: Some companies, like Google Photos , will add a binding to your photo album. This feature is especially important when considering the durability and longevity of your photo album. Whether it's a softcover, hardcover or lay-flat book, make sure the binding can withstand accidental drops and the wear and tear of passing the family album around at holiday parties.

✔️ Templates: If your photo album will have a certain theme or be centered around a specific occasion — or it's your first time using a photo book maker — choosing a service that has a variety of templates to choose from will let your creativity flow and also help you warm up to the design process.

✔️ Editing capabilities: When looking at beginner-level or more advanced designer tools, consider how robust or simple they are to use. Having lots of control over the interface is fun, but if you're looking for a more straightforward experience, opt for a service that does the majority of the decision-making for you or offers designer help, like Shutterfly .

What is the easiest way to make a custom photo book?

" It really depends upon the service and your preference ," Rothman says. Although some online custom photo book makers also have an app, it can have limited functionality, be buggy or not as easy to use as the desktop equivalent. "Often, an app makes it super simple to upload pictures from your phone (a major plus!) but doesn't allow as much flexibility for product assortment or editing once you've selected." That said, designing a photo book on your smartphone or tablet versus a desktop may come down to how many edits you intend to make .

"If you plan to do a lot of editing, the non-app version on a larger screen would likely be your best choice. If you want to quickly make a book with limited changes, an app on your mobile device may be the way to go," Rothman explains.

Why trust Good Housekeeping?

Elizabeth Berry is the updates editor at the Good Housekeeping Institute , where she ensures product reviews reflect accurate information. Prior to this role, she was an editorial assistant at Woman's Day , where she covered everything from gift guides to recipes.

To update this article, Elizabeth collaborated with former Good Housekeeping Institute Chief Technologist & Executive Technical Director Rachel Rothman to gather testing notes regarding current picks. Rachel, who has tested several of the best photo book makers on this list, has more than 15 years of experience evaluating thousands of products, including toys and cars for Good Housekeeping’s annual Best Toy Awards and Best New Family Cars programs.

Amina Lake Abdelrahman is a product review writer and editor who worked as an editorial assistant at the Good Housekeeping Institute from 2018 to 2020, writing original content based on GH Institute Lab experts' product testing and analysis.

Amina is a product review writer and editor who worked as an editorial assistant in the Good Housekeeping Institute from 2018 to 2020, writing original content based on GH Lab experts' product testing and analysis. Amina graduated from Montclair State University with a B.A. in communication studies and journalism.

Elizabeth Berry (she/her) is the Updates Editor at the Good Housekeeping Institute where she optimizes lifestyle content across verticals. Prior to this role, she was an Editorial Assistant for Woman’s Day where she covered everything from gift guides to recipes. She also has experience fact checking commerce articles and holds a B.A. in English and Italian Studies from Connecticut College.

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A Little Journal… These Digital Travel Diary Apps Are Worth Your Time

Last updated on January 4, 2024 by Shannon

As travel enthusiasts, we yearn to capture the essence of extraordinary travel moments and freeze them in time. We even want those mundane details preserved—what was the name of that hilarious taxi driver who shuttled you from the airport to your guesthouse?

If you’ve logged those details in a travel journal, you don’t have to remember—that’s where travel journaling apps come in, offering a digital travel scrapbook that easily documents even the craziest travel adventures.

I’ve been traveling the world for 15 years, writing, photographing, and sharing my travel stories from the first day. That means I have pretty high expectations when it comes to using digital travel diaries meant to preserve the memories of your expeditions. Here’s what you need to know about the best online travel journal apps available.

Table of Contents

What are Digital Travel Diaries?

While journaling about your travels via a paper notebook used to be called a travel log, the more modern equivalent is an online travel journaling app. That said, even diary app is just a new way to log the most important moments of your travels—and the mundane ones too.

Travel journals essential just document your experiences, capturing your memories as you travel the world. By logging your travel memories in real time via a journaling app, you ensure the smaller details are captured.

Was it a torrential downpour on the day you had booked an “any-weather” tour of the Norwegian fjords? Log that and then share how you felt at that very moment, otherwise the details fade with time.

That’s the real magic of keeping a travel log in any form, a beloved notebook, an app, or a blog. I’ve used all three over my 15+ years of travel. This travel blog was my primary travel log, but at times I’ve used these travel apps to capture moments more immediately.

And no matter my online travel journal app of choice, I always, always have a small physical journal. Even if you diligently record all of the best moments of your trip in your digital travel diary app, you should also carry a small travel journal that acts as your travel log—you use it to jot down funny off-the-cuff moments, or even just mundane details.

Perhaps you press between the pages ticket stubs, a pretty flower from your world wanders, and other small memorabilia that can’t be captured in a journaling app. It becomes a place to log currency conversions you can surreptitiously glance at when haggling at a market, or jot down lists and travel plans.

I never travel without a pocket Field Notes waterproof notebook and this Moleskine travel journal —its these two things that have allowed me to share such rich details on this blog, my personal travel log that’s been running 15 years and counting.

How to Choose an Online Travel Journal App

Travel journal apps are not one-size-fits-all. The best apps offer the exact range of features you need and at a price point you can afford—which can mean free! Many journaling apps offer a free version that may just meet your needs. Often its the more sophisticated features that require a paid upgrade.

Given that you’re probably snowed under travel planning, don’t waste your time downloading every travel diary app here. To pick the right app for your travels, consider these things before you download it:

When choosing an online travel diary app, there are several factors to consider that can help you find the one that best fits your needs. Here are some tips to help you make a decision:

• Features : Review what the journaling app actually does—what are the key features these app developers believe are the hallmarks of their app? That will tell you a lot about functionality. Standard features of most digital travel diaries include: text entry, photo and video uploading, geotagging, and weather data. Decide which features are important to you and ensure that the app provides them. Maybe you want an awesome map interface because you’re hopscotching around the world for a year ? Or you’re studying abroad you might want an app with more functionality around text and photo entries.
• Platform Compatibility : Check if the digital journaling app is available on your preferred platforms, such as iOS, Android, web-based, and desktop. If you’re bringing both a smartphone and laptop on your travels , you may wan a travel diary app that seamlessly switches between the two devices.
• Syncing and Backup : Consider whether the app offers syncing and backup options—and if those are free or paid features. You want access your travel diary across multiple devices, and you want it securely backed up to the cloud.
• Export and Sharing Options : If you plan to share your travel diary with others or would like to have a backup of your entries outside of the app, check if it offers export options, such as PDF or other file formats.
• Company Story : If the travel journaling app you’re considering using hasn’t been around for at least two-to-five years, run in the other direction. Companies, especially app makers, fold quickly. The last thing you want is an email saying you have a matter of days to download your cherished memories before they’re all deleted.

Best Travel Journaling Apps

Day One tops most of these lists because it’s actually that good—and it’s been around since 2011, so you know your travel memories are safe with this online diary app. The company has invested in a high-quality product, and updates over the years have responded to user reviews and feedback—which is enthusiastic across the board.

Its clean interface and seamless integration with iOS (both iPhones and Macs) and Android make it a joy to use. You can effortlessly capture each destination through text and photos, while popping in location data too.

Best app features : The “On This Day” functionality is neat because it doesn’t pull in the best of anything, but rather that exact moment years ago when you were on an incredible adventure out there in the world—or maybe you had logged a tasty hot chocolate at a hipster spot near that landmark you were visiting.

Either way, you’ll be transported back there in an instant and that app feature is maybe one of the strongest motivators to journal about all the big (and small) things that happen as you travel.

Cost : The free version is enough to see if you like it, but if you’re using this as your main digital travel journal then the one photo per entry restriction on free plans isn’t going to cut it. Premium is affordable though, at just under $3 per month, which buys you unlimited photos, videos, audio, drawings, and more.

If you go all in on Journey as your travel journal app, it will become your trusted companion. Rather than being a journaling app that’s great for travel, this travel-centric journaling app goes above and beyond with its extensive features.

Geotagging allows you to pinpoint the exact location of you experiences, while the inclusion of weather data and “mood” status adds depth to entries. You can import photos from your camera roll directly into journal entires, creating vivid visual narratives of your travels.

This robust app works on iOS devices and Android phones, Mac or Windows computers, and there’s even a web app! Basically, it’s an accessible and essential tool for any travel writer seeking to document their adventures with style and precision. Not only because of the features, but also because it allows multi-media exports in PDF or doc format.

It’s also a bit cheeky and has a handy guide to what Journey offers versus Day One or Daylio .

Best app features : Stand out for many will be the features that let you automatically sync and import social media content from Instagram and the like—what a time saver! And the full text editing screen is nice—you can bold, bullet, color, or link to anything you’d like right inside the text. Surprisingly, that’s not in every diary journaling app.

But one of the neater travel-focused elements are the three views for your journal—media (where you scroll by photos), map (which shows your entries pinpointed on a map of the world) and calendar (journals organized by date).

Cost : Unlike essentially all competitors, Journey offers a one time purchase license—currently $18. You can buy a membership for ~$4.20.

Daylio , billed as a “simple micro-diary app,” adds an interesting twist to a travel journaling routine. As a mood and activity tracker, it enables you to record daily experiences and emotions with ease—and without writing anything. It’s an interesting way to to reflect on how your travel adventures have impacted your overall well-being .

It’s not for the hardcore travel writer, but rather, Daylio captures the essence of the travel experiences in a uniquely personal way. It’s a good companion for those seeking to intertwine their emotional journey with their physical travels. And for those who want a more streamlined diary app with fewer features and just straight to the meat of what you want to do.

Best app features : This app is dead simple to use and can be updated in under a minute thanks to the tap interface. It’s certainly not going to be the only way you record you travels, but if you’re already planning to share extensively on a Facebook or Instagram page , then this ease of use may just ensure that you use it every day.

Cost : You could get pretty far with the free version, or upgrade for just $3 per month—only the premium version supports exporting to PDF.

4. Evernote

Real talk: The digital travel journal of your dreams may be something you’re already using. When it comes to versatile note-taking, Evernote reigns supreme. Its functionality goes beyond simple journaling, allowing the creation of multimedia-rich entries.

I’ve organized my entire life via Evernote—travel pans, stories, etc—and its robust features make a compelling case for this being one of the best journaling apps out there, period. Not just in travel, but in general.

As one of the best digital diary apps, you can update it seamlessly across iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows.

Best app features : Well, you could use Evernote to basically plan and execute your trip, in addition to using it as a digital journal. You can also stay ruthlessly organized.

Cost : The free version offers 60 MB monthly uploads, which is constraining for travelers looking for an online app where they could add photos and videos to Evernote itself—this would like be better if you’re embedding YouTube videos, for example, versus storing them in Evernote.

The Personal version offers a more reasonable 10 GB in monthly uploads, but costs $11/month for that perk. If you’re already paying for Evernote for other reasons then this could be an excellent online travel journal, otherwise some of the other ones are likely better priced for a traveler.

5. Travel Diaries

For those seeking a dedicated travel journaling app, Travel Diaries hits the mark. It’s really a truly solid option. As a travel writer, I’m captivated by its interactive features. You can easily create immersive travelogues, complete with photos, maps, and annotations.

It’s also a captivating way to showcase your journey to fellow travelers (and your family and friends back home, of course!). The ability to share your travel stories and explore others’ adventures on the platform adds a sense of community not available in the other digital travel journaling apps.

It’s available as software for web, iOS and Android, but will only work with an internet connection (either cell data or wifi)—which means this might not be the best journaling app for those going far off-the-beaten path .

Best app features : A broad range of fonts and styles allow you to design your travel diary according to your own taste, and your travel log can include itineraries, travel photos, and a traveling map. The layout as an actual travel journal is a fun and personal touch that makes it feel like your digital diary is just as capable of creativity as a blank page in front of you.

Cost : There is no free version of Travel Diaries—it’ll be a subscription for as long as you want access to your travel journal. The basic plan costs $1 a month and includes unlimited storage and is really all most travelers will need for a robust travel journal. If you want to export your stories to PDF, you’ll have to upgrade to $3 per month.

Diaro App is a reliable companion for millions of people, not just globetrotters. This comprehensive diary app offers an array of features that elevate a travel journaling experience. Sometimes the best travel journal is, well, just a great online diary that you happen to use to document your travels.

The ability to add text, photos, tags, and organize entries into folders keeps this app well-organized—you can effortlessly find specific memories or delve into specific themes from your trips. It has a map of entry locations, which is especially important for those using this as a travel journal diary.

Diaro’s sleek interface and user-friendly design make the process of documenting adventures a true pleasure. Available on web, iOS or Android devices (with cross-device syncing via Dropbox) Diaro is a go-to app for travelers who want to capture the essence of their trip with elegance and efficiency.

Best app features : The multilingual UI (30+languages) may be a real boon for those for whom English is not their native language, but the shining standout features is just how easy it is to create a robust diary accounting for all of the key moments on your trip.

Cost : The free version has robust functionality. Upgrading to Diario Pro costs $10 per month and offers more customizability.

7. Polarsteps

Polarsteps is a great travel journal app that offers automatic tracking of your journey, making it effortless to document and share your trips. With its GPS technology, the app traces your route in real-time, creating a visually appealing map of your adventure without requiring any manual input.

This feature sets Polarsteps apart from other travel journal apps, as it eliminates the need for constant updates and allows you to focus on enjoying your trip while the app takes care of recording your route—and uses minimal data and power to do so.

What truly makes Polarsteps unique is its ability to create a beautifully presented travel log that showcases your journey. This app is made for the travel photographers out there also wanting a digital travel log of their journey.

Along with the automatic tracking, the app allows you to add photos, captions, and personal insights to your entries. These elements are then combined to create a visually stunning travel journal that can be shared with friends, family, and fellow travelers. I think this is one of the prettier apps—the maps alone are just a step up from the others.

Best app features : The GPS tracking is easily the standout here. You’ll know the precise spot you took a photo, and can then include a quick note—an inside joke you shared with a friend while there, a tidbit about the day, and more. This kind of precise location data is invaluable in the months and years after you travel.

Cost : It’s free! Polarsteps offers you a printed travel journal of your trip, which is how it’s monetized.

8. Waffle Journal

Waffle Journal stands out from the rest as a a collaborative journaling app that allows you to document and share your travel experiences with others—probably those on your same trip. Its unique approach fosters collaboration, allowing friends, family, or fellow travelers to contribute to your journal. With the ability to add stories, photos, and memories, everyone can create a collective travel diary that captures the essence of your adventures.

The app goes beyond traditional journaling by integrating multimedia elements. You can include photos, videos, and audio recordings. It’s not a travel journal specifically, so you’re not going to have any of those map features the travel apps have integrated into the experience, but it could be a great option for those travel in a group, or a group of friends who just love to share their travel adventures with each other. Social sharing features make it easy to showcase your travel adventures on social media platforms or via email.

BONUS: RIP: Bonjournal

Bonjournal captured my attention many years ago for its visually stunning approach to travel journaling. As you penned your travel stories, this app transformed them into beautifully presented narratives—and it made you choose just one photo to represent your day. Which was really quite neat.

This travel journal app is no longer available! Even though other websites are still recommending it as a travel diary app, the gorgeous app that debuted more than a decade ago is no longer up and running. Instead, a new app with the same name launched in 2021—it’s not a viable alternative. This new Bon Journal diary app is glitchy and poorly rated—storing your cherished travel memories there is not a good idea.

Don’t forget a paper journal as well.

This Moleskin travel journal is well made and worth the space it will take up in your bag. There will be times you just want to put pen to paper—you’ll be glad you have an analog record of your travels too.

How to Safely Store Travel Photos and Videos

These travel journaling apps are a terrific way to document your journey for personal memories, and to share with others. Although some long-term travelers create a travel blog to record their trips, using a travel diary instead is a great alternative.

You get amazing functionality and the ability to share your travel stories without the hassle of running a blog—which can get pricey and generally lacks the ability to share some stories privately with family, or keep other journal entries entirely private.

One thing all of these apps have are general constraints on how you upload, store, and present your travel photos and videos. Although some of these apps offer paid subscriptions with unlimited uploads, you’re likely safer if you store your actual travel photos elsewhere, too. Here’s a quick review of other places you can store travel photos, and the perks of using them in addition to, or instead of, a travel diary app.

• Facebook pages : Rather than use your personal profile, consider setting up a Facebook page for your trip—then you can share unlimited stories, photos, and videos. And you’re creating and sharing in a place where it’s likely your family and friends are already hanging out.
• Instagram : This is a great way to share photos, but videos and stories are a little more constrained on this platform. This might be a good option in addition to a digital travel diary.
• SmugMug : If you need a place to both store and display all of your travel photos, SmugMug is a great option. I’ve had an annual plan for more than a decade and it offers unlimited storage for all of my photos from all over the world for $88 per year. And it’s totally customizable—you can create gorgeous albums on a custom domain name if you own one.
• Google Drive : If you just need a backup solution without the need to share then Google Drive is a good option (I find Google Photos a chore to use). It’s just $2 a month for 100GB of cloud storage.

Ready for some travel inspiration? These are the best travel stories of travelers to follow now, inspiring books from historic travels, and short reads, too.

Essential Travel Planning Resources

❗ Yes, you need travel insurance . IMG Global is the travel insurance I’ve used for well over a decade of traveling solo, and with kids. Here’s why .

🧳 Smart packing can save your trip. Shop my favorite travel gear , including all of the packing essentials for world travel , gear to keep you safe on the road, my favorite travel books , and more.

🛏️ Find great accommodation . Booking.com is essentially the only hotel booking site that I use. It has a wide and affordable selection of traditional hotels, but also hostels and vacation rentals, too. Use these pro tips to find the best travel accommodation .

📍 Navigate more effectively. Rome2Rio is super handy to assess the full range of transport options between two cities—shows everything from flights to trains, buses, minibuses, and more. If you’re booking a rental car, I’ve always found the best deals on RentalCars.com .

✈️ Book affordable flights. Expedia is one of the first places I look for low-cost flights .

☕ Peruse all of my tips for round the world travel , or learn how to move and live abroad .

3 travel apps you need before your next flight to keep you out of long TSA lines

Travel can be stressful, especially when airports are involved. 

Flights get delayed, or, worse still, canceled.  

Ever-growing security lines sometimes snake through the airport, putting you in jeopardy of missing your flight.

Last-minute changes can happen and derail months of planning, potentially starting off your trip on a bad note.

Programs like TSA PreCheck and Global Entry can help travelers, but there are also ways that tech can help you prepare for your journey and stay aware of the curveballs that might come your way.

Learn more: Best travel insurance

Here are three apps to download before your next trip. 

Watch the video above to learn which three apps you need before your next trip. 

Airline app 

Download your airline’s app! 

It keeps all of your travel information in one, easy-to-access place. 

Turn on notifications to get immediate alerts when it's time to check in so you'll know if there are any delays or gate changes. 

Once you have a boarding pass, save even more time by adding it to the digital wallet on your smartphone.

The lines at airport security can be very unpredictable. Sometimes there is no wait, other times, the line extends into the check-in area. 

The Transportation Security Agency’s (TSA) app, MyTSA, tries to make the wait a little more predictable and helps you determine what to expect, especially if you’re traveling from one of the busiest airports in the US.  

The app provides a real-time look at your selected airport's wait time, any FAA delays, and which TSA PreCheck lanes are open. 

The app also uses historical data to help you plan ahead. So, even if your flight is three days away, the app can show you what you’re likely to encounter that day based on previous experiences. 

It’s also a useful resource if you’re unsure about what you can or can’t pack in your carry-on and checked luggage.

Mobile Passport Control

If you’re traveling abroad, the Mobile Passport Control app makes your return through U.S. customs much faster. 

The app is a digital version of the Customs and Border Patrol Declaration Form that anyone entering the U.S. is required to fill out.  

You can save up to 12 profiles in the app, and only one form is needed per family, per residence. 

The app doesn't work at every airport, so check  the CBP website to see where you can use it. 

Reviewed-approved iPhone accessories  

Purchases you make through our links may earn us and our publishing partners a commission.   

Reviewed helps you find the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of tech experts test everything from Apple AirPods and screen protectors to iPhone tripods and car mounts so you can shop for the best of the best. 

• The best rugged iPhone case: Spigen Slim Armor  
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10 Of The Best Travel Apps For Android That Make Trip Planning A Breeze

T ravel is about as easy as it's ever been. You can hop on a plane, go anywhere, find accommodations once you're there, and even hail a taxi with just a few clicks or taps. Prices can be quite reasonable as long as you're keeping your expectations in check. It's not unusual for folks to take a weekend trip somewhere for no reason other than to just get out of the house. Luckily, there are plenty of good travel apps for Android to help with planning.

A smartphone has plenty of utility in a space like this. You keep it on you all the time, even on airplanes, so it's not a bad place to store your itinerary. People are relying on their smartphones a lot more for travel compared to even just a few years ago. Apps for things like hotels and transportation booking have improved by a large amount over the last five years or so. Additionally, new tools have made their way to the market. 

In some cases, you may not even need an app. For instance, Google Travel is an aggregate website that includes flights, hotels, rentals, and discovery features for when you arrive in your destination city. Apps tend to be a little more reliable, though, so let's take a look at some good ones.

Airbnb is a popular travel app that lets you rent out establishments that are usually owned by real people. There are a few benefits to this approach. For starters, it's a vastly different experience than the same old hotel stay that we all know and tolerate. There are also a variety of properties available for rent in most regions, including cabins, beachfront properties, and other interesting accommodations. It's a nice way to spice up your trip without changing your itinerary too much. It's not a leap in logic to assume that a beach trip would be more fun in a beach house rather than a standard hotel.

However, there are some downsides to Airbnb. It's generally more expensive than a traditional hotel stay, especially if you go for something more exotic. For instance, we found a wonderful cabin in Ohio that costs over $700 per day to rent. That's a $2,100 weekend before taking any other expenses into consideration. Additionally, you can find the occasional horror story about owners and tenants causing drama. A little vigilance and some patience can help avoid such complications. 

There aren't many apps like Airbnb, although some are trying. They include Vrbo, Booking.com, Hipcamp, and a few others, but none are as established as Airbnb. The app is free to use, but rentals obviously cost money.

Citymapper is a unique app for travelers. It sources its map information from Google Maps, so you're not using something entirely different from what you'd normally use. Where Citymapper excels is in its depth of choice. Let's say you want to go from West Side Market to the Agora Theater in Cleveland, Ohio. Citymapper not only gives you directions but also gives you options for your transportation. You can walk, take the bus, rent a scooter, or hail a cab. There is built-in support for Uber, Lyft, and several other transportation companies for cab service and scooter rentals. There are even bus schedules to help plan your day around local transportation. 

Yes, it is possible to recreate a lot of this in Google Maps. However, Citymapper is built specifically for this function, so the layout of the app makes a little more sense for folks who don't often use these types of services. The only real downside of Citymapper is the lack of support for many U.S. cities. For example, in Ohio the app supports Cleveland but not Cincinnati or Columbus. That's a bit of an oversight, although there is always Google Maps to fall back on if you're somewhere without official Citymapper support. 

Citymapper is free to use with advertising. You can remove the advertising with a $1.49 per month subscription.

Google Maps

Google Maps is an excellent choice for obvious reasons. It features near-ubiquitous support for most places you'd want to go, a laundry list of features for all sorts of activities, and even competes favorably with Yelp for user reviews. It's a go-to, all-in-one solution that nullifies a lot of its competitors. You can even download maps for offline use if you expect to be out of range of an Internet connection. Otherwise, most people know how Google Maps works. You can get navigation to just about anywhere. There is also support for walking, public transportation, and more.

What makes Google Maps special are a lot of the smaller, less-used features . For example, you can share your location with a friend or family member. They can use Google Maps to find your location and get to you if needed. You can also adjust your routes to save gas and search for the cheapest gas near you. The gas station prices aren't always exactly current, but it gives you a good idea. It'll even show you the speed limit when used with Android Auto. Not every feature is supported everywhere, so your mileage may vary. 

Google Maps has a lot of competition in this space, such as Apple Maps. Some alternatives, like Maps.me and OsmAnd, use OpenStreetMap as a source, which can occasionally be more reliable than Google Maps and may also include some extra hiking trails or paths that Maps doesn't. Otherwise, Google Maps stands alone at the top.

Google Translate

Google Translate is another excellent app for travelers. After all, not everybody has the time or capability to learn a new foreign language for each trip they take. Google Translate is good at a number of things. You can easily type in whatever you want into the app and translate it to your language of choice. That's the main function, and it's perfectly usable in day-to-day applications. Other features, however, may see more use in practice, such as the ability of the app to take a picture of a menu or sign and translate it for you. 

Perhaps the most useful feature is the conversation mode. You simply choose the languages you want and speak into the app. The app uses speech-to-text to translate what you said so the other party can read it. They can then do the same in reverse. This lets you have full conversations with people who don't speak your language. You can also use the app offline provided that you downloaded the languages you need first. 

The great part about it is that it just works without much of a learning curve, so most people should be able to figure this out relatively quickly. Google Translate doesn't have a lot of competition. Microsoft Translator and DeepL Translate are making strides, but they aren't quite there yet. 

Kayak is one of many apps to book travel accommodations. It lets you search for flights, hotels, and rental cars for your trip, all within essentially the same experience. For flights, you input your start and end destinations and dates, which leads the app to pull up available flights. There is then a process that sorts them by the cheapest so you can find the best deals. Looking for hotels and rental cards is the same. You input your destination and dates, and the app tries to find you the best deals. 

There are some extras that make life a little easier. Kayak's app layout is functional and quite easy to read. Many competitors do this as well, but Kayak just has a good feel. Additionally, you can surf for alternative ideas like ridesharing for car rentals or vacation homes instead of hotel accommodations. There are plenty of filters to nail down exactly what you want. Booking accommodations through the app is a fairly simple process and not much different from most other apps.

Kayak has a ton of competitors in this space, including Priceline, Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, and at least a couple dozen others. Choosing one is a lot like choosing a grocery store -- different services have different sales at different times. You should use the one that saves you the most money at the time you plan your trip. 

Polarsteps is a travel tracker app, although it is more recreational than it is functional. The app lets you plan your trip and then log the trip as you take it. You can store things like photos, notes, and other memories along your journey. The app shows you all of those memories on a neat world map. It's an overall nice way to visualize your trip after you're done taking it. In addition, you can share your trip with family and friends so they can keep track of you as you progress while commenting on your photos and memories. 

The app works quite well in practice. Photos and other content upload quickly, and the social elements are done well. The only real downside of the app is that it is for recreational purposes only. You can't manage an itinerary, book hotels, or do any actual planning with Polarsteps. This is only for capturing memories.

Polarsteps also gives you the option of ordering a travel book with memories of your travels. You can also revisit old trips through the app if you decide to keep it for multiple trips. Polarsteps is free to use. You only have to spend money on the travel book if you want it. 

There are many apps that do variations of this same thing. FindPenguins is an up-and-coming app in this space that does a lot of the same stuff as Polarsteps. 

TripIt is an all-in-one travel planner. It starts by having you create a trip in the app. From there, you add in your itinerary, travel plans, and other information. Everything is manual, so you don't have to worry about syncing anything. You can enter everything from flight numbers to hotel reservation confirmation numbers. There is also an alerts system for reminders about those flights and hotel reservations. It's a nice overall package that takes most types of travel into consideration. The app has a clean look, and it shouldn't take long to get the gist of how everything works.

There are a variety of other features as well. You can store travel documents like passports, Visas, and driver's licenses. There are whole sections for alternate modes of transportation such as cruise ships, trains, and public transportation. The navigation feature integrates directly with Google Maps for easy storage of your road trip directions. Those who opt for the optional $48.99 per year subscription also get access to a point tracker for your loyalty programs as well as an Inner Circle feature to invite other people to plan trips with you.

Like other travel apps, this one has a lot of competition. RoadTrippers, Passporter, and TripCase are a few decent examples. TripIt does the job better and with less hassle than most of its competitors, so it's a great place to start. 

Uber is a must for travelers. It's ubiquitous in the U.S. at least, and almost everybody knows how to use it. It's a ridesharing service that operates similarly to a taxi service -- you hire a driver to take you from point A to point B. There's a rating system for both passengers and drivers to keep everyone honest. 

Otherwise, it's a fairly straightforward endeavor. The app is easy to use, and you can schedule rides for the future if needed as well. At this point, Uber has been around long enough that most people have used it at least once. There aren't many surprises here. 

Uber has consolidated a lot of its functions within its main app. That means you can order food and have it delivered to your location without using the Uber Eats app. There are also options for pharmacy, alcohol, retail, and grocery delivery. You can even have a driver deliver a package from your location to its destination if you need it there quickly and don't mind paying extra for it. Rounding out the features is a car rental service partnership with Hertz that allows you to rent a car if you prefer. 

Uber has competition all around the world. Lyft is its biggest competitor and it's good as a ridesharing service. Other countries may have services specific to that location. You'll want to do some research if you're traveling abroad. 

Vio is a hotel deal comparison app. Earlier, we talked about Kayak and how it had tons of competitors in this space. Vio, and apps like it, aggregate prices from many of those places so you can price shop across services in a single spot. The app shows you the best deal it was able to find, even if that deal wasn't directly from Vio, by sourcing prices from over 100 travel sites. The app also boasts millions of hotel options around the world. Pair that with a solid UI that doesn't feel overly cluttered, and you have an app that ends up feeling easy to use. 

All you have to do is input your destination city to start browsing. Once you find a hotel you like, you can view more details within the app. From there, there are two things that can happen. You can continue booking the hotel from the app if the deal is directly from Vio. Otherwise, the app throws you to the other service to complete the process. For example, if you find a good deal using Booking.com, the app will send you to that website so you can claim it. 

There are a variety of services that do something similar. Trivago is another popular option for comparing hotel prices, and you can use either one as they both work about the same and compare the same data. 

Wanderlog is a travel planner app. It offers an all-in-one solution to essentially the entire experience. You can plan the trip by inputting your various reservations, itineraries, and other plans. The app keeps track of everything for easy recall later. In addition, Wanderlog has a ton of little extras that can help make things easier. 

For instance, you can compare hotel and flight prices. There is also a collaboration feature that is available for free. You can add people to your trip so they can see all of the information as well. It might seem a bit cluttered at first but it gets easier the more you use it. 

In general, Wanderlog is easy to use. There are a lot of distracting elements as the app sends you deals and coupons for various travel-related services. Some of those are genuinely useful, so it's not the biggest deal. The app requires an internet connection to use if you're on the free version. You can get offline support along with Google Maps support, fewer restrictions, and even more deals for an optional $39.99 per month. The subscription isn't necessary unless you intend on using the app very heavily.

What makes this app unique is that it's a mix between an aggregator service like Vio and a travel planner like TripIt. You can find this same experience across two or three apps if you want to.

Read this next: 12 Essential Apps Every Android Owner Should Always Have Installed

These 5 Arizona hotels were just named among the world's best. Here's why they stand out

Five Arizona hotels were just named among the best in the world for 2024.

Travel + Leisure unveiled its 2024 T+L 500 list of the world's best hotels, compiled based on ratings from its readers, in its May issue. The list includes five Arizona hotels, including four that made T+L's 2023 best hotels in Arizona ranking .

Readers evaluate based on their levels of quality, luxury, service and amenities. Here's a look at which Arizona hotels made the Travel + Leisure 2024 best hotels list.

For more hotels recognized as being among the best of metro Phoenix, read about the honorees in  U.S. News & World Report's 2024 ranking ,  Forbes' 2024 Star Awards , and  Esquire's best new hotels in the world .

Five Arizona hotels selected by Travel + Leisure

Readers of Travel + Leisure, America's largest travel media brand, selected five Arizona hotels on its 2024 ranking of the world's best hotels:

• Castle Hot Springs, Morristown.
• The Hermosa Inn, Paradise Valley.
• Mountain Shadows Resort, Paradise Valley.
• Sanctuary Camelback Mountain, A Gurney's Resort & Spa, Paradise Valley.
• Tanque Verde Ranch, Tucson.

“We’re honored to be recognized on the highly coveted T+L 500 List,” said Andrew Chippindall, general manager of Mountain Shadows Resort. “It’s a true testament to our team’s unwavering commitment to providing exceptional experiences for our treasured guests.”

How Travel + Leisure World's Best hotels 2024 were chosen

The T+L 500 list is derived from T+L's annual World's Best Awards, selected based on reader reviews and feedback. Readers were surveyed about their travel experiences around the world, including hotels, cities, islands, airlines, cruise ships and other experiences.

Readers rated hotels based on their rooms and facilities, location, service, food and overall value. They scored each category on a scale from "excellent" to "poor."

The hotels recognized this year are favorites among the publication's readers, who named Castle Hot Springs the best Arizona hotel of 2021 and 2022 and the Hermosa Inn the state's best of 2023. All except for Tanque Verde Ranch were included on last year's list of the 10 best hotels in Arizona.

Michael Salerno is an award-winning journalist who’s covered travel and tourism since 2014. His work as The Arizona Republic’s consumer travel reporter aims to help readers navigate the stresses of traveling and get the best value for their money on their vacations. He can be reached at   [email protected] . Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:   @salerno_phx .

Support local journalism.   Subscribe to  azcentral.com  today.

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• In Photos: Every Three Key Hotel in New York City

The ins and outs of the most outstanding hotels in the city.

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New York City by The MICHELIN Guide

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In 2024, The MICHELIN Guide is announcing the first ever MICHELIN Keys — a brand new distinction that recognizes the most outstanding hotels across the world. Head here for everything you need to know about the new Key distinction, and visit this page to explore the full list of Key hotels in the United States.

The Three Key distinction is the highest hotel honor in The MICHELIN Guide. Earning One Key (80 properties) or Two Keys (33 properties) is difficult enough, but only 11 hotels earned Three Keys in the United States. Of those, four can be found in New York City. The Three Key hotels excel in all five criteria used to judge hotels by our Inspectors. But in this series , we thought it fitting to focus on just one of those criteria — the most photogenic of the five — architecture and interior design. Below, take a look at the interiors and exteriors of each of our four Three Key hotels in New York City.

Casa Cipriani

Whitby Hotel

Aman New York

Crosby Street Hotel

Hero Image: © Aman New York

The First MICHELIN Key Hotels: All the Keys in the United States

The MICHELIN Guide announces top honors for U.S. hotels in 2024.

The Most Outrageous Design Hotel In Miami

The Faena Miami Beach is a Two Key hotel with a $15 million gilded woolly mammoth.

A Brief Guide to All the Key Hotels in Washington D.C.

Seven hotels earned at least one MICHELIN Key in Washington D.C.

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The One Key Chicago Athletic Association has had an illustrious and sometimes sordid history that dates back to 1893, when it wasn’t quite a hotel. A lot has changed since then, but the ghosts of the past are never far away.

Eaton DC Is a Launchpad for Progress

Katherine Lo’s Eaton DC isn’t just one of the best hotels in the United States capital. It’s also a headquarters for activism, community, social justice, and sustainability. And it’s not shy about it.

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Florida’s Hotel Selection Is Starting to Sizzle

On April 18, 2024, all the new MICHELIN Stars were announced in Florida. Which makes this the perfect time to check in on some of our newest additions to our hotel selection in the Sunshine State.

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