Your Second Most Useful Travel Tool

Adventure is a State of Mind

There are many useful tools to help with travel. If you’d like to know what the most helpful travel tool is, read to the end. But before we get there, I’d like to discuss your second most useful travel tool — your smartphone.

Travel and Your Smartphone

Why do I think smartphones are such a useful tool for travel? Obviously, I don’t think they’re an absolute necessity — humans (including myself) traveled for years before the invention of smartphones — but there are many things for which you can use your smartphone (which I’ll refer to as just a “phone” from now on) before, during, and after your trip that will make the entire experience more positive.

Planning

Our phones these days are basically mini computers with some added features and easier portability. I do a lot of trip planning on my computer because I like being able to see things on a larger screen and I can type significantly faster with all of my fingers as compared to just my thumbs. That being said, I’ve also done a lot of planning while waiting on Greg to take photos, and having my phone with me most of the time has made internet access significantly more convenient.

So, what planning can you do on your phone? The better question is, what can’t you do?!

You can read travel blogs and all of their suggestions regarding places to visit and things to do and not do. You can check on airline prices, book some places to stay, and figure out how long it will take to drive or take the train between locations. You can also look at photos of the places you think you might want to visit, find recipes of foods you’ve seen mentioned but aren’t familiar with, look up prices for food in an area, or learn a foreign language. That’s a lot for something so small that you can hold it in your hand or stick it in your pocket.

Your phone can also help keep you organized. There are apps, such as TripIt, that can capture and store any reservations you make for flights and hotels and then remind you when those events are approaching. There are also numerous apps for capturing and saving information, such as the notes app on your iPhone or the app, Evernote.

I’m pretty sure you know everything I’ve mentioned so far, so I want to move on to everything that your phone can help you with during your trip. In fact, I think during your trip is when your phone is actually the most useful. However, there are a few things that you will want to do before your trip to make your phone more useful during your trip.

Things to Do Before You Leave Home

Download Transportation and Lodging Apps

Before your trip, think through any companies you will be working with. What airline are you flying? Have you booked any rooms through a hotel chain or home stays through Airbnb or VRBO? Signing up with those companies and downloading their apps onto your phone means that you will have an easy way to communicate with them if there is a problem, and you will receive notifications from them if there are any changes, such as delayed flights.

Contact Your Phone Company

I’ve mentioned before the importance of contacting your cell phone provider to sign up for their international plan if you want to use your phone for cell service rather than just wifi. If you plan to only use your phone when you have access to wifi, make sure to download anything you will need before you leave home. This includes information about where you will be staying (especially the address), flight information, rental vehicle information, and maps.

Also, if you don’t plan on using cell service in the country you are visiting, when you board the plane for your flight, make sure to shut off cellular service in the settings of your phone before you leave. Otherwise, when you arrive, your phone will immediately connect with cell towers in the area and you will be charged based on your provider’s policies (often fairly expensive fees if you hadn’t signed up for an international plan), even if you immediately shut off the cell service and are only connected for a few seconds.

Download Maps

Maps are extremely important for independent travelers. Many of us are so used to using our maps on our phones that we forget the information is being accessed through cell towers and not saved on our phones. You can, however, download maps.

If you are using Google Maps on your phone, there is an option to designate an area of the map and download it. (Tap your profile picture and then tap Offline Maps. From there, you can select portions of the map you want to download.) Prior to a trip, I do this for all of the areas where I plan to travel. Just be aware that it is the basic map without directions, lane guidance, and other features that you might be used to.

Google Maps has worked for me in all of the places I have traveled to, but there are some areas of the world where a different map might be more useful. Different maps can also provide you with features that you may prefer. You can always do an internet search to explore possible options. For example, CityMaps2Go is an alternative map app that provides offline access to maps and information regarding different attractions. For a well-written guide about how to use CityMaps2Go, check out this post.

Most metro systems around the world also have online maps, and many of them are downloadable. Having this on your phone and being able to access it when you are out and about without access to wifi can make life significantly easier. Back in the days before phones, if you didn’t carry a paper map of the metro system, your only option was to enter a station (if you could find one without the map) and find a map inside to help you figure out which line you needed to take to reach your destination. Now, the downloaded map on your phone replaces the paper map (I never could figure out how to refold them correctly!) and you and your friends can discuss and plan your route while you’re still lingering over a drink in a cafe. To find metro maps, just do an internet search for “metro” and the city you are visiting.

Finally, there might also be maps that are tailored to a specific experience. For example, you might find a map of all of the whisky distilleries in the Speyside area of Scotland. If you and your friends are planning a whisky-themed trip, you’ll probably want to download that map, or if it is not a downloadable version, at least take a screenshot. Such maps are most useful during the planning stage, but there may be opportunities when you are in an area and find that you have some extra time. Being able to quickly figure out what distilleries (in this example) you are close to will be a benefit.

Download Google Translate

Similar to maps, Google has a translation program/dictionary that is easily accessible if you have cell coverage. It can also be downloaded if you plan to use it at times when you will not be using cell service and will not have access to wifi. To download it before your trip, tap the profile icon and then pick the language or languages you want to download.

Start Following Weather Apps

As I’ve mentioned before, adding your travel locations to your favorite weather app before your trip can help you to anticipate the weather and therefore help you with packing. Once you’re at your location, keeping an eye on the weather, much like you might do at home, will help you each day as you’re preparing to go out and explore.

For example, when Greg and I traveled to Ireland in 2007, the island was experiencing the remnants of Hurricane Gordon. Knowing when the heavy rains were likely to arrive would have helped us to plan when we wanted to hike versus when we wanted to visit the local pub. (We didn’t have a phone with a weather app at that point, so we relied on television and radio weather reports when we could access them and, of course, what the locals told us – you know it’s bad when the Irish are complaining about how rainy it is!)

Download Other Helpful Travel Apps

Currency – If you are dealing with a foreign currency, an app like XE Currency Converter can make it easier to figure the price of things you’re buying. When you’re trying to deal with a currency you’re not used to, it’s sometimes too difficult to convert amounts in your head quickly and you can end up feeling like you’re playing with Monopoly money. An app like XE Currency works offline, so you can easily convert amounts to your home currency, although it will only update any changes in the international exchange rate when you reconnect to wifi.

As discussed in a previous post, if you are traveling with a group and splitting expenses, there are a number of apps, such as Venmo and Splitwise, that can make this process easier. You may want to make sure that you as well as your traveling companions download those apps before leaving home.

Transportation – If you’ve traveled much at all, even domestically, you likely already have a transportation app such as Uber or Lyft downloaded on your phone. However, the services you are used to using might not be available in every country you plan to visit. Before you leave home, check whether your favorites are available where you will need them. If not, check into whether there are alternative taxi or ride services in the cities or countries to which you are traveling and download their apps.

Communication – Hopefully you’re being careful about not announcing on social media that your house is vacant and instead are waiting until you return home to post your vacation pictures publicly, but I’m sure you’ll be communicating more directly with at least some of your family and friends. If you’re choosing the frugal option and are relying on wifi to text individually or with a group, it’s important to know that if some of your group are using Apple phones and some are using Android phones, they will not play nice with each other on wifi alone. One way around this is to download a communication app, such as WhatsApp. Of course, you will need to make sure that any family and friends you want to text with have also downloaded the same app.

Download Entertainment

Increasingly, our phones are our go-to sources of entertainment. In addition to the almost ubiquitous social media, we also listen to music, watch movies, play games, and read or listen to books on our phones. This is great for travel… so long as you plan ahead. Many airlines advertise onboard internet access, but my experience with this has been hit or miss, so you probably want to plan ahead and download any entertainment you plan to use on the flight before you actually leave home.

If you’re on a long flight, it’s also important that you have a plan for recharging your phone battery. Increasingly there are USB ports built into airline seats, but this also is not guaranteed, so carrying a portable power bank will give you the energy to use your phone for the entire flight. Well, it will give your phone the energy to last for the entire flight. Hopefully you’ll catch a little nap part of the time!

When you’re choosing what to download, consider not just entertainment but also tools to help you during your flight. For example, if you’re an anxious flier, consider downloading a meditation app or a playlist of relaxing nature sounds. If you’re an avid reader but you’re prone to motion sickness, consider downloading recorded books so that you can shut your eyes during the flight, which often helps reduce motion sickness.

During Your Trip

Calling

Obviously our phones can be used to make calls. (They now have so many additional features that it sometimes surprises me that we don’t forget we can actually use them to make phone calls.) Once you arrive at your destination, there may be times you need to call ahead to notify others of your arrival time or plans or to make a dinner reservation.

If, as discussed above, you’ve contacted your mobile provider and signed up for their international plan, you usually can activate it just by connecting your phone with cell service (by taking it off of airplane mode or by turning on the cellular data).

If you anticipate making a large number of calls, such as if you will be living in another country for a number of months, you might want to consider buying a SIM card. So long as you have an “unlocked” phone so that you can exchange SIM cards, the card you currently have in your phone can be replaced with a card that gives you a phone number for the country you’re in, along with local calling rates. If you travel to more than one country, you will likely need to buy a new card for each country. (Full disclosure, I have never used this option, but I have friends who have done so successfully.)

Regardless of whether you are using wifi calling, an international calling plan, or a local SIM card, when dialing, you need to begin with the country’s calling code. This is also needed if you are calling numbers back in your home country. Country calling codes are easy to find with an internet search. Once you have the country code, dial +, the code, and then the phone number.

For those of us living in the U.S. and Canada, it is easy to remember our country code… it’s 1 or 01. So, if you are outside of the U.S. or Canada and you are trying to call someone back home, you may need to add “+1” to the number saved in your phone to get the call to actually go through.

Keys

New technology is being developed all the time. One of the technologies to come from the Covid pandemic is “contactless check ins.” You may have already experienced this while traveling domestically as both hotels and homestays move toward options that basically turn your phone into your key.

Tickets

Reserved entry times for museums and other frequently visited tourist sites is another outcome from the pandemic. And many of these sites, as well as airlines, concerts, plays, and other entertainment, now usually provide electronic tickets. It is super easy to keep these tickets on your phone although, as I’ve discussed before, it’s a good idea to make sure you have a downloaded version (or a screenshot) of your ticket in case you can’t access wifi. If you’re the overly cautious type (which I can be at times), you can usually print out a paper copy to carry with you.

Camera and Video

Personally, I think one of the best functions of our phones is the ability to take photos and videos. The cameras in most of our phones have improved to the point that they can often take high quality photos. And the fact that I can slip my phone in my pocket rather than carrying around the large, heavy camera that I used to decades ago makes it so much more easy and convenient.

Now, if you’re more serious than me about your photography, like Greg is, your phone’s camera becomes more of an auxiliary camera to be used when convenience is the priority. When Greg and I travel and take photographs of the same thing, it is clear that his camera with its big lenses is the champion of long-distance shots. And zooming in on or enlarging photos from his camera will show much more crisp detail. I guess I get the best of both possible worlds – I no longer carry a heavy camera, but I often have access to high quality and beautiful photos because of Greg’s love of photography.

Audio

Memorable sounds are part of video recordings, but Greg has also started audio recording sounds that reflect a particular memory from our trip but might not exactly have interesting visuals we want to share with others. For example, he recorded the bells in the church next to our Airbnb in Zurich that rang every morning at 7:00am and the wind in a field in Iceland.

Most of us rely so much on our eyes that we forget how much of our memory can be connected to sounds, but often when we listen to these recordings, I’m immediately transported back to the scene and remember details that I had not realized were hiding out in my brain, even when I’ve been looking through photos.

Google Translate

It’s impossible to use a translation program for everything you hear and read in a language in which you are not fluent. I really wish we all had access to something like a “babelfish” such as Douglas Adams created in the novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Technology is getting us closer to the babelfish everyday but, until then, we will probably only translate when absolutely necessary.

That being said, it always seems like something comes up that is absolutely necessary to understand. Most commonly, I’ve used Google Translate to figure out what signs are trying to tell me, to figure out the word for something I’m trying to buy, and to make enough sense of a menu to get reasonably close to what I want to eat. On one recent occasion, I observed someone using Google Translate to communicate with a train conductor to sort out a mistake with their ticket.

Even if you have a fair knowledge of the language you are using, there are often words that you don’t yet know but are really useful in a specific situation. For example, if you’re experiencing a mild medical problem, such as a rash, you may want to ask for medication at a pharmacy, but prior to that moment you may never have had a reason to learn the words for “rash” or “ointment” in another language.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

Saint Augustine

Mindfully Using Your Phone

Having pointed out all the ways that your phone can be a helpful tool to you while traveling, it’s important to remember that it is just a tool. Don’t become so focused on your phone and what it can do, such as getting the perfect photo or translating everything, that you prevent yourself from fully experiencing the moment. Remember, you’re experiencing an adventure! This may be the first time you’ve ever been to this place. Maybe it’ll be the last. Even if it’s a return trip, there are still new experiences to be had.

The best way to create vivid memories is to be fully present in the moment and use all of your senses. So look, really look, more than you try to get the perfect Instagram photo. Truly listen to the sounds of the area around you and the sounds of the language, even if you don’t have a clue what’s being said. Engage all of your other senses as well. Breathe in deeply and notice both familiar and different smells as compared to home. Feel what it’s like to be walking on different forms of pavement, or the breeze on your face. And taste… Well, I’ve made it clear that one of the primary reasons I travel is for the food – let yourself taste and savor all of the different foods you can! Even things that you are used to eating at home may taste different in another country’s version.

After Your Trip

After you return home, you’re likely to use your phone to share photos and videos with family and friends, both in person and through social media. I know I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. Doing this mindfully, however, can increase your post-adventure enjoyment.

Rather than just posting your most Instagram-worthy photo and waiting for the likes to tally up, take time to look through your photos and relive some of the memories. When you share some of your photos with family and friends, whether online or in person, take time to also share some of the associated stories.

Your Most Useful Travel Tool

Okay, I said I would get to this at the end of the post. What is your most useful travel tool? If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you might be able to guess the answer given the emphasis I’ve placed on how important the way we think is to the entire process of planning successful travel adventures. Your most useful travel tool is your brain!

From the moment you experience your first inspiration as to where you want to go, through the entire process of choosing between all of the possible options of things to do and see, and during all of the planning and implementing those plans, your brain and how you use it is the key. At the beginning of the post, I commented that people have planned and traveled for years without the help of smartphones. Obviously, we have used our brains to plan travel for millennia. Smartphones can make the process easier, but we still need to use our brains to get the most from our phones.

Like any tool, wisely using your smartphone will make a significant difference to the benefit you get from it. If you are building something, you need to think through when it is best to use a hammer versus a screwdriver. Similarly, thinking about when and why you are using certain apps and programs on your phone is almost more important than what those apps can do for you.

Previous posts have addressed how important it is to think about online reviews or answers from artificial intelligence when deciding whether to act on that information, and this is similar to how we should approach any of the information we obtain from our phones. For example, if the maps app on your phone is telling you to turn off the highway and onto an unpaved road, you might want to reconsider the suggestion. (I have to admit, I experienced a somewhat nerve-wracking drive late at night once because I blindly followed my phone’s directions, which took me on a rocky, dirt track through the Flint Hills of Kansas because it decided that it was the shortest route to my friend’s house when the highway made a large turn.)

More than anything, being aware of how we think, what we are thinking, and why we think that way (also known as “metacognition”) is the most powerful tool you have for both planning travel adventures and your life in general. Any other tool, such as your phone, combined with the wisdom of metacognition becomes a super power when planning your travel adventure.

How can you use your phone to better plan your travel adventures? What new apps can you try on your phone to make your next trip easier? How can you be intentional and make mindful decisions so that you add — rather than take away — from the enjoyment of your travels?