Best Travel Apps in 2024

A decade into travel and I still find myself learning new track tips and hacks all the time! This year’s round-up for best apps for travel in 2024 comes from a wide variety of topics - money, planning, logistics, etc. But these have to be my most used travel apps of all time, and I hope you find these as helpful as I do! 

Best Apps for Travel in 2024 

1. Splitwise 

Let’s face it, money can be a touchy subject when traveling regarding who’s paid for what and who owes who. Splitwise takes away any rifts that could be caused by this subject and makes it incredibly easy to track expenses between groups. 

When traveling, you can easily add expenses by who pays and who owes for certain activities. For example, if you go to dinner and you pay, keep the receipt and enter it into your trip Splitwise group. You can say that the dinner was either equally split by everyone in the group or broken down into individual dishes. If you and a friend do an excursion but the rest of the group stays behind, you can add that expense between the two of you without including anyone else. 

The app allows you to enter either in USD or whichever foreign currency you are using. At the end, you can then convert the foreign currency to USD. It will say who owes what to whom and how much. Settle up after the trip and you never have to worry about keeping track again! 

2. Oportun

“How do you afford to travel?”

Yup, that’s one of the biggest questions I get! When I started traveling, I was always looking for easy ways to save money, and Oportun was one of the main ways I was able to afford trips. I still use it to this day. Right now in my Oportun account, I have $3,295 in my ‘travel’ goal just waiting to be used! That means my next trip is basically free because, ya know, girl math. 

Oportun connects to your bank’s checking account and pulls out money daily to put into savings ‘goal.’ You can set up goals for many things - travel, house, credit card payments, etc. The app tracks your bills, monthly expenses, and withdrawals in varying amounts based on how much money is in your checking account. For example, if your account only has $100 in it, Oportun will probably only take .50 cents. Other times when the account is higher, it might take $40. Those little withdrawals add up! 

I never notice when Oportun takes money from my account, and it’s always so nice to check the goal every few months and be pleasantly surprised about how much I have in my future travel fund. For example, when I checked for this piece I was expecting a balance of around $1,800. Turns out it was almost double that! Time to plan a trip! 

3. MyRadar

MyRadar has been my go-to travel weather radar for years. I use it to track rain, snow, storms, and other weather events no matter where I am in the world. Unlike other radar apps, this one works beyond the United States boundary, and has no trouble pulling up accurate weather radars everywhere from Bali to Egypt. 

The app also has a ton of additional features, including showing where active wildfires are, wind gusts, temperatures, and air quality. It’s 100% free and can automatically update based on your location. 

4. Stasher 

Stasher is an app that I recently stumbled upon when needing its service, and I wish I had known about it sooner! If you’ve ever been traveling and just need to get rid of your bags for the day to explore, Stasher will make it easy! Enter your location or city in the app and it will pull up hotels or businesses that have lockers or safe rooms for luggage storage.

Early checkout but late flight? No worries! Find a local spot to hold your luggage and pay a small fee ($5) for the day. 

5. Booking.com

In 2022 I started using Booking.com as my main way to book hotels. I am typically a last-minute traveler who doesn’t always book accommodation ahead of time, and I found booking.com was easy and had great rates. There are many reviews online about Booking.com, but I’ve found the customer service and cancellation flexibility much better than many other online booking platforms. 

Within my first few bookings, I started getting 10% discounts on hotels, which made the price even more affordable. I’ve used it everywhere from Jordan to Guatemala and never had an issue. I like how user-friendly the app is, and how it makes it easy to search by geographic region when selecting a hotel.

6. Sekr

If you are more of a road tripper, Sekr is a must! I use this app often when looking for campsites, showers, and water dumping stations when on the road. Users can filter by a wide range of offerings, including paid campsites vs free campsites, as well as cell phone coverage, parking lots that allow for overnight parking, service stations, water fill-ups, and more. 

One of my favorite aspects of Sekr is the reviews and photos. Other travelers can leave reviews on campsites and services, giving you the inside scoop on what to expect. They can also post if there is cell phone coverage for different providers and attach photos of what the campsites look like. All handy things when deciding a route! 

7. Google Maps 

This one is simple, but so very important. The main reason I consider Google Maps one of the best travel apps in 2024 is because of the ability to download offline maps. I always download geographic regions where I will be traveling before I leave. That way, even if I lose service or something goes wrong, I have maps downloaded on my phone and can navigate wherever needed.

This is especially helpful when traveling abroad or when road-tripping. There are many places out west that have no cell phone coverage and require navigation on remote forest service roads. The downloaded maps can be a lifesaver! 

To download maps on Google 

• Open the Google Maps app on your phone
• Search the city, trailhead, or point where you will be going
• Scroll up on the location to see the description and details
• Tap the three dots (...) in the top right corner 
• Select ‘Download offline maps’
• Zoom in or out to determine region size 
• Select ‘download’ 

8. Geocaching 

We’re always looking for places to explore that are a bit off the beaten path. Although Instagram and Google can be great resources for finding places to visit on your trip, they often only showcase the most popular stops, which can be crowded and expensive. 

Geocaching is a worldwide hobby that is almost like a treasure hunt. Locals hide ‘Geocaches’ all around the world for others to find. Some are little boxes with trinkets, some are small pinky-sized logbooks, and some are virtual finds. Users get GPS coordinates and hints to where the geocache is and then it’s a game to find it! It’s especially fun when traveling with kiddos. 

There are many times followers are in awe of how we find certain places while traveling, and it’s because it was a virtual cache! Virtual geocaches are often in scenic or historic locations that require a photo to prove you were there - because they are placed by locals, they are often cool areas that are easily missed otherwise. 

There is a $10 annual fee for the Geocaching app, but totally worth it! It’s such a fun and inspiring travel hobby. 

Best Apps for Travel in 2024 

There you have it! Those are some of my most-used and best travel apps for 2024. The only other app I use religiously while traveling is my United App, but airline apps change based on who you are flying with. But If you can be loyal to an airline in 2024, do it! Being loyal to an airline can save you more money in the long run than booking with budget airlines. I have a whole article on that, too. You can read that here.