Microblog
So those are the tools I’m using on this trip. I hope you found one on my list that you’ll find useful. And now, if you’ll excuse me, we’re entering the Alps and I have some sightseeing to do! ?
Finally, for air travel, there are two apps I find useful. First, the Delta app for flight status. Second is the Mobile Passport app which makes it easier and faster for those (like me) without Global Entry to get through immigration at supported U.S. ports of entry.
Lacking a “DuoLingo for travelers” app, the best I’ve found (but still pretty bad) is an iPhone app called “Trip Phrases” which acts as a phrasebook for travelers and translates to several languages. There’s a big hole in the market for language learning for travelers.
Google Translate is great, but it’s still useful (and polite) to learn a little bit of the local language. I’ve looked long and hard for an app like DuoLingo that is aimed at tourists rather than those who seek fluency, but no app of the sort seems to exist. (I’d pay good money!)
For overcoming the language barrier, the Google Translate app is the best I’ve found. It can translate text you type in, or live translate text in the camera view, or even spoken words so you can (sort of) converse with others with whom you don’t share a language. Super useful.
For sightseeing in the Alps, the PeakFinder app is a lot of fun to use to identify the mountains you’re looking at. It’s also one of the most useful examples of augmented reality I’ve seen, overlaying peak names over your Alpine view. Very cool. https://www.peakfinder.org/mobile/
For getting around on local transit, the Transit app was great for navigating Rome’s Metro and bus system. The ATAF was decidedly less useful, but it got the job done for navigating Florence’s bus system which isn’t covered by the Transit app. https://transitapp.com
Back to travel tools: I mentioned this before, but for navigating by car, the Google Maps app, specifically its ability to download map data for offline use, has been really useful.