10 Must-Have Travel Apps for Your Smartphone 

No one is more attached to and dependent on their phones and tablets than business travelers—a fact that travel-related companies and wanderlusting app developers have not missed. Whether it’s help with translating or just making sure everything you need makes it into your suitcase, “There’s an app for that” is no longer a playful tagline, it’s a fact.

When the iPhone app store first opened in July of 2008, there were 800 apps, a number that has rapidly grown to more than 1.3 million as of October 2014. Where new apps used to generate significant buzz, some of the more useful apps now go unrecognized or little-known. Skip searching through the app store, and instead try these favorite established and lesser-known apps — most of which are free — that will make you feel like your phone or tablet is your personal assistant as you travel.

Worldmate (Free)
Targeting world traveleres, and used by more than ten million of them, Worldmate combines all of your travel info—flights, hotels, and cars—to build a business travel itinerary as well as a schedule for business meetings. The app doesn’t stop there: it also includes travel updates and reminders, world clocks, maps, weather forecasts, and more to address most travel needs. Information in the app can also easily be shared among colleagues.

PackPoint Packing List Travel Companion (Free)
Realizing you forgot an important item on the way to the airport or just as you take your seat on the plane is a frustration all frequent travelers have experienced at least once. With PackPoint, enter some basic information about your trip, including your destination, trip purpose and length, and specific activities (for example “fancy dinner”, “international”, and “workout”) and the app calculates what should go in your suitcase. Weather information is shown at the top of the list and taken into account when building the personalized packing list.

Uber (Free)
Need a reliable ride? Uber, one of the fastest growing companies in the world, now services more than 200 cities across the world with on-demand ride service 24/7. When you open the app in any of the cities they service, you can see how many cars are available near you, estimate a fare, and order a car. The app will estimate the arrival time and send a text when your driver — whose name, phone number, customer rating, and car model also appear on your screen — is on the way.

In many major cities, Uber is significantly less expensive than traveling with a local cab company. No cash is needed—your account is linked to your debit or credit card and you are automatically charged at the end of the ride.

The Converted by Ideon ($3.99)
Converted by Ideon is an all-in-one conversion app for currency and imperial-metric (Fahrenehit to Celsius, mile to kilometer, etc.) conversions. With a minimal and stylish interface, users can drag a converter bar rather than manually inputting information. Easy, sleek, and immeasurably helpful.

Open Table (Free)
Looking for dinner reservations for one — or a fancy venue to host a client meeting? Search for eateries by cuisines and neighborhood, price point, location or name, and easily reserve a table through the Open Table app. Special requests can be added for the maître d’  — and canceling is as simple as one click.

Entrain (Free)
Jetlag is the result of a disrupted circadian clock. It’s also one of the most unsettling side effects of traveling. From the University of Michigan, Entrain is your weapon against jetlag. The app simulates your circadian clock on the phone and makes mathematically optimal lighting recommendations to help your adjust as fast as possible to new timezones and schedules — for instance, sometimes the app will recommend complete darkness during the day, or some hours of bright light at night, and so forth.

iSpeech Translator (Free)
It’s easy to feel disoriented when traveling to an area that doesn’t speak your native tongue. With human-quality text to speech and speech recognition, you can speak and translate any words or phrases from emails, web browsers, or text in multiple languages. Hear your translations read aloud in 18 languages, with more coming soon.

Sleep Sounds HQ ($1.99)
Traveling from your home in a big city to the quiet of the suburbs or country? Not everyone loves the sound of silence or crickets; some travelers require the nocturnal sounds of traffic and early-morning delivery vans. SleepSounds has more than 600 city and natural sounds with categories like public places, household (tumbling clothes dryer, for example), and ocean to help ease you into restful sleep, wherever you are.

Hotel Tonight (Free)
Maybe you’ve encountered an unexpected layover or have a few days between obligations to take an impromptu trip—now, where to spend the night? Hotel Tonight helps you find last-minute hotels with a guaranteed best rate and 24/7 real-person customer support via email or phone.

Postagram (Free)
Have a friend or family member who loves receiving postcards from your travels? Postagram lets you design your own postcard on-the-go by choosing a picture from your camera roll, Facebook, Dropbox, or Instagram account and adding a message. Within days, the postcard will be mailed to your recipients (real, not e) mailbox. Postcards to U.S. addresses are $0.99 and $1.99 to international ones. Photos pop-out as a 3×3 inch print.