Doesn’t matter if you are travelling within your country or internationally, travel anxiety is common and happens to the best of us. The fear of missing or forgetting something such as documents or going offboard the itinerary or difficulty in understanding signs or menus at restaurants, etc. Unfortunately, there are too many variables to consider which kicks in the travel anxiety in the first place.
Luckily, your iPhone (or Android) is one heck of a gadget that can take care of most of these variables. As a travel enthusiast, I decided to curate a list of 5 phone apps that have helped me kick away travel anxiety. You could use them too and maybe even better than I did. Let’s take a deep dive into what’s there in it for you.
Prepare a Checklist on the Notes App
When you are traveling, there’s always a set of things that you must carry. It could be hygiene items to an universal adaptor to essential supplies among others. However, if you are almost like me or millions of other people out there, there’s will be always something you might forgot. This is ultimately my biggest fear since I don’t know what implication it could’ve if I forgot ‘that important thing’.
But hey, if you got your phone, it will have your back. You’ll find Notes or to-do apps on both iOS and Android devices where you can create an easy-to-follow checklist. You can do this weeks in advance so that you add can items on the checklist even if you miss something at the first place. A checklist gives you written instructions to pack certain things (that you mention earlier). Call that one heck of a feature, isn’t it? You can try your hands on apps such as Todoist, Any.do, Google Keep, Tasks, TickTick as well.
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Store Documents in Files Apps
The next thing that you need when traveling is all the documents. Gone are the days when you had to carry hard copies or prints of documents wherever you went. Today, you can just feed the documents as photocopies on your phone and it’s all taken care of. With the Files app, you can create and store these documents on your iPhone (or Android), and bingo, it’s at your disposal. You can use this technique to store all your bills, vouchers, receipts, and identity documents among others.
On Android devices, you can simply secure all the documents in a folder within the Files or File Manager app on your device. Some file managers or OEMs support password protection which means, all your documents are secure and available at your disposal provided you have the correct password.
Engage Power Mode To Save on Battery
It has become quite common that you’d find a charging outlet to plug in and juice up your phone’s battery. However, it isn’t always the case especially when you are visiting a different country or somewhere in the outskirts. Your phone might be more powerful than the computer stations on the Apollo 16 mission, however, it isn’t anything without a battery, right?
So, what’s the best thing you can do before you get stranded or confused in an unfamiliar city? Apart from picking up an additional power bank when traveling, you can always turn on the power saver mode on your iPhone or Android devices. These modes are designed to consume less battery thus, you end up getting more backup when such a situation arrives.
You can engage it on your iPhone via Settings >> Battery >> Low Power Mode. On the other hand, you can simply pull down the notification tray, turn on Power Saving Mode or Power Saver on your Android device and that’s taken care of. Isn’t it easy yet a commendable thing to do to clip your travel anxiety?
Flight Tracking
Whether you are a frequent traveler or one who hops on flights occasionally, tracking flights is a blessing in itself. FlightAware and FlightRadar (among others) are amazing flight tracking applications that keep you updated whenever your flight is delayed, gate changed, historical arrival and departure data as well as time for connecting flights, etc.
You no longer have to call the airline to know the current status of your flight or to check which gate you have to rush to. These apps are all you want to get a quick preview of your flight with just a tap. No wonder people check out this app even when you aren’t flying (could be a nostalgia of their last or a future planned flight, chuckles).
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Text Scanner
Let’s say you know only Hindi or Arabic and you are travelling to Russia. Turns out most places in Russia (or any part of the world) won’t have restaurant menus, sign boards, notices, and other directives in Hindi or Arabic. Depending upon which country you are visiting and what languages are popular there, the signs are usually in that very language. For instance, you will find menus in English and Urdu/Arabic in the UAE.
The best option is to use the built-in translator on your iPhone or Android devices. Almost every major smartphone now has a built-in text translator or you can get it from the App Store/Play Store with ease. These apps are designed to translate text from one language to another helping you understand.
Why is it important, you might ask? What if you are driving in a foreign country with Arabic signs on their highways? You missed a turn because the signs were in Arabic only to find the next exit is 10-15 kilometers away. Isn’t that a waste of time, effort, and fuel? If so, a translator app can help save the day with just a scan.
Translate the App to Converse
Now that you know most of the techniques you’d need to escape the clutches of travel anxiety, here’s one more googly that I’ll throw your way. What if you can’t speak any of the foreign languages spoken in the country you are visiting? Turns out the built-in Translate app on your iOS device can be a great asset at this time. You can choose which language you want it to translate from and viola, it should automatically give you translation whenever someone speaks in the microphone.
You will find a tonne of apps across iOS and Android platforms that have similar capabilities. For instance, Google Translate, Notta, and Microsoft Translator are ew of the choices that can make it to your phone.
Wrapping Up
These were some of the iPhone (and Android) apps and techniques you can use to make your travel experience bliss. Of course, traveling is fun but it brings a lot of variables that might not be in your control. Luckily, these techniques cover most of your travel anxieties right from a checklist so that you don’t forget anything to translator apps that help you understand what others are saying in their languages.
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