Your Digital Posse
It has almost become a rite of passage for fresh graduates to embark on the Europe backpacking trip of their life before they join the corporate rat race. While you might pull a #YOLO and decide to travel #Solo, it’s app-solutely essential to have a couple of friends who have your back when you need them.
1. Triposo – The Know-It-All
Triposo is almost like a condensed, more efficient version of TripAdvisor with real recommendations and a user interface so friendly you can find anything from a bar within a 50m radius of you to a super hip restaurant only the locals know about.
The best part about this app are their offline maps that will help you to reach your desired destination even without internet access! You can even save your hotel’s location on the map so you’ll always know your way home. The catch though is that you have to download the map first (WiFi required) before it can be used offline.
2. Spendee – The Friend You Trust Your Money With
There’s always that one friend who takes charge of everybody’s finances and expenditure and in this case that friend is Spendee.
You can use Spendee to save up for your trip, keep track of expenditure during the trip, and maintain multiple wallets (i.e. personal, shared with friends, etc) for easy reference.
Like a true friend, it even gives you little notes of encouragement when you’ve hit certain milestones in your saving journey.
3. Airbnb – The Ops Friend
This brand needs no introduction, but how many of us actually have the app on our phones? Most people underestimate the importance of Airbnb’s internal messaging system, which can really be a lifesaver in certain situations!
Say for example you’ve arrived early, you have no local number, and no feasible way of contacting the owner other than Whatsapp, which unfortunately your host doesn’t use. Instead of spending unnecessary cash on roaming fees by calling your host, simply Airbnb message them instead!
The in-app messaging system allows you to communicate with your host without the hassle of adding each other on different instant messaging platforms every time you travel to a different country.
4. Afterlight – The Influencer Friend
There’s always that one friend who lives by the mantra “the camera eats first”. They take picture-taking very seriously and will never be caught dead posting an image that doesn’t meet their sky-high expectations.
For pictures that could very well turn you #instafamous overnight, try Afterlight – the photo editing app of the internet stars (inside information proves this is indeed a fact). It allows you to layer your filters, add strobe lights and even include a sun flare into your pictures for that added element of #wanderlust.
Instant stardom is all yours for just S$1.48.
5. Snapseed – The Influencer Wannabe Friend
Then there are those of us who probably have no idea what “sun flare” even means. If you belong to this group, don’t worry. This app is for you.
What’s special about this app is that it allows you to edit selectively, which then opens up many opportunities to save a picture that’s not quite ‘there’. Snapseed is a simple, fool-proof way to remove that errant lamp post in your landscape, or shed light on that friend whose face was unfortunately blocked by the shade of your other friend’s oversized beach hat.
It may not bring you to the level of an #influencer but it will level up your Instagram game for sure!
6. LunchKaki – The Social Butterfly
One of the best parts of travelling is that you get to meet new people and forge new friendships. If you’re not the type to strike up a conversation with the person next to you, let LunchKaki break the ice for you!
As its name suggests (kaki means ‘buddy’ in Malay slang), LunchKaki is essentially an app for you to socialize with someone over lunch so you never have to eat alone. All you have to do is create a profile, share your hobbies and interests, and the system will match you with other similar users.
It’s almost Tinder meets OpenTables, but this is one app that will truly ensure you won’t be alone!
7. Google Translate – The ‘Local’ Friend
Before you roll your eyes, don’t underestimate the importance of having a Google Translate app on your phone when you travel! Sure you can get onto your browser but you will definitely thank us when you have no internet connection and realize in a painful way that the banh mi seller added chilli into your sandwich.
The Google Translate app can translate up to 52 languages in offline mode and even has the option of two-way instant speech translation that enables almost seamless conversations in two different languages. When you don’t know how to pronounce a character, draw it out! If you can’t draw, take a picture of it.
This unlocks a whole new world of experiences and minimizes awkward “lost in translation” moments for all of us to truly enjoy our holidays!
8. OpenTable – The Foodie Friend
One of the biggest travel issues sometimes is deciding where to eat. Or turning up at the restaurant you’ve read so much about only to find it booked out for the next three months.
Luckily there exists all-encompassing dining apps that allow you to make and will even remind you of your reservations, check out reviews and even pay all with a tap.
Different countries have similar apps in different names. OpenTable has a pretty decent presence globally, while other names like HungryGoWhere and Chope have a more regional presence in the Southeast-Asian market.
9. Calculator – The Bargain Hunter Friend
Bet you didn’t know your iPhone could do this. Source.
If you’ve visited Asia, chances are you’ve probably witnessed the amazing phenomenon of entire conversation happening without any words being exchanged, replaced instead by furious calculator tapping and gesticulating from both ends.
Calculators are the best universal bargaining tools and can often help you to make up your mind when you’re pondering a particularly spendy purchase.
For unfathomable moments that require some serious number crunching, your iPhone calculator can even turn into a graphic calculator, so it truly has your back. #gotchafam
10. Wiffinity – The Resourceful Friend
In this digital era we all understand the struggle of being disconnected from the internet, even if for a few hours. If you identify with such struggles chances are Wiffinty might just be your new #BFF.
Apart from showing you where the nearest available hotspots are, Wiffinity also enables you to connect to a community of users to share and retrieve WiFi passwords from all over the world. The best part is that you can find all these WiFi hotspots even when you’re offline!
11. Klook – Your Travel ‘Bro’
Finding the right travel buddy can sometimes be rather difficult, but Klook promises to be the ‘yes-man’ to your every whim and fancy. From Hong Kong Disneyland tickets to cooking classes in the heart of the Vietnamese countryside, the decision is yours whatever you choose.
The app even has instant confirmation features which means you can book and go for your activity on the same day (hooray for impromptu travel plans!). Booking through the app also allows you to skip the insane queues at places like Universal Studios Japan so you can saunter into the park #likeaboss.
Did we also mention airport transfers and $1 WiFi deals? With so many options at your fingertips Klook will soon be the bro you cannot do without.
Keep the friendship alive with #KlookWifi
All these apps may be great but they’ll only become your true friends on one condition: you need to have internet the very first time you download them. Luckily for you, Klook is now having an awesome WiFi campaign that will ensure everlasting friendship between yourself and your new found friends. Click the button below to unlock amazing WiFi deals that start from (literally) $1 a day.
