Best Mobile Apps for South East Asia Trip
My wife and I just got back from our whirlwind South East Asia trip that definitely didn't disappoint. I say whirlwind because we just visited 5 countries in 17 days. This included 12 flights, including transfers and flight cancellations. Yes, my wife whom picked the destinations is quite ambitious. I was up for the challenge of logistically planning the flight itinerary for our vacation. We visited the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia. We also had stopovers in Thailand and Fiji.
I must admit that a ton of iPhone apps aided me in the ever confusing mess of destinations. We worked it out that we would be spending 2-3 days in each location. To add to the confusion was we had about 2 weeks to plan the trip since it was a now-or-never type of trip.
The 10 apps that I will go into detail below were used to plan, book, and use while we were traveling. Websites for each of the apps are linked to each title and photo.
We preferred choosing flights that were either red eye or earlier morning to save time, save money, and avoid hectic air terminals. This also allowed us to make the most of our time at each location.
Using only one search-engine app should not be a end all for all your decision making. I saved hundreds of dollars just switching back and forth to find the best deal.
Once our flights and hotels were booked, the TripIt App was pretty awesome. All you do is email your confirmation page of flights and hotels to the TripIt and it automatically extracts all pertinent information. Its a great way to organize your trip and be viewable in one spot. It stores all your flight times, confirmation numbers, hotel directions, etc. This is a free app, but they do offer a PRO version. I felt the free version gave me all the information I needed.
XE Currency
This app was extremely helpful to us just because of the sheer volume of destinations we traveled in such a short time period. This app lets you choose up to 10 currencies to compare and give you historical data too. The US Dollar was pretty strong (compared to the past couple years) relative to the other countries we were visiting. For example, I was in Bali in 2008 and $1 US dollar converted to around 9000 Indonesia Rupiah. This trip we converted to 12,000 Rupiah this trip.
This app made it very easy to convert restaurant bills, shopping, and taxis so we knew what we were paying in US$. It does work offline, but gives you the updated values from your previous wifi session. Currencies don't fluctuate enough to make a difference unless you're trading currencies while on vacation...
City Maps 2 Go
City Maps 2 Go is a offline city guide map app that lets you download up to 5 free maps of cities all around the world. Once downloaded, you can pin all your destinations and sight seeing places. This was beneficial to us to pin airports, hotels, restaurants, and parks. I actually used it quite a bit when we were walking the streets to get us from point A to point B when there wasn't Wifi.
DropBox
I knew I'd be taking a ton of photos with my phone and I used Dropbox to back everything up. I wouldn't say Dropbox was a necessity for my trip since iPhone has Photostream and iCloud. It was nice to have after the trip because it is simple to grab photos from all of my devices (and my wife's).
PDF Converter
This was an app that I actually downloaded at our first stop, Manila. Most airlines allow for web check-in prior to the flight to get boarding passes. It helped us immensely since we didn't check in any luggage throughout the trip. We used PDF Converter to convert a few of our boarding passes into something we could print. Apple doesn't support Adobe so it was necessary to have this app. Our standard at most hotels was to email our boarding passes to the front desk, which they would print for us.
Evernote
Evernote is great to organize your ideas, contacts, recipes...everything. For the trip, I used it for ideas and interesting things I saw in articles. I also used it for recipes and restaurants we went to. The app is as simple as creating a note, adding a picture, and any text needed. It organizes all the information and makes everything in a searchable format. I heard its also allows you to scan or take a photo of business cards which are also searchable.
Mobile apps are definitely something that is not needed when traveling and normally I would stray away, so as to not take away from your travels. I'm sure our next trip (Europe) will be more prepared and allow us to unplug a little.
-DK
I must admit that a ton of iPhone apps aided me in the ever confusing mess of destinations. We worked it out that we would be spending 2-3 days in each location. To add to the confusion was we had about 2 weeks to plan the trip since it was a now-or-never type of trip.
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| TripIt Map |
Planning our Trip
We knew where we wanted to go, but didn't have a necessary plan in which order we would visit each locations. A deciding factor would be airline prices from each location and best days to travel. For instance, traveling from Bali to Australia fluctuated a couple hundred dollars from day to day. I used the following apps to help plan and book our travel.
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| SkyScanner Explore Map |
SkyScanner
SkyScanner is a great app that aggregates airlines sites and compares the best prices for flights, hotel, and cars. I used the Explore function the most, which has you plug in your departure location and lets you choose your destination using a global view. Click the general location and the app drill down to all the airline departure times. This was key to help us choose in what order we should visit each location. The app allows you to book through the site, although I would generally go directly to the airline carrier that had the listed price on SkyScanner.We preferred choosing flights that were either red eye or earlier morning to save time, save money, and avoid hectic air terminals. This also allowed us to make the most of our time at each location.
Kayak
I used Kayak as a secondary flight check to SkyScanner. I would often go back and forth to compare the same flights between the two apps. There are differences! Sometimes Kayak would have the deal and sometimes SkyScanner would. A few times SkyScanner would show an airline I'd never heard of and vice versa with Kayak, like Malindo Air from Malaysia to Bali. Kayak also has the explorer function to allow for flexible traveling. |
| Kayak Explore Map |
Trip Advisor
We also utilized Trip Advisor for deciding on hotel rooms. It's great for reviewing hotel rooms and viewing user-submitted photos. I do have to admit that Trip Advisor made choosing hotels harder at times. It's a wealth of knowledge, but almost too much. We thought we found some great places, then happened to read a few "horrible" reviews that made us second guess our decisions. Overall, every accommodation we stayed at was great.
Using only one search-engine app should not be a end all for all your decision making. I saved hundreds of dollars just switching back and forth to find the best deal.
Booking our Trip
We booked our hotels through Agoda and Booking.com. Like I wrote above, we booked our flights directly through the airline carriers after researching the flight information from SkyScanner and Kayak. In total, we flew:- Hawaiian Airlines
- Philippines Airlines
- Cebu Pacific
- Cambodia Angkor Air
- Air Asia
- Malindo Air
- Jetstar Air
- Tiger Airways
- Fiji Airways
Once our flights and hotels were booked, the TripIt App was pretty awesome. All you do is email your confirmation page of flights and hotels to the TripIt and it automatically extracts all pertinent information. Its a great way to organize your trip and be viewable in one spot. It stores all your flight times, confirmation numbers, hotel directions, etc. This is a free app, but they do offer a PRO version. I felt the free version gave me all the information I needed.
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| TripIt Itinerary Page |
During Our Trip
Before our first flight I thought it would be pointless to have all these Apps downloaded on my phone, because I would only be utilizing them when I could find Wifi. I was wrong. Wifi is everywhere in South East Asia. Its offered free at most all hotels, cafes, restaurants, etc. All my apps came in handy. I will talk about each only briefly since they are pretty well known. Click on the titles to find more information about these apps.XE Currency
This app was extremely helpful to us just because of the sheer volume of destinations we traveled in such a short time period. This app lets you choose up to 10 currencies to compare and give you historical data too. The US Dollar was pretty strong (compared to the past couple years) relative to the other countries we were visiting. For example, I was in Bali in 2008 and $1 US dollar converted to around 9000 Indonesia Rupiah. This trip we converted to 12,000 Rupiah this trip.
This app made it very easy to convert restaurant bills, shopping, and taxis so we knew what we were paying in US$. It does work offline, but gives you the updated values from your previous wifi session. Currencies don't fluctuate enough to make a difference unless you're trading currencies while on vacation...
City Maps 2 Go
City Maps 2 Go is a offline city guide map app that lets you download up to 5 free maps of cities all around the world. Once downloaded, you can pin all your destinations and sight seeing places. This was beneficial to us to pin airports, hotels, restaurants, and parks. I actually used it quite a bit when we were walking the streets to get us from point A to point B when there wasn't Wifi.
DropBox
I knew I'd be taking a ton of photos with my phone and I used Dropbox to back everything up. I wouldn't say Dropbox was a necessity for my trip since iPhone has Photostream and iCloud. It was nice to have after the trip because it is simple to grab photos from all of my devices (and my wife's).
PDF Converter
This was an app that I actually downloaded at our first stop, Manila. Most airlines allow for web check-in prior to the flight to get boarding passes. It helped us immensely since we didn't check in any luggage throughout the trip. We used PDF Converter to convert a few of our boarding passes into something we could print. Apple doesn't support Adobe so it was necessary to have this app. Our standard at most hotels was to email our boarding passes to the front desk, which they would print for us.
Evernote
Evernote is great to organize your ideas, contacts, recipes...everything. For the trip, I used it for ideas and interesting things I saw in articles. I also used it for recipes and restaurants we went to. The app is as simple as creating a note, adding a picture, and any text needed. It organizes all the information and makes everything in a searchable format. I heard its also allows you to scan or take a photo of business cards which are also searchable. Mobile apps are definitely something that is not needed when traveling and normally I would stray away, so as to not take away from your travels. I'm sure our next trip (Europe) will be more prepared and allow us to unplug a little.
-DK
