Tile Is One of The Top 5 Apps To Use When Traveling

I don't know about you but I've been getting a lot of Out of Office vacation messages from my co-workers. With school being out and the July 4th holiday right around the corner, it's making me a little antsy and I need to plan my summer travel. I'm torn between hitting the beach or going on a road trip to Yosemite. What would you do? To help me plan out my travels, I resorted to my iPhone and a few apps that will make not only the planning easy but making sure that the whole trip is stress-free.

Here are the apps that I've used:

1 JetBlue

When a roadtrip isn't an option, seeing what the latest airfare deals are on JetBlue is usually my go-to. One day, I'll just head to the airport and the JetBlue counter and say:

Me: What is going out of gate 23?

Counter: A flight to the caribbean sir

Me: Perfect, I'll take two Mint tickets (cause that is how I roll).

Useful features:

Use your phone's location to find the nearest airports and book a flight within the app with dollars or points.

Inflight Guide - instead of taking the old guide out of the seat pocket in front of you, all the info is available within the app. Whether DirectTV channels, food and beverage menu or a list of SiriusXM channels.

Fun feature: Create a postcard with your travel photos and add some fun text like Wish you were here or Life is Beach. Best thing is you can save the image and then upload it to your favorite social network.

2

TripIt
I've been using TripIt for a long time now for keeping my travel itinerary organized and in one place on my smartphone. Instead of fumbling thru my email box looking for the multiple emails of airfare, hotel, and car rental receipts I can just send them to plans@tripit.com and it is all packaged up in one nice user interface. TripIt also includes weather

Most Useful Features:
As mentioned above, 99.9% of all travel receipts booked online can be forwarded to plans@tripit.com.

It makes it so easy! No special code required.
It's free! You can download out of the App Store and start using it in less than a few minutes. Additional features like reward tracking, flight status alerts and automatic trip sharing to your network you'll have to pay a $48.99 a year.

When traveling abroad, you need to have your passport and travel docs in a safe a secure place. TripIt allows you to take photos of your docs and save them within your profile. No more where is my passport or I left my driver's license at home, you have it all within TripIt.

Download: iOS | Android

3 TripAdvisor

Usefully I google everything but when it comes to travel, I always start at TripAdvisor primarily for the authentic, real, no bs user reviews. I've had great suggestions for trips to Italy as well as local weekend B&B's in Point Reyes, California.

Most Useful Feature:

Connect your Facebook account to your TripAdvisor account to see where your friends have traveled and the suggestions they have posted. Love when you can drill down to a location and see their reviews/recommendations or Download: iOS | Android

4. Lyft

Whenever I'm in a new city, I always need a ride to my hotel or a restaurant. I'm the type of person that actually likes the driver to tell me a story about a local venue and how his or her day was. The app itself is super easy to use and I can get a ride usually less than 5 minutes. If you are traveling this summer, try Lyft for one ride and let me know what you think.

Most useful feature:

Payment for your ride happens thru the app. No more fumbling for cash or asking for a paper receipt. When you sign-up for Lyft, you add your credit card. When you are done with your ride, you literally leave the car and your payment & tip notifications shows up on your smartphone. The first time I used Lyft, I'd have to admit I waited in the car for an uncomfortable 5 seconds until the driver told me it all happens thru the app.

5. Tile

When you think of summer travel, I think of luggage and usually a little stress until you are on the plane at cruising altitude. That is just me and my life with two toddlers. Remembering all the items I should pack, staying under the weight limit, putting my bathroom essentials in the right size plastic bag and remembering my passport if I travel internationally - oh and don't forget the kids. It's a lot to remember and putting a Tile on my important items are key to my sanity.

Most useful feature:

Ability to share a Tile with your significant other or friend is so helpful especially on the way home from your summer travels when you are looking for keys to open the door and your phone is out of juice.

Comment below with your favorite summer travel app.
Patrick at Tile