A travel app earns its place on your home screen in the awkward moments. The last metro has gone and you need another way back to the flat. The ridge walk looks grim and you want to know whether the wind drops by noon. You land at 6am with eleven hours of time difference in your legs. The apps below are the ones that help most in those moments, and most of them do the job without asking for a penny.
DailyStoke picked twenty apps across six kinds of travel need, from getting around and planning to sleeping well in a strange room, and compared each one on its free plan, its UK price, how it copes without a signal, its store ratings and what it does with your data. Every app links to our full review, where you will find prices in pounds, dollars and euros, real user comments and the alternatives.
Our picks at a glance
| App | Best for | Free plan | Paid from | App Store rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citymapper | Buses, trams and metros in big cities | Yes, with ads | £1.49 a month (ad-free CLUB) | 4.8 |
| Rome2Rio | Working out awkward A to B journeys | Yes, entirely free | No paid tier | 4.6 |
| Organic Maps | Offline maps with no ads or tracking | Yes, everything | Free (donations optional) | 4.8 |
| Flightradar24 | Tracking flights and delays | Yes, with ads | £2.99 a month (Silver) | 4.8 |
| Wanderlog | Group trip planning with a map | Yes | £4.99 a month (Pro) | 4.9 |
| Polarsteps | Tracking and sharing long trips | Yes, ad-free | €8.99 a month (Plus) | 4.8 (Google Play) |
| Atlas Obscura | Odd and hidden places | Yes | $8 a month (optional membership) | 4.8 |
| Spotted by Locals | Independent city-break tips | 24-hour trial | €9.99 a city for a year | 4.1 |
| HotelTonight | Same-day hotel rooms | Yes, entirely free | No paid tier | 4.8 |
| Hostelworld | Hostels and meeting people | Yes | £4.99 a week (optional Social Pass) | 4.8 |
| TrustedHousesitters | Free stays in return for pet care | No | £99 a year (sitters) | 4.8 |
| AllTrails | Finding a well-reviewed walk fast | Yes | £35.99 a year (AllTrails+) | 4.8 |
| Komoot | Planning your own rides and walks | Yes, one region | £29.99 one-off (World Pack) | 4.7 |
| Windy | Wind, rain and swell forecasts | Yes, ad-free | £2.99 (Premium) | 4.8 |
| HappyCow | Vegan and vegetarian food abroad | Android and web | £4.99 one-off (iPhone) | 4.8 |
| Too Good To Go | Cheap surplus food | Yes, pay per bag | Bags from about £3 | 4.9 |
| Timeshifter | Beating jet lag on long-haul trips | First plan free | £9.99 a plan | 4.7 |
| Headspace | Calm on flights and in hotel rooms | Introductory content only | £9.99 a month | 4.8 |
| BetterSleep | Blocking out hostel and hotel noise | Very limited after trial | £11.99 | 4.7 |
| Flush | Finding the nearest public toilet | Yes, with ads | £1.99 one-off (Pro, iPhone) | 4.6 |
App Store ratings are from the UK App Store. Polarsteps’ figure is from Google Play.
The best travel apps for every occasion
The twenty apps are grouped by the job they do on a trip, and numbered straight through. Within each group, the numbering follows the order we would install them in, not a strict league table, so the star rating on each card is the fairer comparison.
Getting around: transport, maps and flight tracking
Four apps cover most of the moving parts. Citymapper handles the city itself, Rome2Rio works out how to get between places, Organic Maps keeps you on track when the data runs out, and Flightradar24 tells you, or whoever is collecting you, where the plane actually is.
1. Citymapper
Rating: 4.5/5
Best for: city breaks and commuters who rely on buses, trams and metros rather than a car
Free plan: yes; journey planning, live departures, voice navigation and step-free routes, with ads
Paid from: £1.49 a month or £9.99 a year for ad-free CLUB (UK App Store)
App Store / Google Play: 4.8 / 4.8
- Live bus and tram positions on the map in more than 260 cities
- Step-free and wheelchair-accessible routes in 27 cities, free for everyone
- Strike-aware routing, plus Lock Screen navigation and an Apple Watch app on iPhone
Drawback: coverage goes city by city, so smaller towns are thin or missing, and offline use is limited to saved journeys and metro information.
2. Rome2Rio
Rating: 4.0/5
Best for: sketching out multi-leg trips between cities, islands and countries before you book
Free plan: yes; the whole service is free, supported by ads and booking partners
Paid from: no paid tier
App Store / Google Play: 4.6 / 4.6
- Combines trains, buses, ferries, flights and taxis in a single door-to-door route
- More than 10 million locations in 240-plus countries and territories, from 20,000-plus operators
- A budget figure for the whole journey at a glance, with no account needed
Drawback: times and fares are estimates that are sometimes well off, and bookings go through partners, so refunds are not Rome2Rio’s to sort out.
3. Organic Maps
Rating: 4.3/5
Best for: travellers who want reliable offline maps abroad without roaming data, accounts or adverts
Free plan: yes; every feature, including offline search and turn-by-turn navigation
Paid from: nothing to pay; donations are optional
App Store / Google Play: 4.8 / 4.2
- Every feature works offline, including search and voice directions
- Store listings declare no data collected or shared
- Hiking and cycle paths, contour lines and elevation profiles, plus CarPlay and Android Auto
Drawback: there is no live traffic and no reviews of restaurants or shops, and opening hours are only as good as OpenStreetMap volunteers make them.
4. Flightradar24
Rating: 4.3/5
Best for: meeting arrivals, keeping an eye on delays and anyone who looks up when a plane goes over
Free plan: yes; live map, flight details, 3D view, AR sky view and 7 days of history, with ads
Paid from: £2.99 a month for Silver (UK App Store); Gold £33.99 a year
App Store / Google Play: 4.8 / 4.5
- AR mode identifies aircraft overhead when you point your phone at the sky
- Roughly 58,000 ground receivers plus satellite data over the oceans
- Seven-day free trial on every paid plan, and a free Contributor plan if you share data from a home receiver
Drawback: ads in the free app have become a frequent complaint, and nothing works without a data connection.
Planning and remembering the trip
A good travel planner app saves arguments before you leave, and a good tracker saves the memories once you are back. Wanderlog builds the itinerary, Polarsteps records the route without you lifting a finger, and Atlas Obscura and Spotted by Locals fill the gaps between the sights everyone else is queuing for.
5. Wanderlog
Rating: 4.2/5
Best for: groups and detail-minded planners who want the itinerary and the map in one place
Free plan: yes; itineraries, maps, real-time collaboration, booking import by email, budgeting and checklists
Paid from: Wanderlog Pro, £4.99 a month or from £24.99 a year (UK App Store)
App Store / Google Play: 4.9 / 4.6
- Itinerary and map side by side, with stops numbered and linked in order
- Real-time group editing with edit or view-only permissions
- Forward your confirmation emails and the bookings drop into the plan, free
Drawback: the features you want most once you land, offline access, route optimisation and export to Google Maps, all sit behind Pro.
6. Polarsteps
Rating: 4.4/5
Best for: long trips you want to share with family as you go and keep as a journal or printed book
Free plan: yes; planning, tracking, journaling, sharing and following, with no adverts
Paid from: Polarsteps Plus, €8.99 a month or €29.99 a year (about £7.58 or £25.27)
App Store / Google Play: 4.8 on Google Play
- Automatic route tracking that works offline and uses about 4% battery a day
- Family can follow your trip without downloading the app or creating an account
- Printed Travel Books up to 400 pages, or up to 120 in Lay-Flat, with 20% off on the yearly Plus plan
Drawback: on iPhone the app only syncs while it is open on screen, and the Travel Books are priced as keepsakes.
7. Atlas Obscura
Rating: 4.0/5
Best for: curious travellers who want odd, overlooked places to break up a city break or road trip
Free plan: yes; the full places database, map, lists and Been There tracker
Paid from: optional membership at $8 (about £6) a month
App Store / Google Play: 4.8 / 4.8
- More than 33,000 unusual places and foods, each with a written backstory
- Gastro Obscura entries cover food and drink as well as sights
- Members get $100 off Atlas Obscura’s small-group trips
Drawback: there is no advertised offline mode, and some Android users report crashes and slow performance.
8. Spotted by Locals
Rating: 3.9/5
Best for: city-break travellers who want independent cafés, bars and corners the guidebooks skip
Free plan: no permanent free plan; a 24-hour free trial with no card
Paid from: €9.99 for a single city guide for a year; Full Access €19.99 a year
App Store / Google Play: 4.1 / 4.1
- More than 85 city guides written by over 500 hand-picked locals who take no payment from the places they recommend
- No chains and no obvious tourist sights
- Smaller cities such as Ghent, Bern, Malmö and Rijeka, not only the usual capitals
Drawback: the current app does not advertise offline use, and coverage is mainly Europe and North America.
Places to stay: last-minute hotels, hostels and house-sitting
Three very different ways to find a bed. HotelTonight is the last-minute hotel app for when the plan has already gone sideways, Hostelworld is still the place to choose a hostel and find people to explore with, and TrustedHousesitters swaps your time with someone’s cat or dog for a free roof.
9. HotelTonight
Rating: 3.9/5
Best for: same-day and next-day hotel stays when your plans are already fixed
Free plan: yes; the whole app is free
Paid from: nothing to pay for the app; you pay only for rooms, plus taxes and fees
App Store / Google Play: 4.8 / 4.0
- Book until 2am on the night of the stay (hotel local time), or up to 100 days ahead
- HT Perks discounts start from your first booking, with an extra 5% off app bookings at Level 1
- 10% of the room rate back as Airbnb credit in the UK and US
Drawback: most rooms are non-refundable and cannot be changed, and the hotel often decides the room type when you arrive.
10. Hostelworld
Rating: 4.2/5
Best for: solo travellers aged roughly 18 to 35 who want a cheap bed and people to explore with
Free plan: yes; searching, booking with a deposit, and the social features for your stay
Paid from: optional Social Pass, from £4.99 a week (UK App Store), a one-off purchase with no auto-renewal
App Store / Google Play: 4.8 / 4.8
- More than 16,500 hostels in 180-plus countries, with over 13 million reviews
- Free hostel and city chats from 7 days before check-in
- Linkups for joining a pub crawl or walking tour with people from nearby hostels
Drawback: you pay a deposit to Hostelworld and the balance to the hostel, and seven rate types carry different refund rules, some paying back in vouchers.
11. TrustedHousesitters
Rating: 4.1/5
Best for: flexible travellers who love animals, and pet owners who would rather not use kennels
Free plan: no; sitters and pet parents both need a paid membership
Paid from: Basic sitter membership, £99 a year plus £9 per confirmed sit; pet parent plans from US$149 a year
App Store / Google Play: 4.8 on the UK App Store
- Two-way reviews after every sit, with ID verification for all members
- A 24/7 vet advice line on Standard and Premium plans
- Money Back Promise on Standard and Premium pet parent plans
Drawback: popular sits fill within hours, as listings close after five applications, and the £9 booking fee introduced in December 2025 is unpopular with long-time members.
Outdoors and weather: hiking apps and forecasts
For walkers and riders, the choice of hiking app comes down to one question: someone else’s route, or your own? AllTrails finds a well-reviewed walk in seconds, Komoot builds a route to your sport and your legs, and Windy tells you whether either is a good idea today.
12. AllTrails
Rating: 4.2/5
Best for: walkers who want to find well-reviewed trails fast, and casual hikers abroad who need offline maps for a week or two
Free plan: yes; trail search, reviews, photos, lists, and route following and recording with a signal
Paid from: £35.99 a year for AllTrails+; Peak £79.99 a year
App Store / Google Play: 4.8 / 4.5
- Recent reviews, photos and conditions notes on every route
- Offline maps for a single trail, a whole park or a custom area on paid plans
- Wrong-turn alerts, live location sharing and route sync to Garmin and COROS watches on paid plans
Drawback: offline maps are paid only, and some user-added routes are poorly checked; a 2023 Lake District rescue began with one.
13. Komoot
Rating: 4.1/5
Best for: cyclists and walkers who like planning their own routes, especially across mixed terrain and multi-day trips
Free plan: yes; route planning anywhere, plus one free region for navigation and recording
Paid from: World Pack £29.99 one-off; Premium £59.99 a year
App Store / Google Play: 4.7 / 4.6
- Sport-aware routing for road, gravel, mountain biking, hiking and running, with surface and climb breakdowns
- The World Pack is a one-off purchase with offline maps and voice navigation everywhere
- Live sync to Garmin devices and the Bosch e-bike Flow app
Drawback: since Bending Spoons bought Komoot in 2025 it has trimmed the free offer and raised prices, and offline mode does not reroute you if you stray.
14. Windy
Rating: 4.4/5
Best for: sailors, surfers, walkers, pilots and weather enthusiasts who want to compare forecast models on a map
Free plan: yes; 50-plus weather layers, several forecast models, webcams and 3-hour forecast steps, with no ads
Paid from: £2.99 for Windy Premium (lowest UK App Store price point)
App Store / Google Play: 4.8 / 4.7
- ECMWF, GFS, ICON and regional models compared on one screen
- Layers from wind gusts and waves to snow depth and air quality
- Thousands of live webcams, plus an Apple Watch app and widgets
Drawback: there are no offline forecasts, and hourly forecast steps moved behind Premium in 2023.
Eating well on the road
Two food apps with very different missions. HappyCow is the most complete guide to plant-based eating anywhere you are likely to go, and Too Good To Go turns a café’s leftovers into a cheap dinner, at home or in any of the 20 countries it runs in.
15. HappyCow
Rating: 4.0/5
Best for: vegans and vegetarians who travel, and mixed groups hunting for somewhere everyone can eat
Free plan: yes; the Android app and the website are free
Paid from: £4.99 one-off for the iPhone app (UK App Store), with no subscription
App Store / Google Play: 4.8 / 4.8
- More than 240,000 vegan, vegetarian and veg-friendly listings in over 185 countries
- A Veg Options category for groups where not everyone is vegan
- Favourites saved for offline viewing before a trip
Drawback: listings rely on volunteers, so closures linger, and sponsored listings can push paying venues up the results.
16. Too Good To Go
Rating: 4.2/5
Best for: budget travellers, students and anyone with a fridge and flexible evenings
Free plan: yes; no subscription and no UK service fee, you pay per bag
Paid from: Surprise Bags from about £3 in the UK, priced by each store
App Store / Google Play: 4.9 / 4.9
- Bags at half the price or less; an M&S bakery bag at £3.80 holds at least £10.20 of food
- One account works in 20 countries
- Under the current UK terms, payment is taken at pick-up or at the end of the collection window
Drawback: you cannot choose what goes in the bag, and stores can cancel your reservation, sometimes late, if they have nothing left.
Rest, sleep and jet lag
The least glamorous apps on the list and, on a long-haul trip, possibly the most useful. Timeshifter is the jet lag app with real circadian science behind it, Headspace gives you short sessions you can download for the plane, and BetterSleep builds a wall of noise between you and the hostel dormitory.
17. Timeshifter
Rating: 4.2/5
Best for: long-haul travellers crossing several time zones who will actually follow a schedule
Free plan: yes; your first jet lag plan is free, with no payment details required
Paid from: £9.99 a plan, or £21.99 for unlimited plans (UK App Store)
App Store / Google Play: 4.7 / 4.4
- Plans personalised to your chronotype, sleep pattern and exact flights
- Light, sleep and nap timing, with caffeine and melatonin advice you can switch off
- Free for United Premier 1K members, with miles offers through MileagePlus and Miles & More
Drawback: the schedules demand real commitment, sometimes at awkward hours, and the effectiveness figures come from the company’s own surveys.
18. Headspace
Rating: 3.9/5
Best for: frequent flyers and anxious travellers who want short, structured sessions and a sleep routine that travels
Free plan: limited introductory content only; no full free tier
Paid from: £9.99 a month or £49.99 a year (UK); students £7.99 a year
App Store / Google Play: 4.8 / 4.3
- More than 500 guided meditations, with courses and single sessions downloadable for planes and trains
- A 14-day free trial on the annual plan, 7 days on monthly
- Apple Watch app, plus Ebb, an AI companion that suggests sessions
Drawback: the Sleepcasts cannot be downloaded, and the trial rolls into a paid plan automatically.
19. BetterSleep
Rating: 3.7/5
Best for: light sleepers in hostels, hotel rooms and sleeper trains who want a custom noise mix that runs without signal
Free plan: a very limited selection after the trial; the app has been paid-only since 2025
Paid from: £11.99, the lowest UK App Store Premium price point
App Store / Google Play: 4.7 / 4.2
- More than 300 sounds you can layer into custom mixes that play offline
- Over 100 SleepTales and 250-plus meditations, downloadable
- A sleep recorder that catches snoring and sleep talking
Drawback: prices are not published on the website, and the Music section only streams, so it fails offline.
The one you will thank us for
Nobody puts a toilet finder on their wish list. Everybody wishes they had one at some point, usually in a foreign city on a Sunday evening.
20. Flush
Rating: 3.8/5
Best for: travellers and anyone with a medical need who wants a free, quick map of the nearest loo
Free plan: yes; the full toilet map with ads, and no account needed
Paid from: £1.99 one-off for Flush Toilet Finder Pro on iPhone (UK App Store)
App Store / Google Play: 4.6 / 3.7
- More than 200,000 public toilets worldwide
- Disabled access, fees and whether a key is needed, where known
- The Android version stores the database on your phone for offline use; Pro adds an Apple Watch app
Drawback: the listings come from users, so closed or missing toilets slip through; in the UK, pair it with Toilet Map.
Which travel app do you need? A few real trips
Nobody needs all twenty. Here is what we would install for five quite different trips.
A city break in Lisbon. Download the Portugal map in Organic Maps before you fly, so you can find the flat without roaming data. Add Spotted by Locals or Atlas Obscura for the cafés and curiosities between the viewpoints, and check Citymapper‘s city list before relying on it, since its coverage goes city by city.
A hiking week in the Dolomites. Plan the routes in Komoot, where the one-off World Pack gives you offline maps and voice navigation, or use AllTrails if you would rather follow a walk other people have reviewed. Check Windy each evening for gusts and rain on the high ground, and keep Organic Maps as the free backup.
A long-haul trip to Tokyo. Start Timeshifter a few days before departure; the first plan is free. Download a few Headspace sessions or BetterSleep mixes for the flight, and send whoever is meeting you a Flightradar24 link rather than a guess at your landing time. Sort your data before you land with a travel eSIM.
A gap year in South America. Hostelworld for the beds and the people, Rome2Rio for working out which bus, boat or flight links two places, and Polarsteps so your family can follow along without nagging for updates. Organic Maps earns its place again, and for a trip this long, so does proper travel insurance.
A pet-sitting stint in Edinburgh. TrustedHousesitters finds the sit, Too Good To Go keeps the food bill down on a free-accommodation budget, and HappyCow is there if you eat plant-based. Flush, paired with Toilet Map, covers the dog walks.
Free travel apps that are good enough without paying
Plenty of the best travel apps cost nothing at all, or keep the paid tier strictly optional:
- Organic Maps: everything is free, offline, with no ads and no account
- Rome2Rio: free, unlimited route searches with no paid tier
- Citymapper: the full planner is free; paying only removes the ads
- Polarsteps: free and ad-free, with no limit on trips
- Wanderlog: free itineraries, group editing, email imports and budgeting
- Atlas Obscura: no paywall on places; membership is a supporter’s club
- Windy: ad-free, with 50-plus layers and multiple models
- HotelTonight and Hostelworld: free to use; you pay only for the bed
- Flush: the whole map is free with ads
Two more come close: Timeshifter gives you your first jet lag plan free, and HappyCow is free on Android and the web.
How we chose the best travel apps
DailyStoke compared each app’s store listings, pricing pages, help centres and privacy disclosures, and read the reviews real users leave on the App Store, Google Play and Trustpilot. None of the links on this page is an affiliate link. Five things mattered most:
- Offline use: what still works with no signal, since that is when you need a travel app most
- An honest free tier: whether the free version does the job, or exists mainly to sell the upgrade
- Price: UK App Store prices, one-off purchases versus subscriptions, and whether renewals and refunds are clear
- Ratings: UK App Store and Google Play scores and their size, read alongside Trustpilot, where complaints about billing tend to surface
- Privacy: what each app collects, whether it tracks you across other apps, and how public your activity is by default
Prices and ratings were checked on 20 October 2026. App Store prices can differ by country and change without notice, so check the price shown in the store before you subscribe.
Travel app FAQs
What apps should I download before travelling abroad?
An offline map such as Organic Maps, Rome2Rio for getting between places, Citymapper if your city is covered, and a flight tracker such as Flightradar24. Add Timeshifter for long-haul flights.
What is the best free travel app?
Organic Maps, for most people. It is completely free, works offline and collects no data. Rome2Rio, Polarsteps and Citymapper are also free in full or close to it.