Gone are the days of fumbling with a huge, foldable paper map and looking like a lost tourist while navigating through foreign streets. In this digital age, everything you need for your travel experiences — be it GPS tracking, street directories, restaurant recommendations, hotel bookings, or even cameras — can now fit into your mobile phone.
Indeed, technology has revolutionised our lifestyles. And to cater to avid globetrotters, a number of companies have jumped on the tech bandwagon with newfangled products that promise to make the travel experience even more convenient and memorable. These include digital travel guides, which boast features such as expert city guides, maps, photographs and expert commentaries on the attractions to visit. Whether you’re looking to go to ever-popular tourist destinations or hidden gems no one’s ever told you about, these travel guides have got all your bases covered.
To help you prepare for that upcoming vacation, we’ve rounded up 5 digital travel guides that will easily get you to your destination. From personal concierges to chic city guides by the biggest names in fashion, these are the apps you need to download before you jet off for your next life-changing trip. It’s time to leave those massive city maps at home, and just wander the streets — smartphone in hand.
(Main image credit: Lonely Planet)
Jump To / Table of Contents
1 /5
British Airways recently launched a new personal Facebook Messenger Bot that serves users with a “best of the best” guide when travelling to London. The British Airways BOTler is available in six countries — Germany, France, India, Singapore, Japan and the UAE — and acts as a personal online butler. It offers live updates on exclusive deals and personalised recommendations on attractions and experiences.
Exclusive BOTler deals also include luxury for less stays at the Rosewood London, discounts at Bicester Village, and VIP Passes at Westfield London.
(Photo credit: Visit London)
2 /5
This carefully curated app was launched last year, in addition to the physical copies of the city guides, and now proposes 29 world cities and thousands of addresses that are updated on a quarterly basis. It features special guest contributors, secret addresses, city walks, cultural events, expert commentaries and exclusive photographs.
The app is available for free on iPhone and iPad, and the city guides are priced at US$9.99 (S$14.22) per city from the App Store.
(Photo credit: Louis Vuitton)
3 /5
Flamyngo is a simple way to compile travel recommendations all in one place, by creating personalised city guides curated by your friends. Your friends can send their suggestions via a generated link (without even needing to download the app), and Flamyngo creates a mini guide complete with a map and descriptions.
You can even choose to share the full guide with other users if you’re feeling generous — and want to let other people in on your little secrets. The app can be downloaded for free from the App Store.
(Photo credit: Flamyngo)
4 /5
Lonely Planet has released an all-new edition of its bestselling The Travel Book, which features every country on earth. To commemorate that, it has also launched a dedicated landing page on the Lonely Planet website, which showcases six stunning 360-degree videos that take viewers through an immersive, panoramic tour of the continents. It is a nice touch, as you get to virtually experience different cities.
Maybe you can’t go around the world in 80 days, but you definitely can in a few minutes.
(Photo credit: Lonely Planet)
5 /5
If you want an app that has everything, Triposo has got you covered. A travel guide based on algorithms, Triposo allows you to download travel information, and offers recommendations based on the time, weather and other necessary information. It trawls the web for open source travel content, and then does some smart processing of the data to produce guides that recommend the most relevant locations for travellers. The app is free on the App Store and Google Play Store.
(Photo credit: Triposo)
Dewi Nurjuwita
Senior Writer
Dewi Nurjuwita is a travel and design writer who can be found exploring the streets of foreign cities with passport in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.
Most Popular
