If you need this, you probably are either super skiddish or going to go to someplace that you already know is dangerous so you want to know the upto the minute info (like a war zone).

Otherwise if you follow the US state department travel advisories the majority of the world is'dangerous'

Genuinely curious, not sarcastic. Where are you going that this is needed? If it's sudden and serious, I feel like it's ubiquitous and hard not to know.

Most other places with advisories just aren't as sketchy as government pages say they are.

Everywhere else that this isn't the case I suspect you shouldn't be.

Your local embassy sign up

English newspapers

Honestly, TikTok (if it's not go-controlled or social media in general) is one of the best ways to get immediate up-to-date info about things as they happen. You can follow people who live in the country who speak your language before you fo. Or you can search for news using hashtags like #expatin(country you are in) #news #breakingnews #countryname #cityname.

In my personal experience breaking news that has safety issues travels way faster on Tiktock than even local news channels and often people will stream and post immediately after or during an event.

the best example I have of this is (thatI experienced) in South Korea and it took 8 hours for news in english to be reported about The Itawon crowd crush and 2-4 hours for it to even be reported in Korean. On TikTok people were posting videos to stay away from the area/to leave the area even before the incident because of how crowded things were and within 10-30 min after the incident occurred people were blowing up the #korea with reports of something happening even though they were not sure what it was.

Just read the news about the country you are visiting. If it's important it will be front page news.

Australia has one called Smartraveller
https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/

Thanks for that tip. I usually do a “end-of-the-line” public transport trip to see what cool ransom things I can find…. I get on a random bus, train, metro, tram and ride it to the end of the line… and see what’s there. Had some awesome adventures and seen some cool things. This sounds like the app version of that 😀

Rome2rio, uber, booking, hostelworld, airbnb, bumble

Totally…. I found that some don’t let you “do” anything until you’re actually in the country…. for instance I was just in malaysia and the Grab app would not let me add any payment details until after I landed and they detected I was “in country”…. was simple to do.. but frustrating that I couldn’t be organised before I left… which I like to be 😀

Atlas Obscura is great! I also love Layover for keeping in touch with my friends.

I agree with this! :)

Malaysia - Grab

China - Didi

Indonesia - gojek

Philippines - Angkas

(sharing in case someone needs it)

Maps.me saved me in Cuba with the ability to download maps for offline use. Definitely recommend!

I used the IT Taxi app when I was in Italy and it worked great throughout the country. I also stayed across the street from a taxi station so I’d just walk down the street and ask if anyone was free when I needed to go somewhere lol

Maps.me for sure, a similar app is 2Gis

Grab is the Uber equivalent for major SE Asian countries

Trip Advisor - I like to see reviews and pics of certain attractions before I pay to enter

TripIt. I have used wanderlog and just don’t like it as much

Have offline maps - you can download specific areas in Google maps. More specialized for offline are maps.me, OSMand Maps.

Have your country's travel advisory app for some offline contacts at embassies.

Google translate - dowload offline translation packages for languages you might need

I use Wanderlog for trip planning

Use this website it's the perfect place to buy anything u need for traveling MallPro

i use " ATM Fee saver" a lot. its shows you reliable atms near you with low fees for withdrawing money. super useful :) can recommend it

Gojek - online bike/car taxi, + food delivery

& Google Translate in case if you heading to a place with little to no english speaker.

Gojek/Grab: to order bike/car. I prefer grab for transportation, but I use Gojek for food delivery service.

MitraDarat: provide public transport route, works in big city

The Find My app. So you can deactivate it if it gets pickpocketed.

VPN for p0rn ... oops reddit. I mean reddit.

Grab: Ride hailing app, direct competitor of/equivalent to Gojek. Also has food delivery option. Useful for price comparison so you can get the best fare. Also take CC, and is useful/in operation across many SEA countries (eg Thailand, Singapore)

MyBluebird: App for Bluebird offline taxi and the best taxi provider in Indonesia. Particularly useful if you are looking for reliable transport (e.g. to/from airports, odd hours). Can do booking/schedule your ride ahead of time, and can take CC.

Aside: Only take Bluebird taxi wherever you go. Avoid other offline taxi brand like the plague (exception goes to the online ride hailing apps mentioned above i.e. Grab/Gojek)

"Must have is a bit too wide". It very much depends on what kind of traveler you are, what kind of counties you go and for how long.

Let's say almost ALL apps for the rest of the world are useless in China.

I do not use paper at all and have about 400 apps for travelling. Mains are:

1. Tripit - historically use this one for all itineraries.

2. Google.translate, yandex.translate, Reverso Context for translation.

3. Google maps, yandex maps, mapy.cz, maps.me, motionx-gps, Guru maps, Organic Maps - for navigation

4. Parkopedia, INRIX ParkMe - for parkings

5. PrivateVPN, PlanetVPN, Outline, VPN Beaver - for VPN. In lots of countries you cannot do anything without. Like you can't use Skype in India, google in China, any ip-telephony in Egypt and Eritrea, Cuba etc.

6)Booking, Agoda, Hotels.com, HRS, Airbnb, OYO, Expedia, Hotel Tonight and all main hotel chains apps

7. Rome2Rio and Train Apps for every country you go if you go trains. Every country tube maps too

8. SplitWise for counting shared expenses if you go by group

9. rentalcars, Arguscarhire, qeeq, immova and all main rental cars providers apps Hertz, Europcar, Avis etc.

10. Weather apps - Aurora Alerts, Wheather Pro, WunderGround, Windy... and SurfLine for waves and tides.

11. apps for telemedicine, depends on your home country and health insurance.

12. Ornament - to keep all your medical data in case you need a doctor.

13. Skyscanner, Aviasales, Expedia, Kayak, trip.com, kiwi.com for looking for a flight + all main airlines apps.

14. LoungeKey, Prioritypass, DragonPass, Mile-on-air - for airlounge access.

15. Uber, Yandex Go, Gett, Bolt, BlaBlaCar, InDrive, FoTaxi, Didi, Careem - for Taxi

16. Wise, Revolut etc - for travel neobanks.

17. Google.drive, OneDrive etc - for keeping all you documents on a cloud

18. FlightRadar24 for looking at flight route.

19. ViaMichelin for finding nice routes

20. Airalo, MobiMatter, Yesim, Drimsim, Eskimo, Ubigi - for travel eSIM

And I just scratched the surface.

For China, Egypt and many other countries you'll need a full bunch of different apps.

Tripit

Automatically updates calendar from email about flights, hotels, rental cars, etc

One of my very favourites is Rome to Rio. Admittedly, it is not always 100% accurate so you still have to follow up however, for the most part, it gives you a very good idea of how to get from point a to point B and different methods of getting there and how long it’s going to take. I also really like get your guide.

I like Flighty for flight tracking stuff

Really? I’ve never had an issue. There’s another app almost like it called tripcase try that one

Absolutely. I downloaded the Arabic dictionary so I could use it offline in rural Morocco.

Also, Airalo has become a staple of mine for mobile data.

Life360 I think sends a message saying something like, "Todd has started driving!" so I think that probably would work. I think you just have to make some sort of network and invite people so there's obviously someone who can see the start/stopped driving things.

Check if it's supported for your device. Link

Hello curious if this is still something u are looking for? I'm building this atm

You can use MacroDroid for this

Points yeah

I use kayak but it’s not always accurate similar to skyscanner Momondo isn’t terrible either

Here you go! Have fun - https://www.kayak.com/explore

Google flights

https://www.flightconnections.com/

Happy birthday! My family uses Life360. I had a very bad experience on a first date and this made me feel much safer knowing someone could find me if something went wrong.

This method only works if both parties are Apple users, but I share my iPhone location with my best friend and she’s able to pull up exactly where I am on the map. It’s easy and has never glitched out on us. If I don’t send a check in text by a specified time, she can see if I (or at least my phone) am still at the date spot or if I’ve moved… which I would have told her about. Definitely adds some peace of mind to know someone can easily find you if needed!

(34F) I have my best girlfriend keep all the information for every date until I’m comfortable with someone. I give her their number, name, where we are going, drive my own car to meet in a public place, text when I leave/get home and she tracks my iPhone (there are third party apps if this isn’t an option). If something goes strange or happens then she knows to inform people. I am a private person, so it’s hard to give all the info out about what I’m doing, but she’s that person I would tell anyways. It sounds like a lot, but my brother is a sheriff and I worked for our county’s sexual assault center….it’s not alot…not even close, for the safety. The things we have seen and heard make it easy to remember why all the safety measures are needed for everyone.

Wish me luck compadres! I'm going out on that date now, trying the gps safety protocol. Thanks for your help. 👍