22 Best Apps for Europe Travel (Save Time & Money!)
Planning a trip and wondering what the best apps for traveling Europe are? You’re in the right place!
If you’re anything like Caleb and me, you’ve used a lot of apps in your life, and some have been really helpful, and some have just been a waste of your phone storage. After traveling around almost every single country in Europe, we’ve done all the heavy lifting for you to determine which apps are helpful and which kinda suck.
We think that the best European travel apps are Viator, Mapstr, Withlocals, Trainline, and booking.com, but in this post, we’ll cover all 22 of the apps that are always on our phones when we visit the magical place that is Europe! They’re sure to make your vacation easier, less stressful, more romantic….
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…And full of AMAZING food, wine, and cocktails, which is the best part of traveling?
Let’s get into our app-focused travel guide!
From the author: These are the apps that we personally use to plan our trips to Europe! If you have any questions, leave a comment and we’ll get back to you ASAP!
Best Apps for Finding Food/Activities
1. Michelin guide
This one is for you, fellow foodies! You can put the city you’re visiting anywhere in the world, and it will show you restaurants that *don’t* have a Michelin star but are still VERY, VERY good. We find a lot of our favorite tapas bars in Madrid or hidden gems this way, and oftentimes, you can have a Michelin-quality meal for less $! Make sure to share two meals, one of our best travel tips, so you can try more food without spending more!
Cost: Free
2. Mapstr
We were talking with a couple in France about our shared love for cocktail bars, and they introduced us to Mapstr! You can save all the locations you visit (food, bars, attractions, etc.) or places you want to visit on your map for easy travel planning.
But you can also follow other random people’s maps and see what places they recommend. We love finding local people’s mapstrs in places we visit and seeing what people recommend and if that place is recommended more than once. Great for finding truly local spots!
Cost: Free
3. Withlocals
If you want to experience a city like a local, not a tourist, this is a hidden gem of an app! You can book PRIVATE tours with locals from that city, and you can do tours of anything from food to history. They are customizable, and you can pick the locals that you hang out with for the day.
We love that these tours respect the local culture and support local businesses in European cities.
Cost: Free
Best Apps For Getting Around
4. Trainline
Many people like Omio for train travel in Europe, but after testing it for ourselves, we personally find it a bit clunky. Training has been our go-to app ever since we started traveling to Europe in 2018. You can also use it in Asia!
You can use it for both buses and trains to find multiple transportation options. The booking surcharge is only a few bucks, and I LOVE that it shows you live information about your booking, like platform number, delays, etc.
Make sure to grab our road trip questions to kill time on your train trip!
TAYLOR’S TIP: SOME routes make you get a physical ticket instead of storing it in the app. So, double-check – you just need to go to a kiosk and input a PIN number that the app gives you, and they print. It’s really easy!
Cost: Free
5. Ryanair
Love or hate Ryanair and their horrible service, you know we’re coming back for their $20 flights. Using this app is a MUST when flying anywhere in Europe with Ryanair to avoid any kind of check-in fees at the airport.
TAYLOR’S TIP: Caleb and I once had a horrible travel experience. We were charged almost $300 to check in AT the airport with Ryanair because, apparently, we were supposed to do it online and didn’t know. I recommend always checking in on the app with them so you don’t have the same thing happen. That’s alooooot of glasses of wine, you know?.
Cost: Free
6. Lime
Yes, the lime scooter. Caleb and I have found that some cities in Europe have so much congestion that it practically does not make sense to take a ride-share car. But, sometimes it’s too far to walk, or public transport is also impractical.
We have had some of our BEST experiences by taking a scooter around. Like that time, we had some Aperol spritz and then scootered around the Colosseum.
Cost: Free
7. Uber
I don’t need to give you details about how Uber works because you are a real-life human and know. Most countries in Europe do use Uber, but we do find that it tends to be one of the more expensive options.
Cost: Free
8. Bolt
Bolt is VERY similar to Uber, but we have found it more available in some European countries. They have ride-sharing, takeout delivery, and some of the usual services from an app. We just like having some options for price comparison when we travel!
Cost: Free
9. Free now
This is one of the top car transport apps in Europe, and it’s used in many big cities! Caleb and I like that it focuses on taxis, so if you prefer to have that “taxi-like” experience where there’s not some rando picking you up, this might be the app for you.
We tend to use Free Now for early morning/late night trips when normal taxis are a safer bet than relying on if those random people are awake. It’s exactly like hailing a regular taxi, just without having to find a taxi stand.
Cost: Free
10. Cabify
If you’re heading to Spain, you want to download Cabify. It works exactly the same as Uber, Bolt, etc, but it’s the go-to ride-sharing app that we use in Spain. The prices are also reasonable so we recommend using it on your weekend in Madrid or Mallorca itinerary!
Cost: Free
11. Skyscanner
If you want to compare flights, hotels, and car rental prices from all sorts of websites in one place, we recommend Skyscanner. It’s SUPER easy to use and has lots of features like flexible search and price tracking.
Taylor’s Tip: We love using the “everywhere” option for the destination if you don’t know exactly where you want to go. You’ll get unique ideas and see which vacation spots might be the most in your budget!
Cost: Free
12. BlaBlaCar
There is an app called BlaBlaCar where locals can just input a journey they are already going to drive and then essentially sell a seat for you to carpool with them.
Think of it like an inter-city or even international Uber.
Taylor’s Tips: This can be a fun, authentic experience, but just remember that the carpools are entirely dependent on where locals are going that day. I don’t recommend relying on this app to get around completely!
Cost: Free
13. Flixbus
When Caleb and I travel by bus across Europe, 9/10 it’s with Flixbus. They have a HUGE network, and you can travel all across Europe on their buses. The app is really easy to use to book tickets, and it even gives you real-time updates.
Taylor’s Tip: the Trailine app also shows you Flixbus journeys if you use the “bus” tab instead of the “train” tab after you put in your destination. This is *usually* how I book our Flixbuses because I like everything in one place. This app is great if you know you want to travel by bus, though!
Cost: Free
Best Apps for Finding Activities
14. Viator
Viator is our most-used app for booking cool things to do in Europe. They have a MASSIVE catalog of experiences across all cities with instant booking features and usually flexible cancellation. We also love that there are user-submitted photos and reviews so we can get a good feel if it’s an experience that we want to have.
Taylor’s Tip: Use the “deals and discounts” filter if you’re trying to find something cool to do on a budget. Make sure to explore the filters, as most people miss them, and it has always made finding what we want to do way faster and easier.
Cost: Free
15. Get Your Guide
Honestly, it’s pretty much the same as Viator. However, we have found the pricing on Get Your Guide experiences to be a little more budget-friendly, but sometimes that does sacrifice quality or extra “perks.”
They do offer different experiences sometimes, so it is worth checking both out. We do usually use Viator, though!
Cost: Free
16. Trip Advisor
We like to use Trip Advisor to find general, more “touristy” things to do in a city – think “the things you have to see,” even if they’re not that unique. You’ll find all that if you click the “things to do” tab on the home screen.
We also like double-checking restaurant reviews between Google and Tripadvisor to see if they get “worth eating at it” results in both spots. You’ll find all that on the “restaurants” tab on the home screen.
Taylor’s Tip: The comment section in TA is a great place to go for real-life user reviews. We’ve found that people are very blunt and honest, so you’ll be able to tell right away if something is worth your time.
Cost: Free
Best Apps for Booking Accommodations
17. Booking.com
We LOVE Booking.com because the more you book, the more you save by getting “genius status.” We save almost 30% on all bookings now just because of it!
There is a MASSIVE list of hotels to suit all kinds of travel styles and budgets. We’ve never NOT been able to score a hotel on Booking.com, even when we booked something that evening.
We’ve also had to take advantage of their flexible cancellation and epic customer service a few times – like when the host of our apartment didn’t leave a key in the lockbox and then didn’t return any messages. They canceled our booking free of charge and let us get a better option for free!
TAYLOR’S TIP: Using the mobile app is our secret weapon for getting the best deals and saving money over their desktop site – they regularly have “mobile only” pricing, which is cheaper than online.
Cost: Free
18. Airbnb
I don’t need to tell you what Airbnb does – you know! We always compare prices on Booking.com and Airbnb when we’re grabbing accommodations.
However, we have found Airbnb to usually be more expensive than Booking.com, so we find we’re using it less and less. We tend to use Airbnb for long-term stays and Booking.com for shorter stays.
Cost: Free
Random Best Apps
19. Google translate
You probably already have this on your phone, and the “conversation” feature has saved our butts so many times! Just talk right into it, and then Google will translate it and speak back to the person. They can do the same. Honestly, it’s game-changing and totally free.
Cost: Free
20. Priority pass
If you’re a couple who wants free food and wine while you’re chilling at an airport (Um, it’s us! We’re “that couple” ), then you MUST sign up for a priority pass!
We get access to airport lounges all across the world that are relaxing and come with free food and drinks, which are usually pretty great! It ends up saving a lot of money on stupid-expensive airport food, and you feel rich for a not-rich price. #winning
Culture Craving Couple readers get a special 20-30% discount by clicking right here!
Cost: Free
21. XE currency
Caleb is obsessed cognisant of making sure we’re getting deals when we travel, so he’s pretty much always got his nose in this app.
The app is REALLY easy and way faster than Googling “how much is 5 Euros in X currency,” and it has live conversion rates so you can make sure you’re not getting ripped off when you buy those Spanish souvenirs to bring home!
Taylor’s Tip: check the current live conversion rate of your currency in the XE app BEFORE going to any of those currency exchange stores you find all across Europe. We always do this to make sure we’re going to the store with the best, most accurate conversion rate.
Cost: Free
22. ATM Fee Saver
Something you might not think about is all the little fees that can add up if you are drawing money from an ATM, and ATM Fee Saver helps you out here. You can use this simple app to find fee-free ATMs.
It will also help you estimate withdrawal limits and any fees that might be associated so you can decide if you want to go the ATM route!
Cost: Free
Let’s Wrap This Up: The 22 Best Apps for Europe Travel
If we had to pick, our top 5 apps to help you plan your Europeana adventure would be Viator, Mapstr, Withlocals, Trainline, and booking.com, as these will cover all your needs from food, accommodation, fun stuff to do, and getting around! But, there are so many awesome apps to use to make your trip planning easier, and we’ve covered all our go-tos here!
If you want to fully harness the power of Booking.com, we’re here to help! We wrote a guide with our best tips for using Booking.com so you can score awesome accommodations while saving money!
Which app did you not know about but are excited to test out?
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