2014 Travel Apps - Onavo, GogoBot, HotelsTonight

There we were talking about the adventures we have all experienced. The foods and great places to camp. Enjoying the wine and appetizers. Enjoying talking about ancestry, cowboy rodeos and great bagels?…yeah the topics did get a bit off track, but it was still nice to hang around travelers from around the San Francisco area.

The event was put together by Sprint Mobile. The main reason to be there was to hear the panelists talk. The panelists consisted of Jared Simon of HotelsTonight, Ori Zaltman of GogoBot, Dick Jordan, Chris Bryden from Sprint and Moderated by Travel Editor for San Francisco Chronicle, Spud Hilton. The topic, 2014 Travel Apps. Where they are now and what to expect in the 2014.

What to look forward to

So what can the world look forward to in the future? Well, I like what the the COO and co founder of HotelsTonight said, expect to have your apps know what you want before you know. Ori confided back on this when he mentioned more personalization. This would be great when Chris Bryden mentioned he would like to see these when he parties too hard in Las Vegas and wants to draw more money from the ATM.

Apps and phones are starting to become more that way, with more customization and more personalization the phones start to learn your habits. It will be rather interesting to see an app recommend a place to me based on my previous travels, and some of them already do.

One of the challenges for apps in the future would be the one app that rules them all. But to be honest, ones that try to do that fail miserably. It is better to master one feature than to only give lackluster service to many features.

Another challenge I brought up to the panelists is multilingual support. Most apps are geared towards English speakers and makes it hard to get crowd sourcing information from non English speakers, the locals. Dick rang back with, “Then ask the locals” which is what I do most of the time.

But let us take a look at some many apps today that were talked about by some of the panelists.

Apps today

Gogobot

Ever need to plan a trip? Want to ask your travel agent some advice? But your travel agent has not been there before… but I bet your friends have. Gogobot is a website where you can get travel advice from your friends. Let us take Tripadvisor and Facebook and mash them up together, the result is Gogobot. User’s review and give advice to others to help you plan your trip.

The app was release a year or so later and has come a long way since it’s release. Started mostly as a photo sharing app, now allows you to not just share you photos but your trips and trip planning with your friends. With the new Tribes feature it also allows to connect with others who travel with your same style so you can see places fellow constituents also like.

The Gogobot app is free from the AppStore and GooglePlay store.

Hotels Tonight

Want a hotel tonight or last minute? Hotels Tonight is a great app to book a last minute hotel and get a cheaper price. In this case it actually pays to be a procrastinator. Hotels Tonight is the world’s first hotel booking made only for a phone.

How does it work? Hotels Tonight works with many hotels to get last minute deals to book a hotel. The app can be found on AppStore as well as GooglePlay store.

Sutro Guide Books

It is nice to have a guide book with you, but I cannot tell you how many times I have lost or did not bring my guide book because it was just too heavy or I was just absent minded. Now if I can only keep all my books in one spot…well, I can. Sutro Guide books are the answer to this.

These books are great offline books that you can access from your book. There other major brands who also offer their ebooks, but at the expense of…expenses. They are just pricey. Sutro is a great cheap alternative to get ideas of where to travel to so that you can later ask your friends on Gogobot

Sutro guide books are created by independent writers who are looking out for the best interest of you the traveler.

The Sutro Guides app is free from the AppStore the individual guides only cost $3-$5

Eat 24

So you are hungry after running around the city where you are staying. You want to pick up something to eat while you work on your blog, photography or just spend time with family. You dont want to deal with exchange rates of the country you are at when ordering the food. Check out Eat24.

Eat24 allows you to see the restaurants near you who offer delivery or pickup service. You can also place orders from the app as well. Even better, you can pay with your PayPal account. No need for conversion rates to worry about or foreign exchange fees from your bank.

After placing your order just get lost in the city and go and pick it up, actually eat24 offers a map view of the restaurant so that you can get there easier and it also integrates with your phones built in navigation app.

Eat24 can be found for AppStore, GooglePlay and Kindle for free.

Onavo

Are you traveling and want to manage your dataplan on your prepaid account? Perhaps you do not want to rack up too much roaming charges? Onavo is perfect for this.

Onavo is a data compressor that allows you to browse the internet w/o eating up your data plan. Onavo compresses data using a VPN server based in the USA. Onavo also tracks where you data is going to so you can adjust your settings accordingly.

Onavo was recently purchased by Facebook. Onavo is free and can be found on the AppStore.

Conclusion

From eating out, finding a place to stay or just helping your phone save data, there are some great apps out there for you to use already. But look forward to them personalizing your experience even more.

Do not forget to just put down your phone and just ask a local, as they are the best form of advice you can get from anyone, and it is always up to date.

So what are you some of your favorite travel apps out there? Would love to hear about those apps you cannot live without when traveling. Leave a comment below, send me a tweet on twitter using #pathlesstravels, or post on my facebook. Heck even send us a message. Let me know, we want to share your outrageous stories with others. Happy travels

Erick Redcloud

A partially blind Graphic Designer, Freelance Travel Photographer, Artist, Buddhist and Vegetarian who loves to travel. Erick loves traveling by being with the locals and going off the beaten path. He is the founder and owner of Pathlesstravels and loves inspiring others to follow their dreams, whether it is to travel or something completely different. He started Pathlesstravels to hone is photography skills and to meet amazing people, and to help a friend break into journalism. Check out his photography at his link.

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