Modern technology is becoming an increasingly integral part of our lives – both at home and on the road. With more and more new and interesting applications, even when going on a long journey, all we need is one device and no matter where we are, as long as we have access to the Internet, we can basically function as if we were at home. Applications installed on our smartphones are increasingly replacing other gadgets traditionally used by travelers so far, such as a paper map, compass or flashlight. We too use several apps during our travels, about which a few sentences below.

1. MAPS.ME A very extensive and free map. It can be used both as navigation in the car, as well as for walking around the city as it has very detailed city plans. We have tested MAPS.ME in several countries and continents and for us it is great. The app gives you the option to download a map of a particular country, or in some cases just a specific region of the country, which saves memory on our smartphone. If you don’t know the exact name of the region you’ll be in or the route you’ll be taking – just zoom in on the region beforehand while having access to WIFI, and the app itself will download the maps to use later. For us, MAPS.ME is number one when it comes to electronic maps.
2. WHATSAPP This application has dethroned SKYPE, which we previously used for a long time. The app makes it very easy for us to keep in touch with our family as we are on the go. Very intuitive and easy to use. In addition to being able to chat for free in real time (as we manage to time zones), we often use chat groups where we send photos, write messages and record voice messages. An interesting option is the ability to record and send a voice message – because it often happens that we have access to the Internet for a while, for example, at the airport and the recipient of the message can listen to it at a convenient time. A simple application is communication and information exchange. For us for the purposes of travel it is completely sufficient.
3. CURRENCY CONVENTER. There are many free applications of this type on various platforms. For us in travel, the most important thing is to keep up to date with the current exchange rates because large fluctuations happen and it is easy to be fooled. Especially when we have to pay a larger amount, for example, for a hotel, you can lose on the conversion rate. If you travel during one trip through several countries, the prices are constantly given to you in different currencies, it is worth checking in the application before making a purchase the price after conversion into zlotys because otherwise you can leave someone a nice tip. As long as we know the exchange rate of EUR or USD to PLN, if after visiting several countries we have different currencies left in our wallets and want to exchange them, for example Malaysian ringgits to Singapore dollars, this application will be invaluable. Similarly, when we make a combined transaction from several currencies – it will take us a while to bring the currencies to a common denominator and convert how much physical money we have. Very often, solicitors who chat up tourists who have just flown in and don’t yet know the local currency rates will forgive themselves when they see that we have apps and are well versed in the exchange rate. It is important to keep the exchange rates up to date, every time we have access to the Internet on the commuter.