With many South Africans setting off for Easter break or already on the road, you may have a need for helpful apps to assist you on the road, offer destination information or keep the kids entertained on the go.

We take a look at some of the best apps in the market.

2016’s best travel apps

Roadtrip.co.za

Road Trip is an innovative transport company offering a range of alternative transport solutions for South Africans. It’s like Uber, but with a host of other features like function shuttles, road teens for shuttling your teenagers around, discounted membership linked to Discovery Insure, corporate membership, airport shuttles and courier services. Accounts are linked to their mobile app available for Android and iOS.

TripIt

Trip It offers an all-in-one travel solution for the discerned traveller. Once you’ve made your travel bookings all your information is collated in one platform. The app forwards your confirmation emails to you, transforms your emails into a master itinerary with all your plans in one platform, syncs travel with your calendars, stores all your travel documents, gives you flight alerts, locates alternate flights and seats, tracks reward programme points and offers VIP travel benefits to paying members.

Entrain

Travellers who frequent international destinations are hit hardest by jet lag, but luckily there’s a scientific app aimed at helping your body cope with this phenomena. Entrain, developed by the University of Michigan takes your travel dates and destination and calculates the impact on your body while dispensing helpful advice on how to optimise lighting levels throughout your day by adapting your circadian cycle before you travel.

TravelSafe

This handy app includes emergency service numbers for all countries around the globe. It has a free and paid for version which includes police, embassy details, ambulance and fire brigade contact numbers for any destination in the world.

Skyscanner

If you’re looking for the best travel deals, then Skyscanner is for you. This travel app aggregates travel fairs from all the airline and travel sites to get you the best deal available. You can also pin your searches to your start screen in order to check price fluctuations.

Hostelworld

For those travelling on a budget, seeking out the cheapest accommodation is imperative. But it’s not always easy to know which places would be suited to you. Luckily Hostelworld takes the pain out of choosing. This app offers a geo-tagged directory of 35 000 budget hotels with availability and over 3.5 million user reviews.

Waze

Waze is a smart and interactive way to travel. It combines GPS navigation with social networking – showing you different routes, user notes and even images of the different destinations and locations uploaded by other users. It relies on user-submitted reviews and reports and is a fun way to navigate through the streets.

AlpineQuest GPS hiking

If you’re a sporting enthusiast who likes to combine your travel with a bit of hiking, then look no further than AlpineQuest. This nifty app offers advanced GPS orienteering with maps that include contour lines and can be stored on your SD card should you lose connectivity.

Foodspotting

There are loads of apps out there which can tell you where to go for Thai or French cuisine, but what if you’re in the mood for something in particular? Are your taste buds yearning for some coq au vin? Or is your tummy grumbling for a bit of khao kanchin? Well, Foodspotting does just that – if you’re looking for a particular dish, this app will show you which restaurants in the area can help you out.

Snapchat

When Snapchat first started, it seemed to be aimed at the younger market, but the app has grown in strength and has now become one of the most prominent video and image sharing apps in the world. The reason for its popularity is the fact that you don’t use as much data to store and upload images as traditional image sharing apps. Image ‘snaps’ are broadcast to snapchatters and viewable for 10 seconds before it disappears.

BringFido

Pet lovers everywhere are raving about the BringFido app. This application allows travellers who want to bring their furry friends along to view maps with pet-friendly parks and search for pet-friendly accommodation.

Bravolol

Bravolol is the app for anyone who wants to learn to converse in different languages. Of course, it won’t help you learn languages off the bat, but this phrasebook app helps you pronounce and spell everyday phrases and doesn’t require any internet connectivity.

Touchnote

For those of us who still like to send and receive letters via the post, Touchnote give us the opportunity to upload travel snaps and text which will then be sent in postcard format anywhere in ther world.

XE Currency

XE Currency is a free app which offers free currency conversion with up to date live currency and foreign exchange rates for any currency across the world. It’s a nifty tool for those who travel frequently or need live currency conversion.

Tynker Premium

If you’re travelling with kids and need something to keep them busy which is also educational, then Tynker Premium is the app you’re looking for. This programming game teaches kids the basics of coding and allows them to build their own games through user friendly cues and instructions.

That’s it for this week’s edition of #TravelTuesday. Check in again next week for more tips, tricks and travel news from around the world.