Travel Apps Series
In this series I will introduce must-have travel apps or useful websites that helped me a lot when travelling
Travel Apps #1: Flightradar24
Flightradar24 is probably the most basic app for every traveller. With over 100 million downloads it is one of the most popular apps out there. With flightradar you can see all commercial (plus many cargo, military and general aviation) aircraft that is currently live and you can also pull up schedules from airports, airlines or routes. The app is free to download and free to use with some ads or has a paid premium version.
Use case #1: There are many use cases of flightradar but one that I like the most is following any aircraft live. If I have to go to the airport to pick someone up, I don’t just go there for the scheduled arrival time, but instead I monitor the flights progress and only get into the car when the plane is on final approach. This function works with nearly all planes, the only exception might be near active war zones where these tracking signals can be jammed, making the location unreliable.
Use case #2: Every single time I fly I pull up flightradar, tap on the icon of my departure airport, select the departure tab and find my flight in the schedule. Then, I click on ‘Aircraft Info’, which lets me see the schedule for the actual aircraft that is coming to pick me up. This way you can see how the inbound flight is progressing and if there is any delay. I found that I can get to know about delays much earlier through flightradar than live screens at the airport or emails from the airline. This way I have way more time to eat or shop while all other passengers are standing at the gate for no reason.
Travel Apps #2: Rome2Rio
Rome2rio is probably the best trip planning site out there. It has a website, but also an app version. Also, if you just search Budapest to Zagreb (or any other city with the word ‘to’ between them) its usually one of the first 3 results on Google.
Rome2rio lets you plan the cheapest route between any two places on earth. Its database is quite impressive, I found buses, trains and even private shuttle services on it when I was travelling to very remote areas where Google Maps is absolutely useless. It is also very useful in comparing different possible ways to travel between Points A and B.
Rome2rio is free to use, although it might have some pop-up ads, but I found that the site is safe and it helps a lot when planning routes, especially in more remote areas or countries where Google Maps is restricted.
Márk's Travel Blog 