Breaking – Favorite Travel Apps for your next Paris Visit

This list of favorite travel apps (most of which are free) come from a variety of sources. Some are those that I use consistently while others were recommended by frequent travelers to Paris and the rest of France.

I belong to a group of fellow France-loving travelers and asked them to share their favorite travel apps. To their brilliant suggestions I added my go-to favorite travel apps. So, now you can pick and choose which of our favorite travel app work for you.

Favorite Travel Apps (or do you prefer paper maps?)

We live in a world of technology – why not make the most of it ? I admit, it was a bit sad when I first shelved my little red Plan de Paris city map book. It has been my travel companion for many years. Amazon still sells this map/book along with a good assortment of others found here. (affiliate link)

However, my list of pros and cons quickly weighed in favor of apps on my phone vs a paper map.

First, if you travel carry-on only, weight and space are always a concern.

Second, as everyone uses their phone all the time (or so it seems),  I think it appears less conspicuous referring to a phone map than expanding a paper map ! And that means you are less obvious to those lurkers that want to find someone to scam. As I frequently travel solo, safety is always on my mind.

Well, enough of intro talk, let’s get right into these apps. I am grouping them by type (to some extent) as opposed to prioritizing because what works for one person may not be useful to another.

Offline Map Travel Apps to Keep Your Trip Organized

This is the title of a previous post dedicated to offline map apps  (click on the title to see the post) and covers some of the favorite apps I use.

On that blog post I addressed Maps.me , Paris Metro Map and Routes and Bonjour RATP, along with a trusted friend Google maps.

Another favorite use of Google maps for me is to make a personalized map as I plan my trip before leaving the US. Sometimes I even mark my walking route then save the link to this map in my notes app for easy access. You can find out how to do this here.

If there is a section of the route that is of particular note then I take a screen shot for quick access. This I save in a dedicated album in my photos app. A quick glance and I’m easily reminded of what my plan was and can continue my walk.

Favorite Travel Apps Recommended by Frequent Travelers

Transit Options in Real Time

Citymapper app instantly compares travel options in real time, integrating data for all urban modes of transport, including walking, cycling and driving, and public transport. A fellow traveler says, I use [it] everywhere; it even tells you where to sit on the train and which station exit is best. 

 Moovit is another “all transit options” app similar to Citymapper. Moovit provides train and bus times, maps, and real-time arrival information.

IDF Mobilités is a French app that is my choice for directional navigation. I find the “service status” feature to be very useful. If your phone is eligible, the Île-de-France (IDF) Mobilités app allows you to buy and load transit tickets from your phone.

Transportation

For favorite travel apps, I have divided this section into personal transport and mass transit apps, beginning with personal.

G7 Taxi is my preferred personal transportation app. They have been consistently on-time and friendly plus they can be found just about everywhere in Europe. I particularly like that in addition to ordering for immediate arrival you can book ahead up to 30 days.

Uber is another option for personal transportation.

Favorite Travel Apps for Train Transportation

Trainline allows purchase of train tickets in both the UK and Europe. Once I discovered Trainline, I was a convert since I regularly purchase train tickets for travel in both the UK and France.

SNCF Connect is another option for purchasing tickets in France and the EU. I used this one exclusively before I discovered trainline.

Transit is a real-time “urban travel companion” that works in 200+ cities across North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. A frequent traveler gives the app a thumbs-up: I like this app because it automatically finds the nearest bus stop and then shows you real time arrival for each bus that comes to that stop.

But…. What if you want/need to know what your options are for getting from point A to point B?

Rome2Rio  answers that question for you. It searches any city, attraction or address across the world and generates a list of transportation options for your selection.  I’ve used the desktop version of Rome2Rio for ages and love having it as an app!

Not an APP but We Can’t Overlook This

The Man in Seat 61 has been recommended as “a great site–full of awesome info when considering, adding, or using the train as part of your itinerary”.

Communication Apps

Everyone has their favorite means of communication so I’m not going to debate one over the other. If you are a first time traveler to another country, I recommend you talk with your phone provider to determine how you will be charged for texts and video calls. The apps below use internet which means no cost or data usage to your if you are on wifi.

WhatsApp lets you text over the internet instead of your phone provider as well as audio and video calls.

Skype, like WhatsApp, sends the video calls over the internet instead of via your phone provider.

Favorite Travel Apps for Organization and Tickets

Using an organization app means you don’t have to worry about missing a timed entry as this fellow traveler notes it saved my trip when I thought my tickets to Hamilton in London were for an evening show, but I had purchased matinee so far in advance, that we almost missed it.

Tripit  creates a single itinerary for every trip, keeping you well-organized.  Check it out here. One fellow traveler says I now put every trip detail into a trip planner app, including my last Paris trip in March. It saves them into Past trips as well, so I can now quickly find the name of the restaurant I went to in 2018, when I explored France.

Trip Advisor is a great tool for searching activities, hotels, restaurants, etc. Reviews left by others are informative and helpful when you are unfamiliar with an area.

Tiqet is perfect for buying your museum tickets ahead of time! A fellow traveler states that I … like Tiqet for buying museum tickets (1 euro extra fee but saves me typing all my personal info again and again on my tiny phone keyboard at various sites.)

Travel Apps for Your Dining Pleasure

GlobeTips is an iOS app recommended by one fellow traveler that eliminates the mathematics of calculating a tip around the world.

The Fork offers more than 60,000 of the best dining spots from Europe to Australia with instant free 24/7 reservations.

Where is the Nearest Toilet!

Toilet Paris-Restroom Paris is an iOS app for finding the nearest toilet.  This app is $0.99 at the writing of this post.

Toilets in Paris is the android app for finding the nearest toilet.

Flush Toilet Finder is an iOS app that works around the world and is free.

And, if you enter ‘Toilettes’ in the search bar of google maps, all the sanisette toilet locations pop up as well.

When it’s hot, you need a Water Fountain!

Les Fontaines de Paris is an iOs app which locates both still and sparkling water fountains in Paris.

In addition, I discovered this google map sourced by EU Touring. Click here for the link that you can paste in your phone notes for quick access.

Personal Mobile Hotspot

Sapphire International Mobile  Hotspot appears as a private WiFi network on all your devices. Simply connect and choose a data plan to determine the cost.

Do you have a favorite travel app to share! Please leave a comment with the link to the app and I’ll include it on this page. Thanks for reading!