With the euro in the doldrums, a trip to Europe is a better deal than it’s been in years. While keeping up with every travel app and website is almost impossible, we’ve found a select group of “best in class’’ that make planning a European trip easier and help smooth your way once you’re on the road.
Find flights at momondo.com
If you’re planning a simple roundtrip between Boston and London, Paris, Barcelona, or Rome, almost any airfare search site will suffice since they all list the major carriers. But if you plan to visit some lesser known destinations or hop around Europe once you get there, you’re wasting time and money if you don’t point your browser directly to momondo.com. It has the best combination of price, search speed, and graphical presentation. We use this Denmark-based parent company of CheapFlights because it shows connections with some Europe-only airlines (missed by most US-based searches) and clearly spells out wait times and alternate connections. It also has low ticket prices matched only by Skyscanner.com (an English company). Once you’ve settled on flights, see if they’re also listed on Hipmunk.com, where the “Agony Index’’ factors in wait times, bad connections, and unusually cramped or chronically late flights.
Plan excursions with Rome2Rio.com
Once we’re in Europe, we love Rome2Rio, which plots various ways to get from one place to another along with estimated time and cost. It puts flights, ferries, buses, trains, and rental cars all in one place. It’s not available as an app because the maps would be too small, so bring along a tablet or laptop. We use it to instantly calculate side trips, excursions, and detours.
Ease anxieties with InsureMyTrip.com
We’re not big worriers, so we rarely buy travel insurance. But we know people who insure every trip, which makes sense if you’re concerned about geopolitical strife or the shaky health of a family member. InsureMyTrip.com obviously wants to sell you insurance, but the site’s advice might keep you from buying more than you need. Most of the major travel insurers are included.
Read local with GoodReads.com
It adds extra depth to a trip to read about the destination while you’re on the road, and the community at GoodReads.com offers some wonderful recommendations. The site will refer you to online bookstores and nearby libraries, but we hope you’ll head to your local brick and mortar shop. To get you started, we parsed the site for literary fiction by European authors available in English. Click http://tinyurl.com/EuroLit.
Find last-minute lodgings with Hotel Tonight app
We wish there were an app or website as good for hotels as momondo.com is for flights. (Momondo’s own hotel listings come from the Expedia and Priceline groups.) For people who change plans frequently or don’t like to lock themselves in, the Hotel Tonight app is especially good on last-minute reservations. Its limitation is that it only shows hotel groups that have the sophisticated software to dump excess inventory onto the site. Just don’t expect to find a quirky mom-and-pop hostelry.
Tap train schedules with DB Navigator app
We used to know people who toted around the phonebook-sized timetable of European trains. Life is much easier with the DB Navigator app, which taps into the database of the German national railroad. Almost every train in Europe is listed, and you can often purchase the ticket online.
Use WiFi Finder or WiFi Map to find open access
Now that T-Mobile and Sprint offer overseas data without extra roaming fees, WiFi is less critical than it used to be. But sometimes life is easiest with a great WiFi connection, especially since little of Europe connects cellphone data at LTE speeds. WiFi Finder can locate the hot spots and often indicates if they are password-protected. Crowd-sourced WiFi Map does much the same and provides passwords that worked for someone else.
Calculate conversions with an app
There are a zillion free conversion apps out there, and they all have annoying ads when you open them. For Android, we like Unit Converter, which updates its currency conversion daily. For iOs, the best bet for simplicity seems to be Units. These apps are also great if you can’t seem to get yourself thinking in centimeters (0.393701 inches).
Find a public restroom with Sit or Squat app
This is hardly a perfect app, since it’s crowd-sourced, but it’s a good start on finding a public toilet without pretending that you’re a guest at a big hotel. (They’re usually off the lobby near the bar.) Restrooms are rated for cleanliness and extra features such as baby-changing tables.
Carry maps on your phone with Maps.Me
Nothing says “I’m a tourist — please mug me!’’ like stopping in the middle of a sidewalk to unfold and consult a paper map. Alas, cloud-based maps (Google Maps, Mapquest, etc.) only work where you have a data connection. If you don’t have data access in Europe, you can get great maps from this free app. We find them more accurate than Google Maps in some places. They link to the GPS sensor on your phone to provide real-time routing.
Patricia Harris and David Lyon can be reached at harrislyon@gmail.com.
