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None of us wants to take all the surprise out of travelling, but some surprises like rain showers, dodgy restaurants and lack of pay phone can put a serious dampener on travel proceedings. Let your Android be your best friend and help you out of some of travelling’s stickier situations.

1. Google Goggles

This is like having a pair of glasses hooked up to an encyclopaedia, only better. Simply capture an image of anything around you, be it text, a picture, a building and this app will search the web to bring up tons of useful info about it and the surrounding area. If you’re in an old castle and want to know more of the history, simply snap a picture of it, post it and wait for your info to arrive. It will also make you look very smart in front of your friends…until they find out how you did it!

2. Weather Bug

There’s never a bad time to get a weather report. Whether you’re trekking in the Andes or surfing the Gold Coast, if you download this nifty app you’ll always know when and where the sun’s gonna shine.

3. TripIt

Once you’ve signed up for a TripIt account, you can forward your flight, hotel and hire car bookings to [email protected], and from then on your whole travel life is tracked, tidied up and organised.  Check on your flight times, the weather, your hotel reservation, things to do when you arrive…. This app will be your new best friend while you’re on the road.

4. Skype

The world seems to be held together with Skype internet calling. This fantastic app will let you make free calls to other Skype users and calls home to landlines and mobiles for a fraction of the price of a phone card or pay phone.  You can even see the ones you love using the video function which can make all the difference when you’re far away.

5. Skyscanner – All flights, everywhere

The most flexible and powerful flight search app in the world is FREE to download and compares millions of flights on over 600 airlines to find you the best deal possible. This app allows you to buy your tickets direct from the travel agent or airline. If you’re not familiar with the app, you can experiment with the website – for example searching for flights to the island of Jamaica, you can see where in Jamaica is cheapest to fly to (e.g. Kingston) and where is cheapest to fly from. Search across a month or year view, using the same flexibility as the Skyscanner website.  Version 2 will save you both time and money and it’s available in 23 languages! It’s so good the Guardian called it “Flexible, fair and fearsomely indispensable.”

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