With so many free and paid apps out there, it’s difficult to know which ones will help when it comes to travel blogging. So we’ve asked our community of travel bloggers for their number 1 ‘must have’ app, and why it’s their top choice.

Google Keep

Google Keep is the best app for taking notes when you’re on the go. This free app allows you to capture your thoughts in the format of lists, notes, photos or voice recordings. It’s extremely practical and user-friendly. You can color code and label your notes as well. I love using Google Keep because I can jot down my travel notes in multiple formats and everything is saved automatically. It’s easy to find old notes by using either the search function or clicking on your custom labels.

Sabrina, Moon & Honey Travel

KEYSEARCH

I use the app Keysearch to find good keywords (high research volumes, easy to rank for) for my new articles. I must say that I am an SEO obsessed and I use Keysearch for my blog articles almost every day to the point of having changed my mind in regards to a travel destination because it did not have good keywords!

Since the beginning of the year I have introduced Keysearch in my “decision making formula” travel bucket list – budget – planning to decide my next travel destination, especially for those trips that I want to translate into blog posts when I am back home. Of course it implies a little bit of flexibility but so far, I am quite happy with the first results!

Elisa, World in Paris

Mailchimp

When you’re starting out as a travel blogger, Mailchimp is the best email list building tool for you. They integrate nicely across all types of sites and allow you to put custom signup forms wherever suits you best. Though they aren’t necessarily the best for when you have tens of thousands of subscribers, they are perfect for small blogs that are still growing.

They are free to use and allow you to send great looking emails, complete with images, videos, different styles of text and external linking buttons. We used them for our blog and have had nothing but a great experience!

Bradley, Dream Big, Travel Far

maps.me

maps.me is a free offline maps app, where you can download specific locations such as an entire country, pin places of interest or attractions, and use your phone’s offline GPS to create a route to each pin! The benefit of using this app for travel blogging means that not only during the travels themselves can I track all the places I’ve visited and easily make my way around a new destination, but I can also create bookmark lists to download when I’m writing up a post. I like to share interactive maps of my trips and itineraries in my posts, and so being able to pinpoint the exact cute cafe or bookshop I visited makes recommendations that much more tailored and unique!

Suzy, SuzyStories

OneNote

I use OneNote constantly for my travel blog. It’s great because not only is it free, it syncs across all of my devices – including my phone – and can be accessed through a web browser in a pinch. I draft all of my blog posts and Instagram captions in it and use the phone app to jot down post ideas and notes when I’m on the go. It also keeps me organized with different tabs for each section of my blog, the Twitter chat I assist with, and other important blog tasks.

Kris, Nomad by Trade

Rome2Rio

Rome2Rio is my go-to app whenever I travel. It’s a one-stop search engine showing you ways to get from A to B from almost anywhere in the world by train, plane, ferry, bus or car.

It also provides an estimated journey duration, an approximate cost of your trip and links to transport provider’s websites to book your tickets, view timetables etc. Rome2Rio is available free to download on Apple and Android devices.

Haley, BorderLass

Slack

Slack is a free productivity app designed especially for small businesses. As a couple who works together on our blog we use it a lot to communicate. We can brainstorm ideas, assign tasks and can even keep track of spending. With so many different ‘slack apps’ available to integrate and customise however you want. Which is why we love it so much as a lot of the tools we already use can be found in one place.

Rio, Opposite Tourists

Snapseed

One of the most important Apps for me as a travel blogger is called Snapseed. Snapseed is a photo-editing app and the best thing about it is that it’s entirely free to download and use! There are many apps on the market to edit your mobile phone shots and after testing a few of them, Snapseed certainly brings the best results and is also fairly easy to use. Depending on the type of your picture, there are many detailed functions, such as the portrait mode where you can soften the skin or brighten the eyes (just to name a few). I used Snapseed extensively during my last trip to London and I was able to upload the fully edited pictured immediately on my social media without using my laptop in between, which was great.

Patrick, German Backpacker Travel Blog

TrabeePocket

TrabeePocket is my favourite app to track travel expenses. You have a free version which already offers you a lot of options. You can choose one currency and use all of the standard categories, which are sufficient to track accommodation, food and travel costs for example. You can get nice overviews of what you already spend or set a budget to see if you are spending too much.

For just a few euros you can buy the premium. I do recommend this: it gives you custom categories to track the expenses even better. It also adds the option to use more currencies if you travel to multiple countries in one trip. And the best for travel blogging: you can download all of your expenses in an Excel spreadsheet. Very useful to write a budget blog post about all your expenses.

Manouk, Groetjes uit Verweggistan (With Love from Far Away)

Trail Wallet

Trail Wallet is a useful app that makes keeping track of your travel expenses a breeze. Throughout my travels, this invaluable app has helped me control my daily, weekly, and monthly budgets. The built-in exchange rate calculator makes it simple to add costs in both your home or local currency. This app is designed for speed, letting you set goals, and categorize expenses within seconds, and the pie graph shows you where you are spending the bulk of your money.

The first 25 items are free; if you enjoy the app for $4.99 you get unlimited access.

Stephen, A Backpackers Tale

Trello

We love Trello! Originally an online tool for project management, Trello has become a go-to tool for bloggers. In the app your “Boards” are full of Trello “cards” that you can create for different tasks or content ideas. These cards can have labels, assigned team members, due dates, and more. You can then move these cards between categories you set up. We really like it for setting up a blogging workflow like “Brainstorm, Doing, Proofread, Published”. The mobile app is free to download – you just sign in to your Trello account and it’ll sync with the online version!

Eric, Ontario Away

Wunderlist

Wunderlist is an essential tool in my travel blogging kit. I’d tried other apps to keep my blogging tasks (and life!) organized, but it’s the simplicity of Wunderlist that makes it a winner for me. I use it daily, to keep me on task and to add in new tasks, ideas, or even items to my shopping list!

I have the app on my iPhone and MacBook so I can access it wherever I am and whatever I’m doing. It’s free to download and use, and I’d recommend it to anyone, blogger or not!

Nadine, Le Long Weekend