Over the past five years, I have had the opportunity to travel to quite a few locations. Most of my travels have been here in the United States. But I have also traveled internationally, adding Italy, Colombia, and El Salvador to my list of countries I have visited for the first time.

I am obviously not an expert on travel, but I thought I would share with you a couple of my favorite travel apps.

Mobile Passport

On my way home from Colombia, I knew I was going to have to go through immigration at the San Francisco Airport. While on the plane, I quickly answered the few questions, scanned my passport, and took a photo. Once our plane landed, I submitted my form and made my way off the plane.

After I got off the plane and headed over to immigration, you should have seen the line! There were probably over 200 people waiting to go through immigration.

I found the line for the Mobile Passport, stood for a few minutes behind three other people, and was quickly in front of an agent.

I almost hesitate to share this with you, because it is a great little secret that I don’t believe most people are taking advantage of! The app is free and is advertised at most of the larger entry points for foreign travel back into the United States.

Google Translate

The thing I love about this app is the ability to have a language downloaded and available offline. This is especially helpful if you are not using your data while traveling.

The app lets you type in text in English, and then it will translate it into the language of your choice. You can also use your camera to translate typed or handwritten text, and record conversations to translate.

I have used this app in Mexico, El Salvador, Italy, and Colombia.

Since I am not proficient in Italian or Spanish, this app has helped me to have conversations with people who are not proficient in English. The translation is not always completely accurate, but it sure has come in handy!

My Currency Converter

Can’t figure out how to convert US dollars to Colombian Pesos? Or any other form of currency?

This app makes it super simple to figure out how far your US dollars with go while purchasing items in a foreign country.

Just type in the price of an item in the foreign currency and the app immediately lets you know what the price is in US dollars. You can also do a reverse of the currency also.

What are your favorite travel apps?

In December of 2016, my husband and I began talking about possibly going to Italy. At first, Kevin was not too keen on the idea. But then when he remembered all the art that we could see there, and all the amazing food they have in Italy, he quickly changed his mind!

We still weren't sure if an actual trip to Italy would happen, but when our friend shared about some inexpensive fares to Rome, we had to look into making the trip a possibility!

Lindsey and her husband have been to Europe four times in the last 5 years! They love to help people who have a tight budget make their European travel dreams possible. So we contacted Ciao Bella Vacations to help us get started with the planning process.

I highly recommend contacting Lindsey if you are thinking about traveling to Europe. She had us answer a lot of questions to help us plan our trip. She booked all of our Airbnb's, our flights, and most of our trains. She even suggested many additional activities for each of the three locations we would be visiting during our trip. And she provided us with a lot of great travel tips, especially since this would be our first time traveling to Europe.