Monday, January 26, 2015

Travel Resolutions Part II

Bonjour, bonjour and welcome to the second part of my resolutions post! As I was saying in my last post, my main New Year's Resolution of 2015 is to travel more, so I've been using my Microsoft tablet this past week to get a bit more prepared for things to come. The anal side of me is LOVING this. So, here's where I'm currently at:

Microsoft Surface pro 3 tablet travel apps 1

Generally a forward-planner I am not, but the past few times I've been on holiday I've made a point of going online beforehand and checking out the best places to eat/things to do so that we don't end up spending the whole fortnight on a sunbed. Ahem, ok, I have done that in the past and had a ball but now I prefer to explore and see what's what. Which I think might otherwise be known as getting old. The first thing I did was head to the travel section of the app store (it's very handily split up into categories like games, music & video, health & fitness, food & dining etc) and download some of my favourite apps. Now I'm sitting with an arsenal under my belt that includes TripAdvisor, Skyscanner, translator and booking.com and am equipped, quite literally, to take on the world. Browsing through TripAdvisor is one of my favourite pastimes; I'm generally greeted with a sigh from Rob's end when I pull out my phone before we go somewhere because he knows exactly what's coming, but the search for 'hotels/restaurants' etc near me feature is - in my opinion - one of technology's greatest achievements. Anyone else?...

We've got a few exciting trips coming up in the next couple of months (all will revealed soon, but for now I'll have to shroud myself in a cloud of mystery like some sort of non-committal fortune teller) so I've also been saving useful blog posts and articles I've found while browsing the interweb into the 'Reading List' app, which groups them all together for you to go back to at a later date. Handy pandy.

Microsoft Surface pro 3 tablet travel apps 2

I'm a truly terrible flyer (I think I've told you all that 5000 times now, you're welcome) so, as sad as it is, it genuinely makes me feel nice and warm inside that a game of solitaire is only a click away if I need to take my mind off of my potentially impending death. Yes, solitaire is my game of choice. There are many, many more in the x-box games app for the more adventurous person.
Other useful apps include maps (with a 'search and get directions' function which has saved me and my hopeless sense of direction many a time), the camera (if you don't fancy carrying a camera/phone as well as your tablet), London TubeMap (sad, I know, but I'm yet to get the hang of the tubes despite being in London at least twice a month), Skype for when you're missing home aaand the weather app - CRUCIAL for knowing how to dress appropriately for your trip ahead. I'm a little anal about this last one because I once got caught in two weeks of rain and storms (get your shit together, Gran Canaria) with a suitcase full of flimsy sundresses, sandals and not much else.

So, there we go - my favourite travel apps. I hope this comes in handy for some of you, and if there's any travel apps I've missed that you like then pleeeease tell me below, I'm always on the hunt for more to download!

Microsoft Surface pro 3 tablet travel apps 6

Amy


Post in collaboration with Argos