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February app review: A day's travel

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20th Feb 2015
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Travel doesn’t have to be such a chore anymore. Rachael Power explains how mobile apps can help you plan and manage your time out of the office to make trips run a little smoother. 

First of all, do remember to bring your charger. And if you’re worried about the availability of plug sockets - especially on trains - invest in a power bank. 

From alarm clocks, to tax calculators, to weather, there’s an app for every aspect of travel. The only question is - which ones do you pick?

I recently travelled from the sleepy South West to London. To show what’s possible, here’s a rundown of the apps I used to plan and implement the trip: 

Planning

Sitting at the office sipping a cup of tea, I downloaded  thetrainline for free, to check and book my tickets.

I also considered hiring a car: Zipcar is the best free app for this. And if you’re taking your own motor, the £4.99 Road Trip app is good for calculating fuel economy and mileage. (Though I also met people from Tripcatcher while in town - that looks like a good one if you want to capture the mileage data straight into your accounts system).

But for now, the train. Within a few taps, I found and booked the cheapest seats and an underground travel card. 

My companions and I knew we’d get to London late evening and wanted to be sure of where we were going, and a nice restaurant for a meal when we got there. A quick scan on CityMapper told us the best route to our destination from Paddington station - this is updated on the day to show delays, etc. We then found there were some tasty food places in the vicinity, not too expensive and rated highly rated on the TripAdvisor app. Perfect. 

Preparing 

To do some research on the people I was meeting, I had a swipe around the LinkedIn and Twitter apps. Accountants, however, may need more tools for preparation - for example,  a good tax calculator would be useful for client and prospect meetings.

I also downloaded the free Google Drive app for iPad to have access to documents to work on on the train. Office 365 is also available free for Android and iOS.

Throughout a day on the road, you probably need something to relax and entertain you while waiting around or on lengthy train journeys. Omvana, a free meditation app, provides the right type of relaxation with a good pair of headphones. If you’re not that way inclined however, download some podcasts, or if you’re more of a gamer, the free (but with in-app purchases) Clash of Clans.

Snacks on the train are also known for being quite overpriced and occasionally unhealthy. So the night before, I downloaded the free Healthy Recipes app and prepped ourselves a lunchbox of goodies. 

Day of travel

To make sure I didn’t oversleep, I set the snooze-resistant Walk Me Up, and checked the weather using AccuWeather - more reliable than standard weather apps. The AA travel app would alert me to any road delays and thetrainline would show if trains were running on time. Setting out, I pre-ordered a coffee via the Starbucks app,  swanned past and picked it up en route to the station.

On your way 

At a few pence, Whatsapp took care of keeping in touch with everyone back at the office, interspersed with working on Docs, some of pre-prepped healthy snacks (which I ticked off on MyFitnessPal) and a quick game of Clash of Clans. Pulling into Paddington, I checked the underground via Tube Map and sped off. 

While this illustration of a day in is intended as a guide - pick and choose the handiest apps at will. Do look up from your phone once in a while! What are your suggestions of good travel apps?

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By carnmores
24th Feb 2015 17:06

and theres more

HMRC app does the tax calcstuff and more

Travelling in London MX Bus London , Uber & Addison Lee for taxis  . In addition to the Trainlineyou can also try Redspottedhanky app which is the same but some times cheaper . For airtravel BA , Easyjet (my fav) & skyscanner and if your planning to get ill EHIC !  

Post office 2 apps travelmoney card and good deals on cash (tho its usally better to use a business debit card if you can)  also Curency Converter for real time rates

Banking apps are easy Barclays personal and Lloyds business are great and you can also use Barclays Ping It for transferring money

MS One Note for list and things

Salacious gossip and news in an acceptable format  Daily Mail app and for something more serious the Economist Espresso

Listening to the Radio (4) abroad BBC iPlayer radio & BBc media player , there are no copyright restrictions on listening to the BBC radio abroad as opposed to i Player

 

now back to that dreadful accountancy lark Expensify and YES Quickbooks online   

 

all this will be of no interest to the luddites!

 

 

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