All of us TCC members have our favorite “go to” apps and Web sites that help make our travel planning easier. Here are the favorite ones of the TCC Board of Directors.
Chris Hudson uses airlineroutemaps.com a fair amount. It’s not always 100% up to date, but is pretty useful.
Apps on JoAnn Schwartz’s phone: Navigation: maps.me (download maps needed for trip before leaving home, delete them after trip); Mark O’Travel – track TCC countries visited! I check them off as I go; XE currency converter; Tripit – holds trip info in one place. I don’t have the pro version, but understands it will track if your flights are late, etc.; Google Translate – download the needed languages prior to leaving for trip and delete after. Functionality available varies by language.
Pam Barrus My favorite app is Passport Booth. You can use your phone or tablet to take a picture of yourself against a white background (I use my refrigerator) and two identical photos are produced. You upload them to wherever you have your pictures printed and voilà, you have perfect visa photos. I printed a dozen for under $2 for a recent trip to West Africa.
Margo Bart I use Kayak and TripCase. I forward all of my bookings and set up each trip. I think Kayak is better but sometimes TripCase will be the first with convenient information, like a gate change. For travel insurance: www.squaremouth. com. I find this useful as I sometimes buy medical/medical evacuation. Luggage Forward delivers suitcases. My girlfriend uses this service.
Tim Skeet I like seat61.com, hillmanwonders.com (for a list of the worlds’ must-see wonders), www.poezda. net/en (for information on Russian trains), and bahn.de (for trains in Ger-many and much of Europe).