Travel can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life, but an amazing trip can involve a great deal of planning – getting from point A to point B in the cheapest, most efficient way while staying organized and culturally in-touch doesn't happen by pure magic. Luckily, there's an app for every travel woe. From pre-trip planning, to navigating your destination, to juggling new cultures, currencies, and busy itineraries, these apps will minimize stress and maximize fun and ease on your next trip.

There's an app for that: Booking Transportation

1. Hopper

Since flights can often be the most expensive part of a trip, you want to save as much cash as possible by booking at the perfect time. Hopper analyzes flight data and gives you a snapshot of fares and ideal travel dates, letting you know if now is a good time to buy or whether you should keep waiting for prices to drop. You can set up notifications for the app to alert you when certain routes and dates drop in price or are predicted to increase, enabling you to hop on the best deals.

2. Skyscanner

For finding great deals, Skyscanner comes in handy and is great to compare with similar search engines like Google Flights and Momondo. However, one of the best features of Skyscanner is that you can type in your origin and select "Everywhere" as your destination to browse an array of options along with their price points. The app also offers suggestions for the best deals by month or on specific weekends. Once you've selected a destination, Skyscanner even provides a "Why go?" blurb with city highlights – as if you needed any more convincing to embark on that trip.

3. Skiplagged

This app is so good at finding airfare deals that United Airlines sued – but Skiplagged won. Using a strategy of finding "hidden-city flights" where you get off at the layover rather than the final destination, Skiplagged is able to save users hundreds of dollars when longer flights are arbitrarily cheaper than shorter flights. For the traveler trying to finesse as much savings as possible, hidden-city flights are a great option to look into.

4. GoEuro

In well-connected places like Europe where you have the ease of choosing between planes, trains, and busses as your mode of transportation, GoEuro provides a succinct snapshot of all your options for getting from one city to another. Compare and sort by price and time so you can find transportation that fits your schedule and budget perfectly.

There's an app for that: Navigation

5. Google Maps

We all use Google Maps in our daily lives when wifi and cell service are readily available, but what about during your travels when you might not have signal? A little, extremely helpful but not well known feature is that if you pull up your destination city on Google Maps then type in "ok maps" into the search bar, the app will prompt you to download the entire area to be saved for 30 days, allowing you to navigate with ease regardless of whether you have cell service or not.

6. Rome2rio

If you dread figuring out the multi-step, logistical nightmare of getting from your apartment to a train station to an airport to another train station and then finally walking to reach your final destination, this app is for you. Type in any addresses as your origin and destination and Rome2rio will route you the entire way, providing all options with various combinations of transportation and their estimated costs. Clicking further into a route option will even link you to the exact websites where you can purchase tickets to seamlessly lock down your travel plans.

There's an app for that: Travel Tools

7. XE Currency

If the thought of exchanging currency and dealing with conversion rates makes your head spin, then download XE Currency and fear no more. It provides helpful offline availability for converting currencies so you don't have to break a sweat doing mental math conversions every time you go to buy something with foreign currency. Prior to your trip, you can also sign up for rate alerts so you'll be notified at the ideal time to buy foreign currency at your desired rate.

8. Google Translate

Again, like most Google apps, this is one we're all familiar with – but the Google Translate standalone app has features that the website version lacks, such as the ability to download entire language libraries for offline access to translations. Also, the app allows you to use your phone camera to point at text in a foreign language and it will automatically translate it for you, so that you're reading the translation in real time on your screen as you point your camera at the foreign text.

Above: The left side is the Italian Consulate website, almost entirely in Italian, while the right side is my view via the Google Translate app camera, with the text appearing in English.

9. Google Trips

Never frantically search through your email inbox for a travel confirmation again. Google Trips scans your Gmail for travel reservations and aggregates consecutive activities and bookings into Trips, along with suggestions of nearby attractions, places to eat, and things to do. Plus, since Google Trips is accessible offline, no cell service = no problem.

10. TripIt

A great alternative to Google Trips is TripIt: if you don't want an app to scan through your Gmail, you can simply forward your travel confirmations to plans@tripit.com and TripIt will automatically create an itinerary to organize your plans in the app. The interface on TripIt includes more detailed time and confirmation number information than Google Trips, but lacks the recommendations search engine for things to do and see.

11. SeatGuru

Any question you could ever have about your airplane seat is answered on SeatGuru. From leg room to pitch to details on airline amenities, SeatGuru gives a detailed rundown of the plane situation once you input your specific flight number, so you'll know exactly what to expect when you step on board. Pictures and tips for choosing the best seat make this a handy tool to consult before booking plane tickets as well.

12. Google Earth

Another Google app?! Yes, bear with me – although Google Maps is great for getting around and for solving logistical inquiries, Google Earth is perfect for satiating your curiosity and wanderlust thanks to its library of images from around the world including all major points of interest in each city. The points of interest feed is great itinerary inspiration for site-seeing, and if you check out the photos of your destination on Google Earth, you can start envisioning your fire Instagram posts in advance.

There's an app for that: Staying in Touch

13. Time Buddy

It's hard enough to keep track of one time zone, but what if you have friends and family living in multiple different time zones around the world? Time Buddy saves the day with an easy visual representation of multiple time zones at once. Aligning a group FaceTime session across three different continents has never been easier.

14. Postagram

Although postcards from each city you visit can serve as nice souvenirs to send home, it's often a hassle to then find stamps and locate a post office from which you can actually send the postcard to your friends and family. With Postagram, you can send postcards without ever stepping foot in a post office. The app allows you to customize a postcard and it takes care of mailing it for as little as $0.99. The best part: you can upload your own pictures from your travels to serve as the feature image on your postcard! That's waaayyy better than some generic postcard photograph that's probably at least ten years old, and your friends and family will appreciate the personal touch.