The best travel apps on Windows Phone for the holidays

The holiday season is upon us! Thanksgiving kicks things off here in the United States. Then we have Christmas and New Years next month! People will be traveling more and more over the next 40 days (give or take) as they visit friends, family and cash in all that vacation time from work. Here are some great apps to load up on your Windows Phone as you travel!

MyTrips for third-party TripIt app

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TripIt is one of the most useful services on the web for anything travel related. It will scan your emails for travel information (flights, hotels, cars., etc.) and automatically generate an easy travel itinerary for you! There's an official TripIt app in the Windows Phone Store, but it's a web wrapper that hasn't been updated in years. MyTrips is one of our favorite third-party TripIt apps on Windows Phone. Set up your account on the TripIt.com website and then install MyTrips to see the magic happen!

QR: MyTrips

Cortana for built-in flight tracking

Those on Windows Phone 8.1 (and in selected regions) have Cortana on their smartphone. All you need to do is give Cortana permission to scan your email, and she'll automatically watch for any trips you have coming up. From there, she'll send you reminders when you need to get to the airport and track your flights.

Foursquare and Yelp for Local discovery)

Discovering new restaurants and attractions is one of the best parts of traveling. Be sure to use Yelp or the new Foursquare app when you need a break from your family and want to go explore. These two apps are our favorites for finding cool places around.

QR: Yelp

QR: FS

WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger for communicating

If your travel plans are a bit more international, you may not want to use SMS for messaging family and friends. When we're traveling we like to use WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger for staying in touch with loved ones. Yes, both are technically owned by Facebook now, but between the two we're able to communicate with most anyone we want! The Windows Phone apps have come a long way and rank among our favorite messaging apps on the platform.

QR: W

QR: FB

Translator

English: Visiting a country with a language you don't speak? Then you're going to want to install the Bing Translator app for Windows Phone. This free app allows you to translate via text, voice, camera and more! Plus it has offline support for select languages. Must-have when traveling!

And now in French: Visiter un pays dont la langue vous ne parlez pas? Alors vous allez vouloir installer le soft de Bing Translator pour Windows Phone. Cette application gratuite permet de traduire via texte, voix, appareil photo et plus encore! De plus, il a un support hors-ligne pour sélectionner langues. Incontournable lors d'un voyage!

QR: Bing Translate

Hotel Tonight

There are a handful of great apps in the Windows Phone Store for booking hotels, but one of the most unique is Hotel Tonight. It pairs flexible travel plans with last-minute deals on open rooms. You're not going to use this to book a hotel months in advance, but within seven days it's ideal and could save you a lot of cash.

QR: HT

Flight Aware

Another community favorite for tracking flights on Windows Phone is the app Flight Aware. It's a free app that gives you real-time flight status for flights worldwide. Look for flights by aircraft registration, route, airline flight number, city pair or airport code. The tracking data includes complete flight status details and full-screen maps. It even takes it to the next level by providing NEXRAD radar overlay on those maps.

QR: Flight Aware

Uber

Need to get around fast in a new city? Despite some very questionable business practices, Uber remains one of the most convenient ways to get around quickly without taxi cabs. There's no official Lyft app on Windows Phone, so you're going to have to rely on Uber for quick getaways in new cities.

QR: Uber

Maps/HERE Maps + Offline map data

Getting lost is never fun. It's especially annoying when you're traveling and don't have the patience for not knowing where you are. Thankfully you can download some maps for offline navigation on Windows Phone. HERE Maps is great for getting around, and HERE Drive+ brings turn-by-turn navigation to your phone. Don't want to use HERE? You can still use the built-in Maps on Windows Phone with the offline data!

QR: Maps

QR: Here

MSN Travel

Here's a handy travel app from Microsoft. Travel gives you trip ideas for thousands of destinations and provides the ability to check a flight's status. Plus you can book flights and hotels from within the app. Double plus, it's beautiful!

QR: Travel

These are just some of the many wonderful travel apps on Windows Phone! Which apps do you use and find indispensable when traveling? Let us know!

Sam Sabri