Road trip: Travel apps and mobile must-haves

Check out these apps and accessories to up your road tripping game.

StarHub Blogger, 28 February 2018

It’s that time of the year again. You’ve begged your boss for extra leave, scouted the best car rental deal and convinced the right pals to go along with your next crazy travel idea: a road trip in a land faraway. Whether it’s cruising along the famed Great Ocean Road in Australia, sweeping past the breathtaking Iroha-zaka Road in Japan, or taking in the romance of the classic Route 66 in the USA, you wouldn’t want to miss out on adding the following travel apps and mobile accessories to have the best experience possible!

How to drive better

Road trips are long drives. While everyone plays up the excitement of the experience, the reality is it often demands a lot of energy and concentration from the driver who has to be awake at the wheel for hours on end. So it definitely pays to set up one’s mobile beforehand to avoid wasted energy (and petrol) making wrong turns. Travel apps like Roadtrippers (iOS and Google Play) and ParkMe (iOS and Google Play) can help you find parking spots, rest points, or other useful places easily, while apps like Radarbot (iOS and Google Play) or even Waze (iOS and Google Play) can help prevent unnecessary speeding fines by reminding you of the right highway stretches to slow down at. With these travel apps by your side, you’ll never have to feel nervous driving in a foreign land.

How to capture travel memories better

After confirming the key driving and route details on your road trip planner, the next biggest thing on your mind might be recording the travel moments, especially if you’re on backseat-camera duties. Suffice to say, it all starts from your phone - recent flagship launches will leave your spoilt for choice with their heightened camera features, like the Samsung Galaxy Note8’s Dual-Capture mode or the front-facing TrueDepth Camera on the iPhone X. Once you have that down, do consider other tools like camera drones and gimbals (external phone video stabilisers) that will draw out your phone camera’s full potential for those inspiring travel shots you can call your very own.

How to not get bored

After taking a ton of travel footage, what does one do in the car apart from gazing at the scenery? Plenty - for starters, whipping out apps like the evergreen Psych! (a light-hearted group trivia game on iOS and Google Play) or SongPop 2 (a guess-the-song game that even the driver can join in; iOS and Google Play) can help keep conversations and moods bright. For the solo-tripper, putting on a podcast like Go The Travel or Amateur Traveler (both and more can be found on the useful Stitcher app; iOS and Google Play) may make for interesting thought fodder and an engaging journey.

How to set the right vibes

As mentioned earlier, going on a long drive across the country can be rewarding but also mentally demanding. The right in-car music will not only keep driver engaged; it can also create an immersive travel experience. If your rental vehicle supports Bluetooth connectivity, we recommend bringing along a good music phone like the Xperia XZ Premium with its LDAC technology that optimises sound quality over Bluetooth transmission to a car’s audio system, or the 32-bit Quad DAC LG V30+ that will make you quickly forget about a poor car stereo.

How to keep the data going (without busting your wallet)

Whether it’s apps that help you get to your destination safely, or having the best phones and accessories on your travels, you’ll still need a trusty overseas data plan that won’t put holes in your pocket. We’ve made it easy for you to do just that - our StarHub DataTravel plan gives you affordable and reliable coverage with no-frills 2GB and 3GB mobile data choices! Now you can keep all your important travel apps ticking while roaming across more than 50 of your favourite destinations. Safe travels!