10 Apps Every Solo Woman Traveler Should Have
Whether you're venturing into the rugged wilderness or wandering the streets of Amsterdam, travel apps can help you safely navigate to your destination, map out your trip, connect with other solo travelers, and book last-minute accommodations, flights, and experiences at the tap of a button.
When I got the wild idea to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, I also resolved to hike it a la Cheryl Strayed–relying on good old-fashioned paper maps to guide me from Mexico to Canada. That idea lasted for about a week before I gave in to reason and surrendered to tech's inescapable orbit.
Whenever I found myself at an unexpected juncture on the trail, I'd whip out my dirt-caked iPhone and check FarOut (an on-trail navigation aid popular among thru-hikers) to point me in the right direction.
I wouldn’t do anything differently a second time around. My phone bailed me out of more "Oh sh**, am I lost?" moments than I'd care to admit. My InReach PLB stayed attached to my shoulder strap, ready to send up a digital flare if I ever ended up bloodied and broken at the bottom of a scree field.
Technology enriched my thru-hike and saved me from making a handful of costly mistakes on trail. Whether you're venturing into the rugged wilderness or wandering the streets of Amsterdam, travel apps can help you safely navigate to your destination, map out your trip, connect with other solo travelers, and book last-minute accommodations, flights, and experiences at the tap of a button.
Read on for a rundown of the must-have travel apps to download before going on your next solo adventure!
Best Travel Apps For Solo Women
Polarsteps
Polarsteps is a travel planning app that offers a fun way to document and share your solo adventures with friends and family. Plan your trip by selecting your destination, adding stops along your route, and adding a list of places you'd like to see along the way.
Once you start your trip, the app will plot your route on a map using GPS to keep tabs on your whereabouts, including the duration of each stop and the distance between them. Preserve your memories by adding notes and photos at each stop. Because the app relies on GPS to map your route, you can also share your real-time location with loved ones, giving them a front-row seat to your adventures and peace of mind knowing you're safe.
In addition to sharing your profile with your family, you can follow other Polarsteps users and get inspiration for your next adventure! When you return from your trip, you can get a printed version of your journey in the form of a travel scrapbook. Although this feature may not be ideal for shorter trips, it makes for a great personal keepsake for longer journeys or a holiday gift for the family!
Polarsteps is free to download, but if you’d like to print a travel book, it’ll cost you anywhere from $36 to around $97 USD.
2. Google Maps
A staple in any solo traveler's mobile arsenal. Google Maps has a comprehensive database of maps and points of interest, along with turn-by-turn driving, walking, biking, and public transit directions to help you get from one place to another on your travels.
The app's offline maps feature is useful when traveling abroad or navigating remote destinations with unreliable cell coverage. Offline maps have some limitations. Real-time traffic data won't be accessible, your route must fit within the offline map's boundaries, and you'll need enough storage on your device to download the maps.
You can also keep your loved ones informed while you're on the go with Maps' live location-sharing feature. Much like Polarsteps, you can create custom maps of your destination decked out with icons representing points of interest, restaurants, and attractions you'd like to visit on your trip. When you’re done, share your customized maps with friends and family so they can keep tabs on your itinerary while you’re away.
3. Pchy
Pchy is the first review site and mobile app for women to help navigate life's everyday adventures. The app experience will allow users to read and leave reviews of trails, parking garages, accommodations, gas stations, businesses, campgrounds, and more based on specific safety considerations.
Get clear-cut answers to your safety questions. Do your local hiking trails have reliable cell reception? Is that parking garage well-lit at night? Is your hotel room outfitted with a deadbolt, door stopper, and peephole? Is your neighborhood gas station a hotbed for card-skimming fraudsters?
Pchy is on a mission to reduce the fluff and noise found in message boards and review sites to get straight to the information women, femmes, and non-binary people need to plan for safer travels, nearby adventures, or even just running errands. Pchy will be available to iOS and Android users in 2024.
4. Flush
If you've never sprinted from shop to shop desperately seeking a bathroom during your travels, congratulations on your charmed bladder! Flush is the first choice for solo adventurers caught in a potty pickle.
The app includes information about the toilet facilities in your area like whether they require a key or a fee to use, handicap accessibility, location, hours of operation, bathroom type, and proximity to your location.
Pull up the map to view the closest and most convenient bathroom options in your immediate vicinity. You can also rate facilities and report any inaccuracies or suspicious reviews to improve the accuracy and usefulness of the listings.
5. Rome2Rio
During my Pacific Crest Trail hike, the trail often led me through remote and minimally developed areas. Other hikers and I relied on hitching to reach the nearest town for a resupply and a hot shower. Plan B usually involved hopping on public transit to reach our destination when hitching a ride wasn't in the cards. But without a local's know-how, it was hard to figure out where to go and how to get there.
Rome2Rio quickly became a trailblazer in the thru-hikers app lineup, offering a lifeline for effortlessly planning routes from the trailhead to the nearest town or transit hub. Beyond its utility on the trail, Rome2Rio is an indispensable trip-planning tool for any solo traveler on a budget or for finding the most straightforward route from point A to B.
The app aggregates flight, train, subway, bus, and ferry schedules along with local rideshare options and strings them into a simple, step-by-step itinerary. The app also provides direct links to third-party transit operators, making it easy to get tickets or adjust to unexpected route changes.
6. AllTrails
Are the mountains calling your name? AllTrails is your GPS-guided therapist for a perfect microdose of outdoor bliss.
Browse the closest or most popular hiking trails in your area and filter them by difficulty (easy, moderate, hard), length (make sure the noted trail length is round-trip, not one-way!), and average user rating. View user reviews, live trail conditions, and user-submitted photos to help you craft the perfect hiking itinerary.
This app goes the extra mile by offering detailed map layers you can download for offline use. Share your chosen route with travel buddies, and bookmark hiking trails for future adventures.
7. Noonlight
Noonlight is a free-to-use app for iPhone and Android that provides a 24/7 emergency hotline within the palm of your hand. Noonlight helps users feel safe and secure by providing real-time GPS tracking, text alerts, and emergency dispatch services.
It also features a “personal safety assistant” who can help users find safe places to go and people to talk to. If you find yourself in an emergency, simply pull up the app, then hold and release the panic button to initiate a call to emergency services. If you accidentally activate the button, you'll have 10 seconds to enter a four-digit pin and cancel the alarm.
You can connect your Noonlight account with your Tinder profile so you have a record of the date and time of your conversations and any photos or videos exchanged. It also lets you quickly alert your close contacts and local authorities in an emergency. If you can't talk or text during an emergency, the authorities can still tap into the app's GPS to pinpoint your exact location.
You can also lean into the Safety Network feature if you can’t safely activate the panic button. Let your friends and family know you’re heading out and what time you plan to be home. Your Safety Network can request a check-in to make sure you made it to your destination safe and sound, monitor your location, and even dispatch emergency responders on your behalf if they think you’re in trouble.
8. XE Currency
If you’re an international traveler who struggles to remember whether the pound is heavier than the euro, there’s an app for that. XE currency converter uses the interbank exchange rate to give you the most up-to-date conversion rate on international currencies. Using the app is easy. Just input your desired amount in one denomination and see the results in as many denominations as you want.
The app also comes with a built-in global transfer function so you can send and receive money worldwide. Additionally, it can calculate transfer fees to help you compare different transfer services.
9. Booking.com
Wrangling a place to stay might be the most stress-inducing aspect of planning a solo adventure. The struggle is real, and not every booking site lives up to the promise of a hassle-free and transparent booking process, but with Booking.com, you can count on both–well, most of the time.
While the customer service for Booking.com leaves a lot to be desired, their biggest selling point is the price you see is the price you pay for your room–no hidden charges or fees. Additionally, they offer a wide range of accommodations, from hotels to vacation rentals to hostels.
If you’re looking to stretch your dollar in hostels, it’s worth comparing prices and accommodation options on both Booking.com and Hostelworld, a hostel-centric booking site. Seasoned solo travelers claim Hostelworld user reviews have more depth and detail, and some hostels that are on Hostelword aren’t listed on Booking.com.
10. A Rideshare App
Navigating nightlife in a new city? Rideshare apps are another must-have for any solo traveler exploring an unfamiliar destination. Depending on where you visit, taxis or rideshare services may be a hotbed for robberies and violent crime. Put an ear out to the travel community and determine the best course of action for taxi and rideshare services in your destination.
While Lyft and Uber are available in most U.S. cities, you can also hail a ride in many European cities, including Amsterdam, London, Prague, Berlin, Rome, Athens, and Vienna. Grab is widely used in Asian countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar. While Careem is the dominant player in Egypt, Morocco, and the Middle East.
