Vacations, even simple weekend getaways, can be full of adventure — that’s part of the great appeal, after all — but if you value a delicious, high-quality meal along with your adventure, then check out these apps for different travel needs that can direct you to the best places to savor a great meal.
- When you’re stuck at the airport. Usually, airports are not known for their culinary quality, although that’s changing in some places. Check out GetGrab – the online mobile ordering app (Free, iOS and Android) available at major airports in the USA, United Kingdom and select destinations.
- When you want to plan ahead. Opentable and TheFork are two great websites and apps for researching restaurant options and making advance reservations.
- When you’re looking for advice from the experts. If you’re suspicious of crowdsourcing opinions on the best food, why not consult those who know best? TasteMade allows you to pick a major city (featuring major US cities, plus several Canadian cities, and London, with more coming soon), and up pops dishes that top chefs in that city would recommend from their favorite restaurants. (Free, iOS)
- When you want to know what the heck you’re eating. You might like a little mystery when you’re ordering in a foreign country — but maybe not too much, right? WordLens started as a standalone app and is now a part of Google Translate. It uses your phone’s video camera and optical character recognition to make translations in real time when you hold your phone up to the text. Even better? It doesn’t require a network connection to work, so when you’re visiting that quaint little hill town in Umbria, you can still know what’s on the menu. It’s currently available for Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Portuguese. (Free, iOS and Android, each language pack is $5.95)
Make the most of your trip and the food you enjoy while on your next adventure! Give one (or more!) of these apps a try and let me know what you think.