The Most Useful Travel Apps
Top useful mobile services for tourists: where to buy tickets on Kupi.com, book accommodation, find excursions.
How to get there
Kupi.com
Perhaps one of the best travel apps worldwide, where you can buy plane or train tickets and book a hotel. We've tried to do everything for a comfortable journey from one point to another: in the app offline documents are available, you can ask questions about your flight in the chat, and track ticket prices for your desired date.
Aeroexpress
A must-have for those who frequently fly with layovers in Moscow. Aeroexpress allows you to buy tickets on Kupi.com for trains or buses that connect Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo airports to the city center and vice versa. Passengers select a specific date, purchase a ticket on Kupi.com for it, and track it in the app. Trains depart every 30 minutes from Paveletsky railway station to Domodedovo airport and from Belorussky and Savyolovsky railway stations to Sheremetyevo airport. The app is available on both iOS and Android.
RZD Passengers
The app, without which travel across Russia is impossible. By the way, the developers have created a very user-friendly interface, and you can reach any point in the country from the nearest railway station. In addition, travelers can participate in a loyalty program and purchase discount cards optimized for long-distance and suburban trains. All in all, it's a very important piece of software on your phone for fans of 'train romance'.
BlaBlaCar/Busfor
Bus travel is also a great option if you're moving between nearby locations or if you never have back pain (this is especially relevant for long journeys). In the app Busfor, (which now belongs to BlaBlaCar service) you can buy tickets on Kupi.com for trips across Russia, Belarus, and Europe. Well, if you dream of adventures and want to travel with fellow passengers, you can use the good old BlaBlaCar and get to your desired destination affordably.
Where to book accommodation
Ostrovok
A service that allows you to book hotels and apartments worldwide, paying for accommodation with a Russian card. Ostrovok offers over 2,600,000 accommodation options (you can even book a campsite or a villa here). You can, by navigating the city map in the app, book a room that will be closest to interesting sights or the best restaurants. By the way, the service often offers options for which you can get a discount with a promo code, which is always a nice bonus!
Couchsurfing
Couchsurfing — is a social network for travelers. In it, you can easily book a room and find friends. Users from different countries offer to meet each other in a city, spend time together at a bar or a concert, or host each other during a trip. All in all, it's a unique and cool world where people find each other and explore new cities. Couchsurfers have ratings in the apps, so it's unlikely you'll run into any troublemakers.
Trip.com
Trip.com is a service that allows travelers from Russia to book a room in any country, paying with MIR or UnionPay cards. But in addition to accommodation search, it also offers services for purchasing air and train tickets. Essentially, it's a great assistant for international travel on all major 'fronts'. Moreover, Trip.com often provides users of its mobile app with various promotions, promo codes, and personalized offers. In short, you should download it!
Sutochno.ru
Another great option for booking hotels is — the Sutochno.ru app. Its creators allow you to book a room both in Russia and abroad. A special treat for travelers are cool selections with options for accommodation in mountains, SPA complexes, and unpopular seaside hotel options. App users are given the opportunity to accumulate up to 30% cashback, which can be spent on future trips.
How to get around
By taxi
«Yandex Go» — a familiar service for many, operates not only in Russia but also in Armenia, Serbia, and the UAE;
Uber, Bolt — an option for those who need to travel around Europe:
Careem — a taxi service that can be ordered in the UAE, Morocco, and Kuwait.
By scooter
We won't post memes about scooter enthusiasts, but simply provide links to the most popular scooter rental apps — Whoosh, «Urent».
Rent a car, carsharing
«Delimobil»— one of the most popular car rental apps. It can be used in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Sochi, Tolyatti, Chelyabinsk, Tula, and Ufa.
«Citydrive» — a mobile app that allows you to rent a car for trips in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and Rostov-on-Don,
BelkaCar — a service that operates in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Krasnodar, and Kaliningrad.
How to pack everything and not forget anything
Packr — works only on iOS, but how! The app creates packing lists for flights, personal hygiene, and other important travel moments. So you have everything at hand;
Easy Pack — a great service for Android users. Here you can use template lists or create your own for trips, which will remind you exactly what you need to take with you;
PackPoint — suitable for most operating systems. The app helps to find information for travel planning and generates template lists based on your needs.
Where to find attractions
TripAdvisor — a popular service where real travelers leave reviews for great (and not so great) places. Available on iOS/Android.
Tripster and Sputnik8 — apps with unusual excursions worldwide.
Map services: it's unlikely we'll surprise you with the information that on most maps, users rate establishments, popular, and even the most unconventional attractions. For example, 2GIS, Yandex Maps, Google Maps.
Useful for vacation
Currency converter, to track the current exchange rate. It's often pre-installed on smartphones, so when traveling abroad, it's best to set up a widget on the home screen;
Google Translate — it's unlikely you'll feel comfortable ordering coffee or going on excursions without a translator, unless you practice languages every day. Therefore, it's always better to have an online and offline translator on your mobile phone, if you find yourself in a place without an internet connection;
Airalo — an app where you can buy an electronic SIM card for any country, adjust the required data volume, and activate an eSIM;
Star Walk 2 — what if you decide to go out of town, where a picturesque panorama of the night sky opens up. With this software, you will find all the constellations you see. Useful and interactive!
