The Best Travel Apps of 2015

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I travel best when I'm relaxed, and I'm most relaxed when I have everything under control. I like to prebook hotel rooms, have a loose itinerary for my days, and know how I'll be getting from here to there before I even leave home. The best travel apps help me stay organized, on time, and on budget whether I'm traveling for business or pleasure. I've rounded up 35 of my favorites for you, on a variety of mobile platforms.

Prepare for Takeoff

Before your next trip, you're likely to research your destination and get a sense of how much money you're going to spend on the big necessities, such as flights, hotels, and car rentals. A few apps on this list, including Google Flights and SkyScanner, help you draw a quick baseline for the cost of flights. They also suggest alternative days to travel, if you can be flexible on your travel dates to save a little money.

Researching hotels is another subject travelers take seriously. The professional photos a hotel has on its own website aren't necessarily reflective of reality. Apps such as Orbitz and TripAdvisor have great hotel reviews, and TripAdvisor offers plenty of photos that have been uploaded by travelers rather than advertising professionals. The global community of dedicated TripAdvisor users is a testament to that site's usefulness.

Tickets, Please!

As you start to make reservations and prebook accommodations and activities at your destinations, you'll probably need a little help keeping track of all the details, such as the hotel's address, rental car company information, and other confirmation numbers. TripIt and TripCase are two apps that automatically strip out the fine print and collate only the most essential travel information from confirmation emails into a tight and chronological itinerary.

I always like to keep an offline backup of my travel details, so I use Evernote, a super flexible note-taking app that works just as well as saving travel information as it does memos from business meetings. Sometimes I even upload to Evernote screenshots of maps and mapped directions, just to be extra sure I have a backup available offline.

Changing Course

What do you do when you arrive at a hotel and it's just not to your liking? With a couple of travel apps that cater to last-minute changes, such as HotelTonight and Roomer, you can find a suitable and inexpensive alternative lickety-split.

Likewise, there are a bunch of great travel apps that direct you toward fun things to do and see in the moment, which are ideal for spontaneous travelers. Gogobot, for example, can help you find places to eat, play, and sleep based on your location and based on your personal preferences, such as whether you're more outdoorsy or are looking for family-friendly spots.

Road Tripping

Traveling by car? Directions, traffic, and good places to stop en route are probably of the utmost concern, but they're nearly impossible to plan for in advance. iExit is one app you'll want to have on your phone before your next long car ride. It tells you the services that are at different U.S. highway exits, so you can decide whether to wait another 30 minutes or take the next available stop. Roadtrippers is another excellent app for car travel because it finds all the great American roadside attractions (giant roller skate, anyone?), as well as restaurants and other services that are near your route.

GasBuddy is another essential app for road trips. It tells you how much different service stations are charging for fuel, giving you immediate insight into whether it's worthwhile to fill up now or wait until you're farther down the road.

Conserve Your Data!

A lot of my favorite travel apps, especially those that give me directions in real time, are data hogs, so if you're serious traveler, you'll want backup apps that give you the same basic information without requiring a cell signal. Maps.Me is a great example. This map app not only saves you data by keeping maps offline, but also has more accurate maps than Google Maps for less-visited locations. If you stray far from the beaten path, it's one app you should download immediately.

Tripomatic and Triposo also keep some of their content offline so you can see it on your smartphone or tablet at any time, but they specialize more in things to do and see rather than mapped directions.

One word of warning about offline apps: Be choosy with them. If you download very detailed maps of entire countries, they will take up considerable space on your phone. There's a trade-off, to be sure, between having multiple maps and leaving some space free on your phone to take photos and videos while you travel. When it comes to offline maps, I say download the maps you need before you arrive, and make sure to delete them after you arrive. You should also find out whether data works well for you at your destination, or once you get back home.

Bon Voyage

No matter how you choose to travel, having a few travel apps installed on your phone before you leave home is always a good idea. You don't want to be stuck without important details about your itinerary or left not knowing where to go if you need to change your plans unexpectedly. For more travel tech advice, see Get Organized: Vacation Planning. 13 Free Travel Apps for Road Trips. and Travel Tips for Packing Lighter. Here are the best travel apps of 2015.