These are the best apps to use for information and updates during your travels.

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Travel apps are a fact of modern life. They allow us to check in and receive a boarding pass for our flights, tell us where our rental cars are parked and waiting, and even open the doors to our hotel rooms. But if you search for an app on most app stores, there are thousands of them out there. Most large travel companies from airlines to cruise lines have at least a rudimentary version of an app, and many individual hotels, resorts, and even entire destinations have also developed their own.

A guiding philosophy is to at least always have the app for the airline you’re flying with. Airlines typically provide the earliest and most detailed flight updates via their app, allow travelers to rebook and receive vouchers during flight delays, or chat with an agent for assistance. Even infrequent fliers can smooth their travel experience by having their airline’s app on their phone.

Hotel companies are also going full bore on apps to replace the unwieldy and un-updated paper compendiums that used to be standard in hotel rooms. On a lark, I tend to check a paper compendium whenever I come across one these days, and they invariably contain the toll-free numbers for airlines that haven’t existed in decades. On apps from mega chains like Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt, you can often view your bill, chat with customer service staff, or check the operating hours for hotel restaurants and other outlets.

Aside from the purpose-built apps for the providers they’re traveling with, what are the best apps for travelers wanting to keep on top of factors that might affect their travels? Read on for some tips.

The Best Travel Apps For Flights

Airline apps are great for managing your own flights, but some of them have their limitations. Flighty allows you to add upcoming flights for yourself and your friends. It’ll track the aircraft assigned to the flight and send alerts on the potential for delays or seat changes, such as when the aircraft changes or travels through an airport experiencing delays. It also keeps a record of past flights, so if you’re ever curious whether you’ve previously flown on the same plane before, it’ll tell you.

For the aviation geeks among us, the app will also tabulate all your flight statistics, giving you the number of flights on each airline and aircraft type for each year in your history.

Flighty only tracks flights you’ve chosen to track, so if you want a higher level view of air traffic flows around your location, a good option is Flightradar24, which also has a comprehensive desktop site. It’s great for “Ooh, where’s that going?” plane-watching, but also helpful for determining whether an airport has been closed and flights rerouted because of weather.

Cruise lines have also put a lot of energy into building useful apps for their passengers.

gettyThe Best Travel Apps For Cruises

Cruise lines are becoming increasingly wired. Princess Cruises and Virgin Voyages have both invested heavily in mobile apps and wearable tech. You can shake you phone for champagne on Virgin, and order food and drink to any location you’re at on the ship with Princess Medallion Class.

When you see another cruise ship in the wild, Cruise Mapper can identify the ship, give stats on the current itinerary, upcoming schedule, and deck plans, in case you might want to try that ship on a future sailing. There’s also a feature to check the port schedule for the ports on your itinerary, so you’ll know when planning your day how many other ships are expected in port, and what their expected arrival and departure times are.

For other marine traffic (”Where’s that oil tanker going?”) Marine Traffic is another helpful option.

The Best Travel Apps For International Trips

For bridging language barriers, Google Translate is indispensable. It supports 133 languages, has a camera feature to aid in translating signage and documents, and can translate spoken word and speak a reply. The service is web-based, but there’s also an app, and an upcoming “practice” feature will also help users learn a language themselves.

Arriving in Athens one afternoon, I requested an Uber, and got in a local cab (in Athens, Uber is essentially a dispatch app for local taxis). With the fare already set and paid, and the driver speaking almost no English, I noticed her speaking into her phone near the end of the ride. I realized she’d been speaking into Google Translate when she held up the phone and hit the “speak” button, and an electronic voice thanked me for coming to Greece, and hoped I had a good stay.

For quick currency exchange, the app XE helps when quick math fails, particularly if you’re working in a currency you’ve never dealt with before (although it’s helpful to keep in mind that credit cards and exchange houses typically offer exchange rates slightly less favorable than official bank rates).

U.S. citizens with Global Entry can further speed their entry at American border checkpoints by downloading the Global Entry app. When your flight arrives at the airport, take a photo, make your declarations, and submit. At most airports, you can go to a designated line for the mobile app and present it to an officer for faster processing. For travelers without Global Entry, there’s the free Mobile Passport Control app instead.

Travelers who like to count countries can lean on the Been app, which allows travelers to virtually color in countries and regions, including U.S. states. Users can also log the month, year, and transport method of their visit to keep track of the number of visits to each country and include other notes about the purpose of their visit or top memories from the visit.

The Takeaway on Travel Apps

There are more travel apps out there than can be listed here—probably enough to take up all the space on a smartphone. These are just a few top favorites to help enrich and smooth your travels, whether you’re embarking on an ocean voyage or taking a quick trip to a neighboring city.