4 Greatest Travel Apps that dont yet exist

You’re bound to end up visiting a local market or two during your trip to look for a souvenir- a reminder of your fabulous trip to Nepal. Well, not all souvenirs you’re likely to find being sold at markets are actually made locally. You wouldn’t feel the same about buying that Kukris knife if it’s not made in Nepal.

There should be an app that I can use to put in a location and out pops the locally produced crafts. I want to know if the singing bowl I am eyeing in the market is really made in Nepal. Well ok- if it’s made in Tibet it would still be cool.

In fact, I would find this app useful to use at home. I want to think globally and shop locally all the time while travelling or at home.

It’s not just taxis but any sort of local transport- I’d like to know approximately how much I might be looking to pay to take a short trip within a city when I travel.  But there are so many forms of transport, including tuk tuks, tricycles, jeepneys, rickshaws, and even on the back of motorcycles- how can we expect an app to figure out all the possible costs?

Basically, I would like to know approximate costs. I want to be able to punch in a city, and out pops a chart of approximate costs for a short, medium, and long trip within the city. Sure, there’s Rome2rio, but they don’t have an android or iphone app that works offline and is focussed on just the local transport.

If there is no data at the city level, just give me the approximate costs to take a taxi in a country. At least it’s something I can work with.

So, you’re sitting down at the only restaurant in town that has a food menu with pictures and you still feel foolish not being able to figure out what the heck is portrayed in the photos. I’d like to be able to take a quick snapshot of the food photo from the menu or type in the name of a dish and out would pop a description of the dish.

We already have face recognition apps that work reasonably well- we just need to have someone re-tool this to what’s really important- a food recognition. If we can have an ingredient list, it’ll be that much more helpful for those who may suffer from allergies to certain foods.

The awkward moment comes when you’ve just finished enjoying your Nasi lemak at the local restaurant. The service was good- should you tip or not?

With the Tipomatic app, you’d punch in your location and the app will tell you when it’s customary to tip, whether it be in a restaurant, hotel, or the local bar anywhere in the world.