Maps & Travel apps, reviewed
Navigation apps work best when they know where you are, which makes location privacy the central trade-off. Here we compare offline map support, battery impact, and the controls each app gives you over your location history.
Airbnb
The stay-in-someone's-home marketplace, now more honest about fees and cameras — but read the low reviews first.
Booking.com: Hotels & Travel
The biggest hotel-booking machine on earth — genuinely useful, deliberately pushy, and a favourite target for scammers.
Google Maps
Unmatched map data and navigation, paid for with your movements — unless you change the defaults.
komoot - hike, bike & run
Excellent sport-specific route planning for the outdoors, at a moment of real uncertainty about its ownership and pricing.
Skyscanner Flights Hotels Cars
A flight meta-search that shows you the whole market — as long as you remember it is not the one selling the ticket.
Tripadvisor: Plan & Book Trips
The world's biggest pile of travel opinions — invaluable for research once you know how it earns its money.
Uber - Request a ride
Ride-hailing that works almost everywhere, with a pricing model and a privacy history you should understand first.
Waze Navigation & Live Traffic
Community-powered navigation that trades a continuous record of your movements for the fastest route through traffic.