A workhorse app for travellers, Kayak is an aggregator that makes it easy to find the best deals for booking flights, hotels and rental cars.
Users already familiar with the desktop platform will appreciate the navigational simplicity of the app. Need a plane ticket? Sort based on price, flight duration, layovers and airline preference. If your timing is flexible, a calendar view suggests alternate dates with potentially better fares.
Kayak also advises you on when you should buy your ticket, based on past trends and current rates, so you can book your trip with peace of mind that you’re really getting the best deal.
Hotel searches sort properties by price, deals, user review scores and number of stars. Kayak lets you toggle between list and map view, especially handy for figuring out if that too-good-to-be-true $100 hotel room in New York might be a bit farther outside the city than you’d like.
As an added bonus, the map function lets you add in Heat Map layers that highlight areas with a high density of restaurants, tourist attractions, shops and/or nightlife. Want to be in the middle of it all? Done. Want to avoid it all? You can.
Great prices are pretty much guaranteed: booking with Kayak can score you room rates up to 35 per cent cheaper than those found on other sites.
OK, so you’re booked. Now what?
The Trips tab neatly arranges all of your travel plans – even if you didn’t book them through Kayak. Simply sync your inbox or forward confirmation emails to the app and it keeps all your upcoming travel in one place. To access the info, loop in Siri. A simple “Travel plans” command (or whatever phrase you assign) instantly pulls up your next itinerary.
Worried about onboard luggage space? The app’s augmented reality (AR) feature measures your bag and lets you know if it will fit overhead. Simply use the app to scan the floor and then take a snap of your bag with your iPhone. AR will give you the bag’s dimensions and recommend whether to check it in or carry on.
It even gives you a handy size chart that lists the accepted luggage size for all airlines, in case you want to double-check.