Last weekend I went to the Newport Folk Festival with a few friends. I had a fantastic time not just at the festival, but on the trip as a whole. We had adventure at every turn and of course technology played a big part in ensuring we didn’t have to worry about much. There are a few apps like Instagram and Twitter that were used every day but I want to highlight some other apps that were crucial in making our trip a lot easier.
1. The Newport Folk Festival App
The festival app was essential. Most festivals and big events these days will have their own dedicated app. This one was great. It gave you basic information like schedules and maps, but it also gave you more information on artists and notifications of special shows or artist meetups. Definitely a great tool for keeping informed on festival grounds.
2. United Airlines App
We were able to fly for free for this trip because of the United employee perks, however that meant we were on standby for all our flights. This app came in very handy in this situation. We were able to monitor the flights we wanted, and check how long the standby list was in case we needed to try to find another flight. We also used it to check when we received our seat assignment. Obviously there’s also the benefits of checking in and having our boarding pass on our phones and any alerts we might need for our travel.
3. Kayak
Because we were flying standby we actually decided to change departure airports because there was a flight with lots of room about an hour and half away. This meant we had to change our car rental agreement. Changing the destination was an additional $200 charge. We pulled out the Kayak app and found a car for the one way trip at $50. Easiest decision we had to make all weekend. So we reserved while on our way to drop off the original rental, go my confirmation email and 10 minutes later we were in the new car on our way out of town. Painless.
4. Hotwire
Again since we were flying standby we knew we would be returning early on Monday morning, so a hotel by the airport was a must. That was the only night that we didn’t have something planned. When we decided we were going to a different airport we had to find a hotel for the night. We looked at Kayak right away and found some good options, but since we were only going to be there for about 6 hours of sleep we tried our luck with hotwire hotel. Found a hotel very close to the airport for a very good price and decided to book it. If you don’t know, Hotwire gives you price and star rating and some things like proximity to places but you don’t know what hotel you are getting. When we got our confirmation it showed we got a Days Inn. Good enough for one night and we saved a good amount of money.
5. Mooch
The last app I want to highlight is Mooch. Mooch is an app that keeps track of money lent to you and money you lent out. This works great on trip like this where there are different people paying for things. Some pay for the hotel, some pay for meals or drinks at a bar. This keeps records of the money spent so it’s easy to calculate what people owe each other at the end of the trip. As long as you are good about entering expenses you’ll have a good record of what everyone spent.
I’m glad I got a chance to make good use of some of these apps, I’m sure there are more out there that would have been helpful or that would do a better job. That’s the great thing about living with this technology in our pockets. Are there any apps you’ve used to help simplify a trip?
