Easter is just around the corner and families in particular use the holidays for a short break over the long weekend and an Easter trip to visit friends and relatives. To ensure that these short trips are stress-free, we present the best apps and gadgets that should not be missed.
Easter trip: These apps are a must
With the holidays on Good Friday and Easter Monday, the extended Easter weekend is perfect for a short break. Whether alone or with family and friends: An Easter trip should be fun, relaxing and definitely not turn into stress and hassle.
To make sure this really works, there are a few apps you shouldn’t be without on your smartphone. If you are planning your Easter trip by car, you should think about mobility, service and connectivity as well as navigation and traffic jam apps. Here are our recommendations for the best apps for your Easter trip.
By the way: If you’re looking for general Easter apps for the family and children, you’ll find a whole range of recommendations for Android and iOS in our guide.
Navigation: Google Maps and Waze
Google Maps is probably the best-known navigation app and enjoys enormous popularity not only on Android but also in the iOS cosmos of iPhones. One of the reasons for this is that Maps combines useful functions.
These include route guidance, exploration of nearby locations or the display of traffic jams and traffic obstructions in real time, including the option of choosing an alternative route at the touch of a button or with an announcement.
The Waze app for Android and iOS also does an impeccable job with navigation and traffic jam detection. Thanks to the peer-to-peer network, traffic obstructions, police checks and more are reported as quickly as possible by other users and are recognizable in the app.
Refueling and charging: clever-tanken.de and mehr-tanken
Driving costs fuel and fuel costs money. Especially on a longer Easter trip, your car needs to be refueled. The two apps clever-tanken.de and mehr-tanken are particularly recommended for finding the best fuel price or the fastest charging stations for electric cars.
Mehr-tanken scores with its more modern design and a more active community that reports fuel prices. Clever-tanken.de, on the other hand, sometimes even offers the option of paying conveniently by hand at participating petrol stations and provides additional discount offers.
Parking: Easypark and Parkster
Whether in a large parking lot in the city center, at a tourist attraction or in front of the zoo. Parking is rarely free. If you want to avoid the hassle of parking tickets or don’t have any change in your pocket anyway, you can use a parking app.
The two largest and best-known are Easypark and Parkster, where the parking zone is selected in the app and the parking costs can be paid directly via smartphone.
Which of the two apps you need depends on the respective city and the parking areas. Easypark is used in over 20 countries, while Parkster is only used in Germany, but in other cities and areas. Both apps are free, so it’s best to download both right away.
Music: streaming and radio
Whether in the car from the speakers or on your ears on the bus, train or plane: a trip without music is unthinkable. Streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music or Tidal are particularly recommended here. Not only do they offer a huge selection of songs, they also have radio plays to keep your children entertained.
With a premium account, you can enjoy your favorite music yourself while the children pass the time with exciting episodes of Peppa Wutz, TKKG or Bibi & Tina. Especially at Easter, there are of course suitable Easter audio books for children that tell exciting stories.
Radio apps are an alternative. Our recommendation here is TuneIn Radio, which combines over 100,000 radio stations with online radio, live sport and podcasts.
Further app recommendations
Of course, there are many more traffic and travel apps that will make your Easter trip less stressful and should not be missing on any smartphone. Here are a few more recommendations:
- DB Navigator: If you’re traveling with Deutsche Bahn, you can’t avoid the Bahn app. It provides information about connections, real-time information and allows you to check in
- FREENOW: Formerly known as MyTaxi, this app allows you to book cabs or use e-scooters, e-mopeds, e-bikes and many other means of transportation in the area
- BlaBlaCar: Don’t feel like traveling alone? Use this app to find carpooling options or buses and save on travel costs
- Uber: Request a driver, book a rental car or use Lime Scooter. All this and much more is possible with the Uber app
- Tripadvisor: Your Easter trip has taken you to a new place and you have no idea which restaurants, excursion destinations or hotels are recommended? Tripadvisor provides you with exactly this information
- DeepL Translator: Is your trip taking you abroad? Then a translator app is certainly useful. The DeepL translator delivers the best results and even enables live translations from the camera in real time
Gadgets for your Easter trip: Our recommendations
With a short break, whether over Easter or for another occasion, most people want to escape the daily grind and take a few days out of the ever faster-paced world. Most of the technology stays at home, but there are some essential gadgets for an Easter trip that should not be missing on a short break. Here are our recommendations.
Powerbank
Powerbanks are a must when traveling these days. Whether you want to charge your smartphone, supply your headphones with new energy or power up the kids’ tablet, a powerbank is often small, handy and offers enough reserves to make even the longest car journeys and trips a little more pleasant.
In most cases, a small and handy power bank such as the inexpensive UGREEN Nexode 100W (€ 63.99 *) is completely sufficient. Because it reliably supplies notebooks, smartphones and much more with energy.
For longer trips with your own car or a camping trip, you could also consider larger power banks. These are of course considerably heavier, but also offer many times the performance of compact models for your handbag.
There are only a few things to consider when traveling by plane. We have summarized what exactly in our guide.
Our recommendations for large power banks:
- Anker 521 PowerHouse (256 Wh) – Our review
- Anker 548 Powerbank (192 Wh) – Our review
Universal charging cable
Lightning for the iPhone, USB-C for the headphones and USB-A for the tablet. And by the way: the Bluetooth speaker still has an old micro USB connection. So that’s a lot of cables to think about.
Fortunately, those days are long gone, even though not all devices use the uniform USB-C standard: Thanks to the universal charging cable.
Our recommendation goes to the inCharge XL from Rolling Square, a clever team from Switzerland. With two inputs and three outputs, this cable is the ideal all-rounder. It combines USB-A, USB-C, Micro-USB and Lightning in one minimalist and extremely robust cable.
The ports can be adapted using detachable connectors, and unnecessary plugs can be easily removed. Fast Charge with up to 100 watts is supported, as is Apple’s fast charging technology with up to 27 watts.
The cable is available in three different colors and in three lengths of 30 cm, two meters and even three meters. It starts at a price of € 29.00 *.
GaN charger
The situation is similar with the charger for the socket. A GaN charger such as the UGREEN Nexode Pro 100W is not only particularly safe, it also combines several connections and achieves high charging speeds.
It has 2x USB-C and 1x USB-A and can therefore charge up to three devices simultaneously with up to 100 watts of power. Of course, there are also larger and smaller chargers with more or less power if you prefer.
Bluetooth speaker
Traveling and long car journeys without music? Unthinkable. A Bluetooth speaker is an indispensable vacation gadget and also a must-have on Easter trips. Whether it should be a compact model or a larger boombox depends not least on the available space, personal taste and, of course, the budget.
In the handy range, we can recommend the soundcore Motion 300. It weighs just 770 grams and is pleasantly compact at 200 mm x 92 mm x 50 mm. Nevertheless, it scores with a rich and high-resolution stereo sound and an output of 30 watts.
The fact that it is also IPX7 waterproof and the battery lasts for up to 13 hours is the icing on the cake. In our test, the Motion 300 won the Gold Award in November 2023 – a clear recommendation.
Voice translator
If you are planning a trip to another country at Easter, you should definitely understand the language. You could use a translation app on your smartphone. Or you could use a language translator. This has the advantage of saving your phone’s battery and the dedicated tools offer faster and better recognition than smartphone apps.
The ANFIER language translator, for example, also works without an internet connection and recognizes 16 languages offline. With an active internet connection, the dictionary expands to 74 languages and 70 different accents.
So you can use it to communicate in Bengali, order a baguette in France or find the nearest sauna in Finland. Incidentally, this also works with photos, while the language translator even lasts a whole week thanks to a 1,500 mAh battery.
GPS tracker
Don’t lose track when traveling: GPS trackers such as Apple’s AirTag or the Chipolo ONE Spot(our test) can help. The areas of application are almost endless.
They let you locate your suitcase or rucksack, show you where the children are at the moment, or tell you whether your wallet has just fallen out of your pocket.
Multifunctional tool
If you find yourself in the great outdoors on an Easter trip, a multifunctional tool is a convincing all-purpose weapon that you should not be without. Tools such as the product from BIBURY* are real all-rounders:
Pocket knife, screwdriver (including various bits), saw, pliers, cable cutter, scissors, can opener and much more in a multi-tool that is just 18 centimeters long and equips you for all eventualities. What more could you want?
So you are definitely prepared for all eventualities, not only on a trip at Easter, but also when camping, on a walk or at home.
Otherwise, of course, the obligatory little helpers for traveling should not be missing. Such as comfortable (neck) pillows, water bottles, towels and the like.
No replies yet
Neue Antworten laden...
Gehört zum Inventar
Beteilige dich an der Diskussion in der Basic Tutorials Community →