[bigletter]Working from wi-fi is extremely common today, and I truly feel it is a huge blessing of mine to be able to work from my house in pajamas, or from a coffee shop in Seville, or on the beaches of Bora Bora. I have no set schedule nor do I have a boss, but regardless of where I am, I need to keep it together; meaning I need to meet my deadlines and make sure I am always connected and easy to get in touch with by my editors and those who I work with in order to publish stories and produce news reports.[/bigletter]
When I moved to London, I had to quickly adapt to that lifestyle because, well, it was going to be my life! While I wanted to be stationed in the UK, I wanted to be able to travel back and forth between all continents without time restrictions or communication issues. I knew I had to be super organized and find applications that would help me stay on track with businesses as well as friendships, fitness and family time. I also wanted to find ways to get to know the cities I would go to and the many things each one has to offer. Here are some apps I have used nonstop since moving abroad, and they all do AMAZING things for me.
Marco Polo
If Snapchat and iMovie had a baby, it would be Marco Polo, an app that helps you build conversations without losing track of what was last said. It works like Snapchat, where you send short messages to a friend or contact and they reply…the catch is that what you sent them and what they sent you doesn’t disappear. Instead, the app compiles the whole conversation like a movie, that you can watch and remember what was being said by you and your friend last, especially if you are like me where you see the person’s last response but don’t get a chance to respond immediately. I sometimes listen to the message and go back later. If you forget what you were even talking about in the first place, all the back-to-back videos of you can be played back. You will never miss a beat with your mom, a friend, or your boo…and you can also add filters or fun stickers to the videos.
Hushed
With Hushed, you buy a phone number from whatever country you need to be in touch with continuously – in my case, it’s the US – and you pay a monthly fee for the number. You can also buy a certain number of credits for a few phone calls as well. So, if you are from the US (like me) and you move to London (ehhrm…like moi) and you now have to use a U.S. sim card, but still want your U.S. contacts to be able to reach you in other ways besides Whatsapp, you pay about $5 per month, and you get your own number through the app, and when people call you to that number, calls come in normally and your phone rings as if it were a regular phone call. You can also send texts and register the number for certain companies to get in touch. It’s a great thing if you have bank accounts, credit cards, lawyers or accountants in the U.S., or anywhere else that you need to get a hold of at any given time. It’s also useful if you need to make yourself reachable to businesses or employers in another country you work with or are planning on visiting.
Classpass
I like to take some fitness classes regardless of my travels, so with an account on Classpass you can try boutique fitness studios anywhere in the world where the app is available. I live in London and take a few yoga and boxing classes monthly…but if I go to Miami for 2 months, I am also able to use Classpass to sign up for fitness studios there that are registered on Classpass. You get to continue staying fit and exploring new places all over the world that offer everything from yoga and pilates to boxing, muay-Thai, spinning etc.
Mapstr
It’s like Pinterest but for travelers. You open an account and, if you travel somewhere and come across restaurants, shops, or whatever location catches your eye, you pin its name on your Mapstr account, which then allows you to put it into categories such as “Date night,” “Coffee shops,” “bars/nightlife,” “Touristic must see.” Those places stay pinned on your map and when you return to a certain city you can find all the places you visited and pinned the previous time. It’s efficient for remembering those cute little spots that we love and would like to recommend to friends when they visit that specific city.
Citymapper
I downloaded Citymapper when I moved to London, in February 2018 and use it every day of my life. You open it, type in the address you’re going to, and it shows you every single transportation alternative of how to get there, plus the cost of each option and the amount of time it’ll take you. It is also super cheeky and calculates how many calories you’ll burn on that walk. If you’re traveling through various cities in Europe, it’s amazing because it is available for numerous locations, so once you arrive in Paris and open the app it’ll say “It looks like you’re now in Paris. Would you like to switch to Paris maps?” and you click yes, and then it tells you everything on how to move around in Paris. It’s also available in Birmingham, Manchester, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Monaco, Vienna, Madrid, Rome, Lisbon, Moscow, New York, Tokyo and Sydney among others.
Living this fast-paced digital nomad lifestyle has its responsibilities. You need to still stay ON.TOP.OF.YOUR.SHIT, and if you have these 5 apps on your phone, I am SURE that they will make your life so much easier.
I adore capturing every highlight of my travels and sharing them in hopes of helping a curious traveler with a bit of insight. If you want to see more visit and follow my hashtags #CBtalksTraveling to stay in tune with where I go next.
With Love From Miami…
