With over a million different apps available on both the Apple and Android app stores, sorting the good from the bad isn’t easy. This is as true in travel as any other category. While some apps will improve your holiday, others aren’t even worth the time they take to download.
From the time you start planning your trip to Cape Town, the right travel apps can make the whole experience smoother and less stressful. The best travel apps work in real time, keeping you in the know. They deliver not only information, but also advice, insights, tips, and warnings.
Listed in no particular order; here are the best travel apps you might need during your trip to Cape Town, South Africa.
FlightAware
With over 5 million downloads; this is one of the most popular and reliable flight tracking apps on the market. FlightAware is one of the most in-depth aviation websites around, with tons of content, tracking and information for those in the cockpit or sitting back in the cheap seats.
This app allows you can track your flight by flight number, tail number or route. You can look up airport information by airport code or name and see airport delays for the major hubs nationwide. If you’re registered with FlightAware’s website, you also can access your saved airports, aircraft and alerts.
TripIt
Business and leisure travel has been simplified with this easy to use app. If you have multiple bookings with airlines, hotels and transfers, TripIt allows you to simply forward your flight, hotel, or other travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and TripIt will instantly create a master itinerary for each of the trips that can be accessed anytime, anywhere.Flight delays and gate changes can be very frustrating, however with the TripIt premium service, TripIt Pro, you’ll get helpful reminders and real-time flight alerts to stay one step ahead.
If if your flight has been cancelled or delayed and you need to find an alternative flight, this app is here to assist. It also tracks your rewards points/air-miles and lets you know if a better seat becomes available. This app is the simple solution for frequent flyers.
Official Guide to Cape Town
Cape Town is ultimate destination for holiday makers year-round and recently also named: The greatest city in the world (December 2018).
The city of Cape Town has also won an award for the ‘World’s Leading Festival and Events Destination”. It’s been an award-winning year for the Mother City as it was also named TripAdvisor’s Top Destination and was in the top 10 for Travel and Leisure’s World’s Best Cities.
Cape Town Tourism released their Official Guide App back in 2015 and the recent update is packed with hundreds of recommendation and insider tips for exploring the Mother City. From iconic must-see spots like Table Mountain, Robben Island and Kirstenbosch National Park, every landmark, museum and events are explained in this guide. With essential visitor information, opening hours, maps and more – this app puts everything you need in your pocket.
The Official Guide to Cape Town app is free and easy to use. Features include:
– Hundreds of Cape Town sightseeing landmarks
– Essential visitor’s information, opening hours and maps
– Recommendations on what to do in specific neighbourhoods
– Events and festivals
– Day-trip plans
– Restaurants, tour operators, shopping, day spas, outdoor adventures and more!
MyCiti
MyCiTi is a the City of Cape Town’s high-quality bus-based public transport system that delivers fast, comfortable, and cost-effective urban transport. The MyCity service was launched in 2010 with several additions made to the transport network over the years. Today the MyCiti network has a reach from the CBD all the way to V&A Waterfront, Campsbay, Houtbay, Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain and Atlantis.
Each passenger needs their own myconnect card loaded with value to travel, except for children under fours year old and less than 1 metre tall.Get your card for R35 from MyCiTi station kiosks and participating retailers.Your card comes with a PIN, which you need whenever you load value onto the card.
This unofficial app’s features include:
– Route Planner calculates the shortest route to your desired destination, showing bus transfers as well as the number of stops between changes
– Bus stop times
– The interactive map shows all the MyCiTi stops in and around Cape Town
– Notifications and alerts keep you up to date of service information
– Push notifications for severe disruptions and other important notices
Computicket
Computicket has become South Africa’s leading instant ticketing service for sports-, music-and lifestyle events and also cover a wider variety of things to do, ranging from theatre, concerts and festivals to travel, which includes bus and flight tickets, car rental and accommodation both nationally and internationally.
Visitors to Cape Town can even buy tickets to music concerts and other events before arriving in South Africa, via their app and collect the tickets from any Shoprite or Checkers store.
Uber
Cape Town is the most congested city in South Africa and a lack of reliable public transport has been cited as the main reason Cape Town’s traffic is so bad. To avoid the frustration of being stuck in traffic and the convenience of relaxing in a vehicle while a driver is transporting you to your destination, Uber is the best and most affordable option in Cape Town. Not only can Uber transport you to any location where Uber has a reach, prices vary based on projected time and distance as well as the time of day and the supply and demand for rides at the time the ride is requested.
Riders are quoted the fare that they will pay before requesting the ride. Uber uses a dynamic pricing model. At the end of the ride, payment is made based on the rider’s pre-selected preferences, which could be a credit card on file or cash.
After the ride is over, the rider is given the option to provide a gratuity to the driver, which is also billed to the rider’s payment method. Some features such as scheduling rides in advance, tipping, and rating scores are unavailable without the app. Waiting fees apply after two minutes.
Vehicle options include Uber X, Uber XL and Uber Black.
Shark Spotters
The Official App for Shark Spotters South Africa.
Shark Spotters improves beach safety by applying innovative and responsible shark safety solutions that reduce the spatial overlap between people and sharks, thereby reducing the risk of a shark bite.
View latest Shark sightings, beach weather conditions, marine activity, surf videos and more from 9 of the Cape Town area’s most popular beaches. Also, receive notifications when a shark gets sighted.
KFM 94.5
Cape Town’s favourite radio station KFM 94.5 plays a mix of current and past hits. The station also keeps its listeners up to date with news, current affairs and community events. KFM is now available live on the KFM app for listeners who do not have access to a radio.
The frequency’s reception area includes the metropolitan area of Cape Town and towns such as Mossel Bay, George, Knysna, Hermanus, Caledon, Worcester, Malmesbury, Saldanha and Beaufort West. Kfm delivers up-to-date news and traffic Eyewitness News as well as other daily features such as KFM Morning with the ever popular Darren “Wackhead” Simpson, as well as other regular inserts.
The station is known for their involvement in the community as well as allowing listeners to win large sums of cash during their competitions.
Feastfox
Feastfox is a dining app designed for that spur of the moment restaurant bookings. The app can be used to search for restaurants in your area by map or listing and allows you to discover those hidden treasures that you may have passed without noticing them. It also shows you who has treats (discounts exclusive to Feastfox) available, with many of them exclusively available through the app. You book a table with the tap of a button and head on over.
Feastfox launches in collaboration with over 60 of Cape Town’s best restaurants, bars and cafés including Reuben’s, Kyoto Gardens Sushi, La Boheme, Nobu, Culture Club Cheese, Clarke’s, Hokey Poke, Scheckter’s Raw and Shio.Co-founder and Cape Town local, Stuart Murless explains, “with a busy lifestyle, I never had time to plan ahead and make bookings. I wanted something which fits into the way I eat out, which is generally on impulse. With Feastfox, we are moving from the traditional “book now, eat later” concept to “book now, eat now”. This way you can go from craving to feasting with the tap of a button.”
Restaurant locations includes the CBD, V&A Waterfront, De Waterkant, Green Point, Sea Point, Gardens, Vredehoek & Tamboerskloof.
Yr.No Weather
South Africa is one of the largest audiences for the Norwegian weather site Yr.no. The number of SA users have exploded from 5,000 to more than 3 million and the site is now the largest free weather service in the world. Yr is popular among South Africans due to its accurate long-term forecasts, which include hour-by-hour weather expectations nine days ahead. It also assists South Africans with detailed reports for remote areas not usually covered by our local weather reports.
New Yr on Android and IOS is different from anything else you’ve seen in weather forecasting: Scroll through a beautiful and animated sky to see how the weather changes hourly, and get all the need-to-know details at the same time. The weather visualization makes it a fun experience to check the weather – even when it’s raining!
