Boasting sandy beaches, vibrant cities and ancient ruins, it is little wonder that Mexico is such a popular bucket list destination. While visiting Mexico makes for a fascinating holiday, the sheer size of the country can be daunting for those who arrive unprepared. As such, downloading the right smartphone apps before you leave home can mean the difference between a smooth holiday and something that resembles a nightmare. According to Mateo Martínez from REVIEWBOX, around a quarter of visitors to Mexico already have a travel app installed on their phone. With this in mind, here are four apps to help you make the most of your next Mexican holiday.
Atlas Turístico de México
Masterminded by Mexico’s Secretariat of Tourism, Atlas Turístico de México offers information about different destinations in the Latin American country. The app, which up to recently only covered well-known tourist destinations such as Riviera Maya and Mexico City, can now be used to obtain information about most regions of the country. Available in English, Spanish and French, it provides access to maps, photos and video galleries to take the guessing-work out of your trip. It also lets users locate hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions within a specified area.
Documenting your journey has never been easier. Instagram is not only a great tool for shooting and editing photos, but it is also one of the best ways of sharing your experiences with friends and family. Whether you are after shots of the people, landscapes or historical marvels you encounter along the way, or simply want to take a snap of your hotel breakfast, you can rest assured that Instagram is up to the job. In addition, you can search photos on Instagram via hashtags. Similarly, once you tag one of your photos with a hashtag, it will appear under that hashtag for others to see. If your photos are good enough, you might even be able to gain a devoted fan base, or Instagram followers.
FluentU
Knowing at last some words and phrases in Spanish can make a world of difference to your Mexican trip. Suitable for beginner, intermediate, and advanced learners, FluentU uses videos, such as movie trailers and music film clips, to familiarize users with Spanish. The app captions each video and creates annotations to provide definitions and mark different parts of speech. It also delivers example sentences and images for different words to bring learning to life. Those wishing to test their language skills can take one of the app’s personalized quizzes.
iTranslate
This real-time translation tool enables users to read, write and speak in Spanish. From websites to signs and lunch menus, iTranslate can help you make sense of any text in Spanish. Simply point your phone’s camera at the text, take a photo, and the app will take care of the rest. iTranslate can also convert your spoken words into text and translate them into Spanish to make interaction with locals a breeze. Best of all, you can use iTranslate even if you are offline.