How to Find the Best Food When You Travel

Vacations, even simple weekend getaways, can be full of adventure — that’s part of the great appeal, after all — but if you value a delicious, high-quality meal along with your adventure, then check out these four apps for different travel needs that can direct you to the best places to savor a great meal.
 

• When you’re stuck at the airport. Usually, airports are not known for their culinary quality, although that’s changing in some places. GateGuru is an app developed by TripAdvisor that is a full-on airport genie for your phone. With this app, you can check in, check your flight status, get a rental car, see maps of individual airports — and you can get lists of restaurants in the airport and see reviews from fellow travelers. (Free, iOS and Android).
  
• When you want to know what you’d love. App developers have a knack for creating complex algorithms that essentially “get to know you” by analyzing your previous food choices. Foodspotting (free, iOS and Android) delivers up choices based on specific dishes you’ve indicated you loved (or hated) before.
  
• When you’re looking for advice from the experts. If you’re suspicious of crowdsourcing opinions on the best food, why not consult those who know best? ChefsFeed allows you to pick a major city (featuring major US cities, plus several Canadian cities, and London, with more coming soon), and up pops dishes that top chefs in that city would recommend from their favorite restaurants. (Free, iOS)
• When you want to know what the heck you’re eating. You might like a little mystery when you’re ordering in a foreign country — but maybe not too much, right? WordLens started as a standalone app and is now a part of Google Translate. It uses your phone’s video camera and optical character recognition to make translations in real time when you hold your phone up to the text. Even better? It doesn’t require a network connection to work, so when you’re visiting that quaint little hill town in Umbria, you can still know what’s on the menu. It’s currently available for Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Portuguese. (Free, iOS and Android, each language pack is $5.95)

 
Make the most of your trip and the food you enjoy while on your next adventure! Give one (or more!) of these apps a try and let me know what you think. And don't forget, you can always contact your travel agent for any questions about food before and during your trip!