Youre ready for the massive, populated, traffic laden, food heaven and for the land of over 1000+ languages – India! You’re ready to be welcomed with warmth of the people, car honks, cycle tring-trings, tuk-tuks, mouth-watering street food. So we’ll make your India trip special and smooth with best travel apps for travelling in India that locals and travellers love and trust.
Also read:
9 best free & unique travel apps for international travel
10 top free and unique travel apps for travel in South East Asia
1. Swiggy
Swiggy is India’s number 1 app for food deliveries, grocery deliveries and even point-to-point parcel delivery. You’ll pretty much find all the restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores on the app in most parts of India.
You can also use the app for all other types of deliveries also – envelopes, books, clothes, etc.
Best part? You can connect your card or pay by cash while using the apps.
2. Zomato
Similar to Swiggy, Zomato is another super popular app for food and grocery deliveries. Zomato also has a large network of restaurants and supermarkets on the app. Again, you can pay by card or cash when using the app. Zomato has a gold membership so if you’re in India for a few weeks or months and will use delivery often then it might be worth getting that membership for free deliveries and benefits.
Pro-tip: Sometimes delivery prices and offers are different on both apps so search on both apps and choose the one that’s the cheapest!
3. ATM Fee Saver
Travelling to India and wondering which ATM does not charge any fees?
Use ATM Fee Saver – it’s the first mobile app that gives you information on various ATMs in India.
You can find ATM Fees and withdrawal limits of all leading banks in India. Why should you know this? Because there are many ATMs in India which are fee-free for foreign card holders, and some ATMs charge very high fees!
On the app, you can also:
- Calculate ATM fees for your desired cash withdrawal amount with in-built calculator
- Use navigator for the best route to that ATM
Also read: ATMs in India: Fees, limits & info for India travel.
Download ATM Fee Saver now or login online.
4. IRCTC
No trip to India is complete without riding its massive network of in-city and inter-city trains! India has the fourth largest rail network in the world and connects pretty much every small town in the country. Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is the one that provides ticketing, catering, and tourism services for the Indian Railways.
So we suggest the IRCTC mobile app as one of the best travel apps while travelling in India. On the app, you can book tickets for pretty much any inter-city and inter-state trains. You will get many options of classes to travel on Indian trains. And yes, foreign cards are also allowed to pay for the tickets.
5. Redbus
If you’re travelling in India, you will soon realise that inter-city buses and trains are an excellent way to travel through the country while seeing the local life. India has one of the largest highway networks in the world. Redbus is a popular mobile app that helps you book bus tickets. It has reviews, a host of companies to choose from and paying with foreign cards is easy on the app.
6. Cleartrip
If you intend to take domestic flights within India or even flights to nearby Asian countries, we suggest using some of the India based flight booking apps. They often have cheaper rates than what you will see on Skyscanner and other global flight apps.
Cleartrip is one such popular app for flight bookings that makes it to our list of best travel apps while travelling in India. It has an easy to use interface and lots of deals on flights and bookings.
You can pay with foreign cards on the app.
7. Easemytrip
Similar to Cleartrip, Easemytrip is another popular flight booking app. Easemytrip most often has better deals than other flight booking apps and bookings are reliable. They have a call centre for any issues where you can also get immediate help from a friendly customer service staff.
Other option is makemytrip – this app used to be the most popular but now has intense competition from cleartrip and easemytrip!
8. OLA cabs and Uber
Ola cabs and Uber are the most used apps by locals in India for booking taxis within a city. It will be handy to download them before or during your travel to India.
The prices on both apps for the same route can sometimes be very different. So be sure to use both apps and pick the one which is cheaper.
Best part? You can also book local black and yellow taxis and tuk tuks from these apps.
Pro-tip: A lot of cab drivers prefer cash payment in India because they need money immediately. So if you’re driver asks if you’re going to pay by cash or via card, he is less likely to cancel if you change your payment mode.
9. bookmyshow
When in India, fancy going to a movie? Watch a play? Dance at a concert? Bookmyshow is by far the most popular app in the country to find various kinds of events and book tickets easily. They have a variety of options – movies, plays, sports events, music shows, festivals, camping, trekking, arts, business events, comedy shows, etc. The app is available to all users – domestic and international and payment options with foreign cards is easy.
10. Safetipin
Safetipin is a relatively new app in India but it is definitely worth adding to our list of best travel apps while travelling in India. The app is built on the idea to help users find the safest routes to travel in the country.
It is user generated and verified by the app owners, so other travellers like you have rated and pinned safe and unsafe places in various parts of the country.
You can also contribute to the Safetipin app if you have any good or bad experiences with safety in India!
Also read: Top 8 things not to do when travelling abroad.
2 thoughts on “10 best free, unique travel apps for travelling in India”
I´am just planning my first big trip to India and i´m super excited and also nervous. Thank you for all the great Information, i already feel more calm 😀 and i will def use your App
Hi Maxi89, glad we calmed you down a bit 🙂 enjoy your travel in india