5 Of The Best Apple Watch Apps For Keeping Safe While Traveling

Whether traveling across the country or to the other side of the world, safety is always a concern when venturing into unknown territory. Things can happen in the blink of an eye and easily catch you off guard, compromising your security and well-being. While your main focus will be your trip, it's important to maintain situational awareness, especially when traveling to new places. The good news is, if you're traveling with your Apple Watch, you have access to several apps that can help keep you safe on your journey.

These apps do everything from keeping you up to date on weather conditions to helping loved ones keep track of your whereabouts. If you don't know the local language, they can help you in a bind by ensuring language barriers don't compromise your safety. It's like having a personal travel companion, delivering real-time information to your wrist. Before getting started, optimizing your Apple Watch's settings for the best experience is a good idea.

Ready to gear up for your travels? Here are five Apple Watch apps to install before starting your next big adventure.

If your travel plans involve exploring the diverse landscapes, attractions, and cities within the U.S., Noonlight: Feel Protected 24/7 can give you peace of mind during your travels. A silent panic button is at the center of this app, allowing you to discreetly signal for help in situations where it would be unsafe to make a phone call. Its real-time location tracking ensures emergency responders can find your exact location and get you the help you need if something goes wrong.

The app's automatic dispatch feature automatically sends emergency services to you if you can't confirm your safety, ensuring you get the help you need in a timely manner. The app is especially useful if you're traveling solo. It allows you to share your real-time location with family and friends, giving them peace of mind and ensuring you're never truly alone.

In an emergency, the app will notify your contacts and emergency services. If you're traveling with a group, each group member can share their location, making it easy to find each other if you become separated. Unfortunately, this app doesn't work outside of the U.S.

Sometimes, our rusty high school Spanish, French, or other language isn't enough to get by in a foreign country. If that sounds like you and you're traveling to a country where English isn't widely spoken, a translation app is a no-brainer, and iTranslate Converse is one of the best available. The app is designed for instant two-way voice conversations in 38 languages.

Let's say you get lost in a country surrounded by unfamiliar places and faces and need to ask someone a question to get to your destination. All you have to do is speak your question into the app, which will translate your words into the local language. The person you're asking a question to hears the translation and can respond in their language, with the app translating their response back into Engish for you, bridging the communication gap instantly. With this app on your wrist, you'll confidently travel overseas, knowing you'll be able to make yourself understood in the local language.

Traveling involves stepping into the unknown, and weather can often be one of the most unpredictable elements. That's why taking Carrot Weather: Alerts and Radar with you on your next trip is a good idea. The app does everything you'd expect a weather app to do and more, with hyperlocal forecasts, real-time alerts, and interactive weather maps to ensure you're ready for whatever Mother Nature has in store.

One of the app's stand-out features is its hyperlocal weather updates, which provide location-specific information tailored to your exact location. Let's say you're hiking in a mountainous region; with this app, you won't just get generic weather information for the entire mountain range. Instead, it'll be specific, real-time data for your exact trail.

If a storm is approaching, the app will send you immediate alerts, giving you enough time to find shelter or turn back, helping to ensure your safety. The app is consistently updated, so you'll always have the latest information on temperature, precipitation, wind speed, and other variables, giving you the tools to make informed decisions while traveling.

Finding your way around a new city while traveling can sometimes feel overwhelming, so having an app like Citymapper: Live Transport on your wrist is priceless. From Los Angeles to Tokyo and many other cities in between, this app provides detailed transit information, helping you get from point A to point B in one piece. The app helps keep you safe by providing real-time information on public transportation, lessening the uncertainty and vulnerability of traveling in unfamiliar urban environments.

When you install the app, you'll get instant updates on transit route schedules, delays, and alternative routes, helping you find the correct route and reducing the risk you'll get lost. Its real-time departure information comes in especially handy at night, reducing the time you spend waiting at bus stops or train stations when safety might be a concern. There are a lot of outstanding apps for the Apple Watch, and when it comes to travel safety, Citymapper is among the best.

If your travels will take you overseas and you want to ensure your family and friends can monitor your safety and location in real-time, Virtual Halo can help. The app is available in over 60 countries, so chances are you can use it at your next destination, allowing you to create your own personal safety net with emergency contacts and alerts. With a quick tap, you can send an SOS alert to pre-selected contacts if you ever find yourself in a dangerous situation while traveling domestically or abroad. The alert includes the street address closest to your location and a link to view it on a map.

If you're traveling alone, you'll appreciate the app's journey alert, which lets you share your travel details and expected arrival time with your contacts. If you don't reach your destination as expected, your contacts can take immediate action, checking in to ensure you're safe or contacting emergency services if necessary. Suppose you're traveling with friends or family and want to keep track of their locations while exploring your destination separately. In that case, you can use the app's location tracking to keep up with everyone's whereabouts.