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Americans often receive a lot of grief for being less internationally traveled than citizens of other countries. But in recent years, more Americans are traveling abroad than ever before. Numbers compiled by the digital magazine Travel and Tour World (TTW) show that in March 2025, 6.56 million Americans flew outside of the country. That’s 1.6% more than the same period a year earlier, and more than 22% more than in 2019—the year before the pandemic caused international travel to grind to a halt.
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TTW cites “pent-up demand, strong personal savings among affluent demographics, and a growing appetite for immersive cultural experiences” as the main reasons more Americans are traveling overseas. And those numbers from March will likely increase this month as the school season ends and Americans start heading out on summer vacations, especially since ticket prices have been dropping lately as airlines lower their fares to entice inflation-wary consumers to travel.
But if it’s your first time traveling internationally, you may not be aware that the reigning transportation and mapping app kings in the United States, Google Maps and Apple Maps, aren’t always the best to use in other countries. There are others that will enable you to navigate new lands more easily, especially the abundant public transportation options that most other countries offer. With that in mind, here are some apps to download before you head out on your global travels.
Citymapper
Citymapper is probably the most recognizable app on this list, and that’s because it does one thing better than nearly any other app: It helps you navigate some of the world’s best cities, whether that be by foot, car, bicycle, scooter, tram, ferry, or other city-specific modes of transit—way more modes than Apple or Google offers in most locales.
Citymapper is already pretty popular in America because it helps residents and visitors in big cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., get around. However, while the app supports just 28 cities in America, it supports 72 in Europe, along with prominent Asian destinations, including Tokyo, Seoul, and Hong Kong.
Moovit
If you need public transit directions in America or most major European cities, Google Maps or Apple Maps can do a decent job of getting you from point A to point B. But if you are in less frequently traveled countries of the world, you’ll find that Google Maps and Apple Maps don’t always reveal all the public transportation options that are available when trying to get across a city—or from city to city.