Crossing the border can sometimes be a hassle, but it doesn’t have to be, read on for what we’ve picked as some of the best travel apps available on the market today.
Quality travel apps can save you a lot of time.
Toronto is a tourism hub that attracts millions of visitors each year. For Americans coming to Toronto for vacation, business, or perhaps just an over-night visit, border crossing can be a hassle and take up precious time. Thanks to our ever increasing technology, there are some helpful apps that can make crossing the border run a little smoother and hopefully save you some time.
Border Buddy
Border Buddy gives users up-to-date border wait times for U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders. It has a handful of helpful features, including a shopping directory that lets you see the shopping malls and various sites along your journey. It will also show you current gas prices across the border with a price converter, so you can view the amount in U.S. or Canadian dollars. This travel app uses crowd sourcing to gather its information, so the latest updates are based on travellers reporting data–consider adding your own info to help keep Border Buddy as accurate as it can be.
Best Time To Cross The Border
The name of this handy travel app speaks for itself. Depending on where you’re crossing, this app will tell you the best time to cross the border with minimal hassle. Unlike Border Buddy, this app doesn’t use crowd sourcing, it bases its data on graphs that show the average wait time for the past three months. It also breaks down trends with maximum and minimum wait times for each port. Although this app works best for when you are coming into the U.S., it gives detailed information that is helpful to any border crosser including the number of lanes open and specific waiting information for pedestrian, commercial and passenger lanes and the closest port of entry.
iDeclare
iDeclare is a helpful app that gives you all the information you need about what you can bring across the U.S.-Canada border including a guide for personal exemptions. The app offers a detailed outline of what you can bring, including food, plants and animals, firearms, vehicles and prohibited goods. iDeclare is good for any traveller because it doesn’t use data and incurs no roaming charges.
Borderlineups
This app is good to have in conjunction with a border wait-time app, because it shows real-time images of the U.S.-Canada border lines. It’s a companion app to the website Borderlineups.com, which has cameras set up all along the United States and Canada border ports. Users can log on to the website or use the app to check on the cameras to see what the border crossing lines look like before they start their travels. If you don’t see a camera for the port you are entering, you can request one as they are putting up more cameras all the time.
Wi-Fi Calling
So this isn’t exactly an app, but it is a feature you can get on your phone that is ideal for international travel. Even if you have an international plan, coverage is not always reliable when you’re far from home. With Wi-Fi calling, you can make phone calls and send text messages with your Wi-Fi connection, which isn’t hard to find in Toronto. Currently, T-Mobile is the only American provider that offers this at no additional charge.
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