What travel was like before smartphones
You could not imagine going anywhere without a mobile phone these days, let alone being without it while jetting off to the other side of the planet. But once upon a time, we managed every aspect of life and holidays without them. We managed to book everything from flights to hotel rooms and even get our way around airports and foreign cities without them.
Travel did not change much with the first mobile phones due to costs of calls, the phones and available service providers.
Travel did not change much with the first mobile phones due to costs of calls, the phones and available service providers.
Martin Cooper
first mobile call on 3 April 1973
But as mobile phone technology improved and the smartphones were released, more people began using them and the features improved, opening the world to the traveller.
Making airline, car rental or hotel reservation
Today there is an uncountable number of apps available for booking car rentals, accommodation, flights and everything else you will ever need on a holiday. Most of these booking apps now move you seamlessly from Qantas or Virgin onto the Hertz booking page before the checkout screen.
However, before mobile phones and computers connected to the internet, the only option was to visit your local travel agent. The process of booking a family holiday to Fiji would take hours of reading brochures and waiting for faxes back confirming reservations and prices.
These travel experts were your google search.
However, before mobile phones and computers connected to the internet, the only option was to visit your local travel agent. The process of booking a family holiday to Fiji would take hours of reading brochures and waiting for faxes back confirming reservations and prices.
These travel experts were your google search.
Getting your boarding pass
This process is extremely simple today with smartphones and apps that store your travel confirmations and reservations. The 80’s had its challenges, you couldn’t check in online before leaving the house and then you would fumble through bags looking for paper boarding passes and fax confirmation., Kknowing if you lost these, there was nothing you can do about it until the travel agent store opened again on Monday morning.
In-flight entertainment
These were the days when the idea of watching an in-flight movie on the plane's three centre aisle screens seemed so exciting. Knowing that on your flight you would have at least two hours to watch the latest blockbuster movie that hadn’t been released in your hometown. They would give you some special headphones, that did not work very well and when they made an announcement the volume of them talking was always 100 times louder than whatever you were watching.
Pictures take 3 weeks to share
There once was a time where we would have to wait several weeks after a holiday to have your photos developed and get them back from the chemist. This would also be the first time you would see those pictures of accidental headless blurry double exposures 📸. But they all went into the old family album and were placed on the bottom shelf of the cabinet.
Today we can take a picture, check we like it, load a filter, edit the size and instantly share to the world with a comical caption and funny emoji. 🤳
Today we can take a picture, check we like it, load a filter, edit the size and instantly share to the world with a comical caption and funny emoji. 🤳
1983 Silver Top cabs
Calling a Taxi
The act of hailing a cab has not really changed much over the years, You line up at the airport with 3 million other people and wait for a taxi to arrive, then pay whatever the cost to get to your destination.
Then along came smartphones. With services such as Uber and Lyft to simplify taxi services, now allowing customers to reserve a taxi and get an estimate of how much the trip will cost. You can even check how long it will be until your ride arrives.
Then along came smartphones. With services such as Uber and Lyft to simplify taxi services, now allowing customers to reserve a taxi and get an estimate of how much the trip will cost. You can even check how long it will be until your ride arrives.
Paper maps and getting lost
Travel in a new place was always an exciting adventure, mostly because unless you had paid extra for those impossible-to-fold- back-up paper maps from your agent, you got lost.
Today there are plenty of apps offering maps and tracking to move you around any new towns or cities without using data. MAPS.ME is one of our favourite that helps us get around the world.
There are also dedicated tourists sightseeing apps and self-walk tours for a lot of tourist hot spots.
Today there are plenty of apps offering maps and tracking to move you around any new towns or cities without using data. MAPS.ME is one of our favourite that helps us get around the world.
There are also dedicated tourists sightseeing apps and self-walk tours for a lot of tourist hot spots.
Understanding and communicating with the locals
Booking a much anticipated holiday a few decades back might have meant splurging on some language audio tapes. Thanks to smartphones and apps like Talking Translator and Duolingo, travellers no longer need to get by on a few choice phrases and greetings like “Where is the toilet?”, “Have you seen my hotel?”, “Are you a taxi?”, “Can I have a drink?” and the most important “Do you speak English?”.
Losing your room key at the pool
There was a time when hotel room keys resembled a chunky block of perspex attached to the actual key. It was in the hopes of guests not losing them at the beach or beside the poo,l or packing them in your luggage. Nowadays, most hotels provide guests with keycards, but even this type of room key is changing with a lot of hotel chains around the world now adopting the mobile room key as well.