The best travel apps to help you save money on your summer holiday

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Travellers can find Happy Hours, free Wi-Fi and cheap petrol using apps
There's even one that automatically lowers data usage when roaming
MailOnline Travel rounds up the best - so you'll have more cocktail money

Published: 08:53 EST, 12 April 2016 | Updated: 05:49 EST, 13 April 2016

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Travellers can now use a range of apps on their phone to help them save money on holiday

Holidays are made for splurging, but seasoned travellers know that making some clever savings in some areas allows for even more extravagance when it comes to things that really matter... like the cocktail budget.

Thanks to smartphones, tourists no longer have to do weeks of research in advance to make sure they get the best deals once on holiday though - there are now a bunch of apps that can do the work for you.

Read on to discover the best of the bunch to help you save money on hotels, restaurants, petrol and more...

Free maps

It can be tempting to use your smartphone's maps app, or bring up the Google maps page when you need to find your hotel in a hurry, but this can cost you a bundle in foreign data-roaming charges.

MAPS.ME is an offline app with maps from around the world that can be downloaded to your phone or tablet to help you navigate your way around, with maps including major tourist attractions, local hospitals and parking.

Cheap eats

Happy Hour Finder shows all of the Happy Hours taking place in the nearby pubs and bars, left, while Voucher Cloud gives you hundreds of current deals on well-known restaurants, right

There are a number of apps that can help you to save money on food and drink while on holiday.

In the UK, Voucher Cloud gives you hundreds of current deals on well-known restaurants and bars like Pizza Express and it has also branched out into Germany and the Netherlands.

In the US, apps including Foursquare can help the user to find one-off discounts at restaurants in the nearby area.

For those partial to a cheap drink, Happy Hour Finder shows all of the Happy Hours taking place in the nearby pubs and bars.

Sightseeing

Viator helps you find deals and vouchers for cheap days out while on holiday

Viator is a useful app for saving yourself money on all of the extra costs that mount up on your trip abroad, such as meals out and tickets for galleries or tours.

It helps you find deals and vouchers for cheap days out and lets you book queue jump tickets, tours and any other reservations at the last minute.

One of the best features is the map, which means you can see the nearest attractions, including those offering discount deals - although don't forget to watch out for data roaming charges.

Cheap petrol

The Petrol Prices Pro app updates fuel prices from supermarkets, oil companies and independent stations daily in the UK

There doesn't appear to be a Europe-wide app for finding cheap petrol stations, but the UK and the US both have phone software that can help with this.

If you are going on holiday in Britain, use the Petrol Prices Pro app, which updates fuel prices from supermarkets, oil companies and independent stations daily for more than 11,000 places across the UK.

In the US and Canada, GasBuddy is an app used by millions to find cheap petrol in their local area using crowdsourced data.

Free Wi-Fi

Wifi Finder will search for the nearest public WiFi hotspots and direct you to them

Using your phone abroad can be extremely expensive, so the best thing to do is try and find spots with free Wi-Fi.

Wifi Finder is available in 114 countries worldwide and will search for the nearest public WiFi hotspots and direct you to them.

You can even download the offline WiFi finder using the app to help you navigate to the nearest hotspot without using any internet data.

Keep a lid on your data charges

If you always find yourself coming back from holiday with a whopping phone bill, Onavo Extend could be the solution.

The app runs continuously in the background and directs all data downloaded over 3G, EDGE and LTE through Onavo's servers and compression technology, to find ways to save data.

For example, it loads images when you scroll down to them so you don’t use valuable data on images you might not see, balances image quality and data savings based on your settings and automatically turns itself off when you connect to Wi-Fi.

Cheap hotels

When hotels have unsold rooms they load them on Hotel Tonight at cheaper prices

For those who are happy to fly by the seat of their pants when it comes to holiday travel, Hotel Tonight is the perfect app for bagging some bargain accommodation.

When hotels have unsold rooms they load them on the app, so users can get great last-minute deals. The app boasts: 'We screen every hotel featured, and only work with ones you’ll love.'

Anyone happy to wait until noon to book a hotel for that evening can get some brilliant reductions on everything from cheap hotels to five-star luxury.