Coffee Shops
The Barn 
House of Small Wonder Coffee Shop
Father Carpenter Coffee Brewers
Five Elephant 
Bonanza Coffee Heroes 
Concierge Coffee (tiny) 
District Coffee
Coffee Profilers 
Silo Coffee (also good brunch) 

Cocktails  
Bar Marques — under Spanish Restaurant
Fragrances Ritz Carlton 
Becketts Kopf — portrait of Beckett’s head, ring doorbell. 
Stagger Lee 
Tausend
Bar 3 
Green Door
BRLO Brwhouse (restaurant/brew/“mod” biergarten) 

Beer Gardens
Prater
Zollpackhof
Cafe Am Neuen See (overlooks a lake) 
Bierhof Rudersdorf
Eschenbrau
Loretta am Wannsee (sunset) 

Restaurants
893 Ryotei 
Restaurant Slate Berlin
Reinstoff(Michelin)
Rotisserie Weingrun
Panama Restaurant & Bar
Mrs Robinsons
CODA (dessert) 
Maison Han (Vietnamese) 
Burgermeister — lunch, expect a wait. 
Roamers (brunch) 
KaDeWe (department store food court) 
Mogg Delicatessen
No Hablo Español

Music
Donau 115 (jazz) 
Piano Bar Van Gogh 
A-Trane 
Shopping
Bikinhaus / Bikini Berlin Sopping Center

I'll be visiting Amsterdam in a few weeks with a few friends.  If you've lived in Amsterdam or visited recently, I would love any feedback you have on this list:

Cocktails
Door 74, Reguliersdwarsstraat 74, 1017 BN Amsterdam, Netherlands
Hiding in Plain Sight, Rapenburg 18, 1011 TX Amsterdam, Netherlands
Vesper, Vinkenstraat 57, 1013 JM Amsterdam, Netherlands
Twenty Third Bar (with a view), 


Restaurants
La Rive (fine dining), Professor Tulpplein 1, 1018 GX Amsterdam, Netherlands
Madam (with a view), Overhoeksplein 1, 1031 KS Amsterdam, Netherlands
Dum Dum Palace (pan asian),  Zeedijk 37, 1012 AR Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam Foodhallen  (food hall), Hannie Dankbaarpassage 16, 1053 RT Amsterdam
Patisserie Kuyt (bakery), Utrechtsestraat 109-111, 1017 VL Amsterdam, Netherlands
Choux (wine, lite), De Ruijterkade 128, 1011 AC Amsterdam, Netherlands
Restaurant Stork (cool vibe, near water), Gedempt Hamerkanaal 201, 1021 KP Amsterdam, Netherlands
La Perla (pizza), Tweede Tuindwarsstraat 53, 1015 RZ Amsterdam, Netherlands
Thrill Grill (burgers), Eerste Constantijn Huygensstraat 37, 1054 BR Amsterdam, Netherlands
Le Garage (French), 
The Fat Dog, 

Tulips
Keukenhof Gardens (early or late in the day)

Windmills 
Zaanse Schans Windmills 

​Coffeeshops 
Dampkring 
De Tweede Kamer
Greenhouse

Travel gives you the ability to live life at a hyper pace enjoying the very best parts of a destination.  Trips can be filled with magical moments exploring famous places, eating delicious food, and interacting with locals.  

It is also not unusual when you're in a far away place to hit a few snags.  Here are a few of the apps I have on my phone that help me smooth out the bumps in the road. If you're about to go on a big trip, consider some of these apps that I use on a regular basis when traveling. 

Apps for Planning 

PackPoint
Packpoint is a packing list app that considers where you're going, your planned activities, the weather, and the length of your stay.  I like to travel lite, so the max number of days I'll pack for is 10 (which I can pack in a three-day carry-on bag). 

TripIt
TripIt stores all of your travel plans in one place including information on flights, hotels, transportation, special events, travel insurance and more.  Setup your account, then forward your confirmations to an email address. TripIt builds your electronic itinerary.

I love TripIt for two reasons:

• it lets me walk through my reservations day-by-day and catch any booking errors I may have made up front, and
  
• it puts my reservation information in one place to quickly reference during my travel.  

Apps for Getting from Point A to B

Rome2Rio
Rome2Rio allows you to discover the costs & time of traveling between two points by any mode of transportation (plane, train, bus, ferry and automobile).  I typically use this app up front to decide the best mode of transportation between two cities (Amsterdam to Paris, for example) including what rail or air transportation company sells tickets between those cities. 

Citymapper
If you need help navigating major city transit, check out the Citymapper app which helps you find the best route between two places in a city using any combination of bus, subway, train, ferry taxi, bike share, and walking.  Citymapper even tells you the nearby departure times.  If I'm using a subway or bus system, I almost always refer to Citymapper. 

Maps.me 
There are occasions where I'm traveling with slow to no coverage on my cell phone. Maps.me allows you to download maps for offline use with turn-by-turn navigation. It also lets me mark favorite destinations on a map.  As a backup, I typically always download the city map for my destination and mark my hotel for future reference. 

Apps for Translation

Google Translate
The Google Translate app & website are my go-to's for translating on the fly when traveling.  I've used Duolingo to learn conversational language in the past, but I found that the learned language goes out the window when you're tired, hungry or frustrated.  It's nice to be able to quickly translate back and forth with whomever you're trying to communicate with in the moment. 

Other Apps

This is a a catchall for other apps to consider downloading to your smartphone before you travel:

• Your airline carrier's app -- this is definitely something to download and log into ahead of your trip so you have access just in case you need it. 
• Uber -- I've found Uber to be available in most major cities.  While expensive, it can be a life saver when your feet get tired, you get lost, or you need to get home after a late evening. 
• Yelp or Open Table -- You won't find that special off-the-beaten path dining experience on these apps but they will quickly lead you to some good dining options when you've run out of ideas or need a quick suggestion based on your current location. 
  
• Mobile Passport -- If you don't have Global Entry, then consider downloading Mobile Passport which allows you to complete your customs paperwork digitally.  Mobile Passport users also get their own security lane which could be faster than the general lane.  

I'll be traveling abroad later this spring and would love to know what apps you use when you travel.  Share them below.