The late adopter's guide to traveling with an Apple Watch

I have never been accused of being a trendsetter. I'm usually dressed like a Gap mannequin from three seasons ago, nothing on my iPod has ever been reviewed by Pitchfork and I still read books in their heavy, hardback forms. Needless to say, I was not the first person in line for an Apple Watch. But I did recently get one – just six months after its release, which might be a new record for me – and I was still completely enamored with it when I was in Italy last week.

There are now more than 8,500 apps available for the Apple Watch, but in my opinion, it seems like the travel category is where it really excels. Not only can you put your boarding pass and your hotel key on your wrist, it also makes it much easier to find restaurants you might not have noticed, to speak a language that isn't your own and to make sure you don't pull out of the parking garage without your passport. YES those are all things that you could do on your iPhone (and to take full advantage of some of these apps, you do have to have cell service; I picked up a Three Italia SIM card purely for this reason), but the ability to just glance at my watch when I needed to – or wanted to – means that I didn't spend the entire week staring at my phone screen or standing on the sidewalk, fumbling for my phone inside my backpack.

These are the apps that I used the most last week, and that I'll continue to keep on my watch for future travels.

1. TripAdvisor(pictured above) uses location data to provide information about what's around you: attractions, restaurants and hotels. It also makes recommendations based on the time of day; if it's mid-evening, it might suggest not only what's close, but also what the best dinner options are and, as always, you can read the user reviews to find out if it's worth dodging approximately one million scooters to cross the street to get there. The app also allows you to add places to eat or points of interest to a "Saved" list and – in future updates – it would be great if the watch would alert you when you were close, just in case you forgot to check out the Museum of the Holy Souls in Purgatory while you were in the neighborhood.

2. Although Airbnb itself isn't quite sure why it has an Apple Watch app, it makes it easy to communicate with your host while you're on the fly. My travel buddy and I had some minor issues with the apartment we rented and the messages from our host appeared on the watch immediately, which meant I could quickly dictate a response while I knew that he was near his computer.

3. When Google released its Maps app, it became only the second app the tech giant had designed for the Apple Watch. And although its iPhone version is much better than Apple's own Maps app, that's not true for the Watch. The built-in Apple Maps displays a real map – something Google Maps doesn't do – which was helpful when we were trying to find cross-streets or figure out exactly where we were. (I had some problems with the handoff between Google Maps on the iPhone and the watch; sometimes I'd be waiting for directions on my wrist but would hear a muffled voice in my backpack telling me to turn left on Via Durazzo). Also, being able to glance down to get directions or see a map on my wrist made me feel safer, less distracted and less vulnerable than if I'd been standing on a semi-dark sidewalk unfolding a paper map.

4. Microsoft Translator(Yes! Microsoft!) lets you select from 50 languages, then you simply speak whatever phrase you'd like to translate into your wrist, while pretending that you are, in fact, a super spy. A written translation appears on the screen and you can also hear it spoken out loud, realizing that your slightly Southern accent isn't going to let you say "biglietti" the way the woman inside the app does. And if that's the case, you can always just flash your watch face at the person you're trying to communicate with.

5. I've covered some of the best packing apps before and, right now, Travel List ($1.99) is the only one that also has an Apple Watch version. It's handy to have your entire packing list on your wrist while you're getting ready to leave for a trip, but I actually relied on it more when I was hurriedly packing to leave our Airbnb. I used it in reverse, making sure that I'd taken my passport out of the drawer, unplugged my phone charger from the wall and grabbed my toothbrush out of the bathroom. Also Clear, a simple easy-to-use list maker, was fantastic for getting ready before the trip, because I could easily keep track of everything I needed to do – from putting a hold on my mail to buying a set of ear plugs – in one place.