Contiki Shout App
App: Contiki Shout App
Price: Free
Available on: iPhone and iPad – Android to follow in the coming weeks
What is it:
Shout is the new travel app from youth travel company Contiki which specialises in travel for 18-35 year olds. It is designed specifically for Contiki guests and is the best way for passengers to connect with each other prior to and during their trip.
Pre-departure, guests can download the app and set up a profile to connect with other travellers before their bags are even packed, through an extension of Contiki’s MeetUps tool which allows you to chat with the others you’ll be travelling with before you leave for your trip.
Once the app is downloaded, you have the option to register and login the more traditional way by entering your personal details and email address, or you can log in via Facebook, which is great if your main goal is to 
share your travel experience with friends on the social network. Shout will not share your travel information with Facebook unless you give it permission to.
On the home screen of the app there is a globe tab which takes you through to the ‘About us’, ‘Our tours’ and ‘Talk to us’ pages, making for simple navigation and helpful travel advice.
I clicked on the ‘Our tours’ tab and the app took me through to a screen listing the areas of the world where Contiki offers tours, this includes, Europe, Asia, Latin America, USA & Canada, Australia and New Zealand. You pick where you want to go and the app takes you through to a list of the tours offered by Contiki, all listed by name and showing the duration, price and a tab to ‘favourite’ the tour if you want to come back to it later.
Clicking through to your chosen tour via the ‘more’ option takes you to a page with in-depth information and itinerary of the tour including the stops you will make along the way and a bullet point list of exactly what’s included in the tour price.
You can even view available tour dates online and there is a ‘call us’ tab that will help you get through to Contiki bookings based on what region you are in, making the choice and booking process an easy one.
Travel Tools and Features:
While on the trip, the app’s main feature is its timeline, where passengers on a specific trip can upload photos, videos and messages to share with their fellow travellers, as well as post to their individual Facebook and Twitter accounts so family and friends follow the Contiki adventure as well.
Also included are the relevant Contiki itineraries for each traveller so they don’t have to lug around travel documents – it’s all at their fingertips! Passengers 
can use the app’s handy travel tools to convert currencies, translate languages, check the weather and refer to city maps.
Contiki also teamed up with travel experts Lonely Planet to provide app users with the Nearby feature – top tips on best local hotspots and hidden gems. So travel advice is trustworthy and you can plan everything you want to see and do using these recommendations.
We Love:
Passengers can add photos and videos when offline, which will be automatically uploaded once in a WiFi area and stamped with the original date and time, offering a real-time social experience. This also means that you won’t incur crazy roaming charges.
Once the trip comes to an end, the Contiki journey can continue with fellow travellers as the app can still be accessed and used as an archive of all their incredible memories.
I also love the interactive map that can be accessed through the ‘view the tour map’ option, for example, under Latin America, if you click on the ‘view the tour map’ tab for The Explorer tour you’ll be taken through to the interactive map detailing your flight journey over Peru and Argentina. The sites at which you will stop, including Iguassu Falls and Machu Picchu, are numbered in order of visit on the map, too.
Downfall:
The Contiki Shout app is specifically designed for those travelling on Contiki tours and some of its features are specific to an individual trip which requires a Contiki booking. Therefore, its social network benefits would 
not really be useful to anyone that is travelling with another company. However, regarding the purpose for which this app is designed, it was difficult to find any faults.
Verdict:
Shout is a great app for young travellers embarking on a tour with Contiki. It allows them to tell their travel story, bringing together the photos, videos and updates of everyone you’re travelling with to create one epic story of your trip together. For its youthful nature, clean design and fresh outlook on user-engagement for Contiki travellers, Shout gets a travel-tastic 4/5.
Have you travelled on a Contiki tour? Do you have the Shout app? Tell us what you think of the app in the comments below or tweet us @FemaleFirst_UK
FemaleFirst
Shabana Adam @Shabana_FAM