Thanks to the digital era we live in today, millions of people have online jobs that give them the freedom to work from anywhere. If you’re one of them, you instantly recognize how relieving that can be. However, are you maximizing your work potential with Google Chrome with the best browser extensions around? If not, the add-ons we will discuss are essential for travelers and digital nomads who switch multiple places year in and year out.
Whether you’re in the mood to upscale your productivity or are simply looking to master your time management skills, the Chrome Web Store has got your back. This world-renowned storefront for amplifying the base functionality of Google Chrome is home to various types of add-ons, all of which enhance Chrome’s default user experience. Read ahead to discover the most noteworthy extensions for digital nomads and start working like never before.
Best Chrome extensions for digital nomads and travelers
The following is our compilation of best-in-class Chrome extensions geared toward facilitating travelers and trippers. Make sure to try each of these out for positive results.
1. Google Translate
Google Translate
First, Translate is the extension travelers and online nomads must have whenever they’re out and about. It’s impossible to memorize all languages by heart when you switch to a new location. Still, with the help of Google Translate, you don’t have to be as clueless as not recognizing a single word of what the other person is saying. The extension at hand can increase your survivability and help you get your point across to people that speak a foreign dialect.
Additionally, Translate integrates interestingly with Google Chrome. If you stumble on a text that does not feel familiar, select it with your cursor and right-click it to reveal the “Translate this text” option. You’ll receive the results instantly that way. Moreover, Google Translate is one of the most sought-after extensions on the Chrome Web Store, with over 10 million users.
2. Save to Pocket
Save to Pocket
It is no secret that there are multiple pros and cons to being a digital nomad who can travel to other places and earn a living side by side. However, traveling can lead you to encounter times without internet connectivity. This can often make you unproductive in terms of being unable to work online. For such situations, you can turn to Pocket—one of the most famous bookmarking services—and keep up the hustle.
Now, the Save to Pocket extension lets you capture pieces of text, whole page pages, videos, and links to sites in a flash and send all of this stuff directly to your Pocket account. That way, accessing saved content offline and maintaining productivity levels in the absence of a working internet connection becomes plain and simple. Save to Pocket has more than 2 million users on a global scale with high-class ratings on the Chrome Web Store.
3. Send to Google Maps
Send to Google Maps on Chrome
Google Maps is often regarded as the best friend of travelers, digital nomads, and explorers. It’s the most sure-fire guarantee that you won’t get lost on your way, considering all other factors of the act of traveling. As part of your Google account, Send to Google Maps is a must-have extension for people who move abroad and traverse foreign countries several times a year. Select any address with your cursor, right-click afterward, and select the extension button to top it off.
Google Maps is in a league of its own, syncing with your singular Google account and working within a highly specialized Google ecosystem to streamline things significantly from a traveler’s perspective. For instance, you can use Maps to find free and available parking spots, not to mention being able to measure distance and area for planning your trip meticulously.
4. Tripadvisor Browser Button
Tripadvisor Browser Button
Tripadvisor is no new name for people who frequently travel, being one of the most prominent players in the travel industry in the world. This domain deals with online travel agencies and comprises a system where potential travelers can read up on reviews of specific hotels, acknowledge cheap flights, learn more about the places they’re visiting, and a ton of other information.
Now, the Tripadvisor Browser Button Chrome extension specializes in providing faster access to reviews on Tripadvisor with just the click of a button. For example, if you head over to a site and it happens to be present on Tripadvisor, the extension button will pop up, allowing you to quickly go through what other people think about the specific domain that you’re visiting. Besides this, the extension helps you track hotel prices, make comparisons, and plan your trip better.
If you’re a traveler, acquainting yourself with Tripadvisor is probably a wise choice. Even more so, the extension in question gets you closer to benefiting from the wide services of this world-renowned travel website.
5. StayFocusd – Block Distracting Websites
StayFocusd – Block Distracting Websites
Digital nomads who must stay focused on their work can often get distracted and detract from their purpose online. Such is the downside of freelance work because working online means opening yourself up to many diversions, simply due to the nature of an always-online work routine. That said, you can improve things with the help of an extension called StayFocusd.
The add-on at hand is primarily for restricting the time you can access a particular website on Chrome. Of course, the extension is not a hard-and-fast method of disciplining yourself; that will have to come from within you. However, a little self-control and a motivating factor can go a long way in straightening your work routine. The best part about StayFocusd is that it’s highly customizable.
From being able to block out entire web pages from being accessible to limiting even specific parts of specific pages from showing up, StayFocusd can help you accomplish your ambitions, given that you’re also passionate about them. The program has more than 500,000 users on the Chrome Web Store and over 6,400 global ratings, so you’re not pursuing a dead-end extension here.
6. Toucan – Language Learning
Toucan on Google Chrome
Digital nomads and travelers who have to switch places now and then can undoubtedly benefit from learning the local language of their current area of residence. However, this can initially seem pretty daunting, but not unless you start working smarter instead of harder. Toucan is a Chrome extension that can help you accomplish the task and offer a unique way of learning a new language.
It is a featured extension on the Chrome Web Store with hundreds of thousands of users and well-reputed global ratings. The add-on’s core ideology makes Toucan stand out from its competition. Instead of taking to flashcards, long tutoring lessons, and classes, you can learn a language with Toucan by browsing the web. It replaces English words with the words of the vocabulary you’d like to know so that the meaning becomes clear in context.
Therefore, this intellectual way of learning a language can get you through basic conversations in areas where you’re entirely new as a digital nomad or traveler. Although the extension currently has limited language support, spanning Spanish, German, French, Italian, Arabic, and others, more languages are on the way.
7. Speedtest by Ookla
Speedtest by Ookla on Google Chrome
Traveling to another place can often spark a bevy of different concerns, but at the top of that list has to be internet connectivity for people who work online. Speedtest by Ookla can help you determine the strength of your connection in a flash when you connect your device to a new internet source or switch places in the same region. It’s a verified application with great history, so certainly a top pick for digital nomads who live on the fly.
The internet speed test carried out by Ookla is accurate and reliable, and the domain has been around since 2000. After the site was acquired by Ookla in 2006, a minimal rebranding was kicked into motion, thereby further improving the UI of the application and providing users with quick results related to their download speed, upload speed, and ping. Travelers who take their work laptops with them can keep this add-on as a handy tool for testing their internet whenever they want.
8. Pruvo
Pruvo on Google Chrome
Pruvo is changing the concept of saving money on booking hotel rooms. Instead of performing exhaustive research and preparing for making the best possible reservation before paying, Pruvo encourages users to pay first and then look for cheaper options. As counterintuitive as that sounds, the concept here is workable. Once your booking has been confirmed, head over to the confirmation page and start the extension.
The add-on will then start scanning for more inexpensive options across the internet and display them in list form as soon as it comes across viable options. The developers claim that Pruvo can help you save up to 72% on your next hotel reservation. Although we haven’t tried that out, plenty of other people have and found success in doing so. Once the extension sees a price drop, you will be sent an email guiding you about canceling your existing booking.
9. Grammarly: Grammar Checker and Writing App
Grammarly on Google Chrome
Grammarly has become an icon over the years, owing its success to its blazing-fast performance on Google Chrome and the tendency to make life smoother for millions of people across the globe. Its primary purpose is to improve your writing and ensure your grammar and spelling are on point. The premium version of Grammarly takes things to the next level, starts addressing tone-related issues, and even makes you sound more confident if you have to.
For that purpose, there are preferences you can tweak, so Grammarly can adjust your writing so that your text aligns with your preferences. The Grammarly Chrome extension has over 10 million users and over 41,000 ratings. Whether it’s Google Docs, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, WordPress, Yahoo, or Instagram, Grammarly is popular among famous apps and swiftly slides in on places where you write.
The way that the extension integrates with Chrome is nothing but convenient. When you tap on a text box to type, an icon appears in the corner, signaling that Grammarly’s actions are underway, and your text is now scanned for errors and potential improvements. The base version of the extension works excellently as a spell-checker and for verifying the correctness of your grammar. Still, if you’d like more curated suggestions, you must get Grammarly Premium.
10. Todoist for Chrome
Todoist for Chrome
Moving ahead, we’ve got another highly productive extension called Todoist for Chrome which specializes in day-to-day task management for online employees. With over 50,000 reviews and a colossal user base of 900,000 people, this particular add-on is perfect for digital nomads who seek to organize themselves with a clear vision ahead and then act accordingly. It lets you add work tasks, save websites to read later, and wishlist items with a single click.
In addition, Todoist for Chrome lets you manage your tasks by arranging them in proper order. Not only do you get the ability to set reminders and due dates regarding specific chores, but with the help of “priority levels,” you can better organize your day by sorting all the work you have to do. Furthermore, there’s also the ability to observe productivity trends and assess your performance via calculated statistics presented by Todoist.
11. Currency Converter
Currency Converter
Traveling to different regions means an abrupt currency switch, which can often get problematic if you do not take action in advance. Thankfully, with the help of Currency Converter, users no longer have to worry about hassling with their money and converting it back and forth between different currencies. The extension at hand can simplify the process by providing you with real-time currency conversion between the currencies you must use.
The add-on at hand does not come without a solid reputation on the Chrome Web Store, amounting to a solid 4.8/5.0 overall rating and over 100,000 users on a global scale. The converter is free to use and takes inspiration from a material design. It’s ad-free and supports keyboard shortcuts. Furthermore, there’s an added feature to convert multiple currencies simultaneously for your convenience.
12. Hola VPN – The Website Unblocker
Hola VPN – The Website Unblocker
A good quality VPN is a must-have Chrome extension for travelers and digital nomads, but you must wonder why. The answer to that concerns geo-blocking, which is one sort of a region lock on applications related to the user’s geographical location. Let’s take Netflix, for example. Netflix is supported in various countries, but the shows it offers up for viewership in the United States are not the same as it would do in another region, say Turkey.
That is where a VPN can step in and offer you a robust solution for streaming the shows and movies you want, right alongside being able to access country-wide blocked websites. For this purpose, Hola VPN is an outstanding choice, sporting excellent ratings on the Chrome Web Store with more than 5 million users. It is free to use as part of its basic plan, but subscribing to a paid version offers excellent benefits, such as unlimited website unblocking.
Conclusion
Google Chrome is one of the world’s most popular internet browsers, with billions of users stretching across the spectrum. It’s fast, secure, and feature-rich, but things were not always that way. The Chrome iteration you use now results from years of hard work, consistent maintenance, updates, and subsequent upgrades. For instance, the browser recently passed its Chrome 112 release and brought several new additions to Google Chrome.
Similarly, extensions are another facet of Chrome that has facilitated the lives of many throughout the years. You can level up your gaming experience with tips and tricks and other high-quality add-ons for Google Chrome, not to mention keeping your fitness levels under check with dedicated health extensions. Let us know in the comments ahead what you think of our collection of must-have extensions for travelers and digital nomads from above.
Thanks for reading!
