Travel Apps

[jmbklj]

Earlier this I went from using a dumb phone to a smartphone, the iphone, so I've been learning about apps and came accross this article on travel apps. Travel apps are flooding the market and this article lists some recommended travel apps. I've downloaded Tripit but have yet to use it. Do you have any experience using Tripit - free or paid version - compared to Expedia's Trip Assist? Or any of these other travel apps that you love?

Verbal Translation app?

Trip Wolf sounds cool.

For more details in the recommended app article:

Essential Travel Apps, Part One: The Basics

- Itinerary Tracking: TripIt
Platforms: iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Web, mobile Web
Among the apps that help organize all of your itinerary info and tracking numbers, TripIt was the first and has gone the farthest in the itinerary tracking arena, and continues to set the standard.

- Booking Engine Itineraries: Apps by Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz

- Local Businesses and Restaurants: Yelp and Urbanspoon

- Hotel (and Other) Reviews: TripAdvisor

- Consolidator and Fare Searching: Kayak, FareCompare, Priceline

- ATM Finders: Various Apps

- Airport Security: MyTSA

- Parking: Car Finder
Platform: iPhone 3Gs or later only
Talk about finding a need and addressing it -- who hasn't come back from a long trip, or just a trip to the grocery store, and wondered where the H they put their car? To make this $0.99 app work, you will need a 3Gs iPhone or better, as the application uses the compass and camera built into those phones to pinpoint the location of your car.

- Bathrooms: SitOrSquat
Platforms: Mobile Web, Web, SMS, iPhone, Blackberry
Did I mention that Car Finder addressed a basic need? Well, this app outdoes even that. When nature calls, you need a way to answer, without fail. SitOrSquat, a Web site with apps for iPhone and Blackberry, shows you a map and/or list of nearby publicly accessible toilets


- Do the Math: Unit Conversion Free, Currency
Platforms: iPhone, but others are available for most platforms
Unit Conversion Free is a no-cost app that does exactly what it says, converting temperature, distance, weight, volume, speed and more, including currency in real time.

- Should I Bow or Tip?: World Customs and Cultures
Platform: iPhone
The free World Customs and Cultures app is a guide to the sometimes odd and potentially confounding cultural differences you will experience when traveling internationally.

- Stuck at the Airport: GateGuru
Platforms: iPhone, "soon expanding to other platforms"
Essentially a SeatGuru for airports, the free GateGuru app has information and maps for gate locations, food vendors, stores, ATM's, places to plug in, airline clubs, Wi-Fi availability and more for heaps upon heaps of airports.

- Filling up: GasBag, Cheap Gas!, Local Gas

- All-in-One Travel App: Where
Platforms: iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm, Windows 7
The free Where app distinguishes itself from the competition by trying (often successfully) to collect the location-specific information you can find in a number of other, more specialized apps into one uber-app.

- Reservations: OpenTable
Platforms: iPhone, Blackberry, mobile Web
OpenTable is the leading restaurant reservation service, now available in a free app. I've always believed that avoiding long lines is a crucial travel skill; OpenTable takes care of it. I was presently surprised at how many restaurants offer the service, and the app also includes rankings and user reviews. So unlike Yelp or Urbanspoon (reviewed here), you can see what restaurants are nearby, read the reviews and then book a table right from inside the app -- very slick.

- Guidebooks: Lonely Planet, Tripwolf
Platforms: iPhone
Tripwolf is a worthy competitor, mainly due to its exclusively digital focus.

- Getting Around: iTrans, HopStop
Platforms: Mobile Web, Web, SMS, iPhone
On a recent day trip to New York City, I used the $3.99 iTrans NYC app to map out subway routes, and it worked perfectly. The free app from Hopstop is branching out a bit more quickly, with 20 cities, including London and Paris, now mapped out.

More recommended apps in this article - "8 Must Have Free Travel Apps":

8 Must-Have Free Travel Apps | Frommers.com

[omegaet]

jmbklj;Earlier this I went from using a dumb phone to a smartphone, the iphone, so I've been learning about apps and came accross this article on travel apps. Travel apps are flooding the market and this article lists some recommended travel apps. I've downloaded Tripit but have yet to use it. Do you have any experience using Tripit - free or paid version - compared to Expedia's Trip Assist? Or any of these other travel apps that you love?

jmbklj....this has been, and continues to be, an ongoing process for me....I have down loaded an assortment of apps for my phone and ipad...explore them for a while and then eliminate them (especially those free versions of many that prove to be little more than bait and switch for the paid versions). So, I find myself 'apping' up - exploring - 'de-apping' - 're-apping' and repeating the cycle. Eventually I guess I will find the functional few I wish to keep and utilize.

For the most part, I find my favorite airline apps the most useful as well as Yelp and Urbanspoon.

One app we do use on our ipad2, whenever we travel abroad, is google translator. We find it to be useful and it can be a lot of fun as an ice-breaker with kids....especially the spoken translations (if WiFi is handy).

You might want to keep this thread active and update from time to time with apps you find useful.

Thanks.

[Mountie]

jmbklj;Earlier this I went from using a dumb phone to a smartphone, the iphone, so I've been learning about apps and came accross this article on travel apps. Travel apps are flooding the market and this article lists some recommended travel apps. I've downloaded Tripit but have yet to use it. Do you have any experience using Tripit - free or paid version - compared to Expedia's Trip Assist? Or any of these other travel apps that you love?

jmbklj....this has been, and continues to be, an ongoing process for me....I have down loaded an assortment of apps for my phone and ipad...explore them for a while and then eliminate them (especially those free versions of many that prove to be little more than bait and switch for the paid versions). So, I find myself 'apping' up - exploring - 'de-apping' - 're-apping' and repeating the cycle. Eventually I guess I will find the functional few I wish to keep and utilize.

For the most part, I find my favorite airline apps the most useful as well as Yelp and Urbanspoon.

One app we do use on our ipad2, whenever we travel abroad, is google translator. We find it to be useful and it can be a lot of fun as an ice-breaker with kids....especially the spoken translations (if WiFi is handy).

You might want to keep this thread active and update from time to time with apps you find useful.

Thanks.

-O-, did you use Google Translator in Argentina. Did it work? Should I put on my iphone and try it in Peru?

[omegaet]

Yes, we did use the Google Translator app but only in the areas where we had wireless. We used it on the ipad. You had better check with your cellular provider regarding costs of using your phone.