Top 5 iPhone Travel Apps?

[Rene Ritchie]

What are your Top 5 iPhone travel apps? We're working on a round-up for the main page but with air travel, hotel, dining, entertainment, socializing, networking, sight-seeing, there's just so much we could include I thought I'd ask your help.

What are your favorites, your go-to apps, your top recommendations? What do you use when *you* travel?

Let me know and, oh yeah, we'll give one lucky recommender a $10 iTunes gift card just to sweeten the pot and show our appreciation.

 

[garynky]

There are scores of very useful apps for use when traveling. Here are the five I use most while traveling - in no particular order:

1. Packing (+ ToDo)
2. BeeJive IM
3. AroundMe
4. UrbanSpoon
5. Flight Track

GT

 

[whmurray]

I have a full page of travel apps including Airport Status, Flight Status, WorldMate, and TripCase. Google Maps is on the page and I probably use it as much as any app. It is particularly useful for navigating public transit. I also have subway apps for NY, SF, DC, and London. I use StationStops for Metro North schedules.

TomTom is on the travel page. I added Traffic to it last week, too late because I was already standing in traffic. It makes TomTom useful even when you know where you are and where you are going.

How did we get around before the iPhone?

 

[coreymol]

This is what I travel with

I travel very often, several times a month and I have tried all kinds of different apps these are what I have settled on.

1. Trip deck I can email my itinerary to tripit and it gets uploaded to this app. All my info flights, hotels, car etc. This app has push notification and many times I get notified of a gate change or cancelation before the gate crew tells us. I was using worldmate but this one does not have a yearly subscription fee.

2. I use room to keep track of what hotel room I am in. Sounds funny but when you are in several hotel room a month and sometimes a week. Keeping the right room number can be a little difficult Plus room lets you keep track of anyone elses room number you may be traveling with and jot down little notes.

3. Airport status I use this to see if there are any delay issues that may affect my flights it is great because it shows all the airports and many different types of delays.

4. Urban spoon and gate guru - finding good food is a must!

5. I also use a few others while I travel like Maps.app, Magellan GPS, accuweather, Just started to use Siri which is a promising app. and I use brightkite and gowala to keep track of where I have been.

 

[Alli]

I have both WorldMate and Tripit. At this point I use Tripit more to track other people's trips. WorldMate does everything for me from making flight and hotel reservations, to notifying me of delays while I'm sitting at the gate.

WorldMate can make my flight reservations, change reservations; find a hotel near my destination - and get me a discount by booking within the app!; find transportation to the hotel from the airport; tell me what the weather is like, or going to be like when I arrive; currency conversion; more.

It has everything you need for travel except a packing list...so for that I need another app.

I used Telenav once when traveling to Tucson and decided that I'd really much rather stick to public transportation when in a strange city, tyvm.

 

[whmurray]

I mentioned Google Maps. When we think of travel, we tend to think about air and perhaps hotels. However we often spend more travel time in surface travel than in the air. This is where Google Maps comes in.

I used to routinely take a taxi from my club in NYC to a friends apartment until I learned from Maps that there is a frequent bus that runs door to door.

I have a trip to London coming up. Google Maps knows how to get me from any of the three airports to my hotel via the Underground. Can get me from my hotel to almost any place in the UK. It knows the stations, the connections, and the train schedules. Want to visit Windsor Castle, Oxford, or Bletchley Park. Same for Paris. This is critical in these cities; taxis are reasonable but traffic makes them unreliable. I can plan the trip before I ever leave home and Maps will remember it for me. Maps knew my way around Hong Kong and will know my way around Singapore.

Consider a trip from my home in the far burbs to a destination in NYC. I live a half mile from the railroad station. Maps knows how to do the trip by multi-modal public transit. It even knows the train schedule.

My nephew recently started school in Seattle. Seattle has great mass transit and Google Maps makes it easy to use even in a strange city. A taxi from Sea-Tac to his school is $40- but the bus is less than $5-. Big deal if one is a student.

Google Maps. Don't leave home without it.

 

[Brickman]

Most of my travel is in the Southeast, so...
CoPilot NA for navigation
Traffic
WhatsToEat
CoffeAddict
Google Maps

If I have to fly I use Evernote to keep my Tickets and such.

 

[Geoff]

I no longer travel full time for work (yeah!), so I only use TripIt to keep track of vacations, etc. If I ever returned to my road warrior days, I'd get WorldMate as it looks to have all of the functionality I'd need to hop from city to city.

 

[Tonester]

Hi Rene,

Sorry this is a plug, but I've released a new app called My Vacation which is getting some good reviews so far, and it'd be great to get a mention. You can use it to plan, journal and share your trips. I can't post a URL yet but it's at myvacationapp dot com.

Regards,
Tony Short,
Jasper Apps

 

[applejosh]

Flight Update Pro (synced to tripit - also nice to keep track of the wife's travel plans here)
TWC Max (or Weatherbug Elite)
UrbanSpoon (really, it's just fun to shake the phone and get a slots machine type readout)
AroundMe (I'm really not in love with any of these types of apps, but this one is OK)
Maps (just the standard app; if I traveled unknown places more often, then Navigon would be ideal)

 

[jamesus]

I travel every week for work. Travel apps are a necessity. Here are my top 5 and how I use them:

1. Flight Track Pro - a must for those that fly. I can keep updated flight delays, gates, etc to always know where I am going. Works great since it syncs flight data with...

2. TripIt - Handles all of my travel documentation. I simply forward flight and hotel information and they pre-populate all relative confirmation numbers, etc. Best of all, they have an iCal feed that integrates amazing with...

3. Calendar.app - Keeps all of my appointments synced with my company's Exchange server. The TripIt iCal feed is always updated with hotel information and flight information as well. I get a great view of how my week will shape up.

4. AccuWeather - Always nice to be able to see the 15 day forcast for a city. I never like being surprised by the weather, so I know if I need to bring any special gear to make sure I stay dry and warm.

5. SplashShopper / Zenbe Lists - I've created a robust packing list so I never have to think about what I need to pack. Makes packing more efficient and gives me more personal time and peace of mind to know I didn't forget anything.

Of course I use others (GateGuru is pretty darn cool), but those are my top 5. If I was allowed to add more I'd add:
--GateGuru - Yelp for Airports. Works as advertised.
--Reeder - keep updated on all of my feeds
--Alarm Clock - I never trust the hotel alarm clock and hate having the phone ring for a wake up call
--Google Maps - for the obvious reasons
--Siri - always nice to have a personal assistant traveling with you
--Kindle for iPhone - great to be able to pick up reading if my Kindle battery dies
--ESPN Radio - I need my sports fix in the morning
--Games - pick you personal preference on a game, but having entertainment is key.

So, even though our Fearless Leader asked for 5, I gave 13. And I could give more of course...

 

[TravelGeek]

I am always up in the air or on the road with my husband. And iPhone is like my second best travel mate. Here are my top 5 picks:

Maps (I use Google Maps to get around, find places, etc. There is only one thing that bothers me: I can't use it offline. So I might get some other app as well, that will work offline.)

Skype (I use the desktop version all the time at home and the iPhone app is pretty clever as well. The quality depends on the WI-FI connection, but usually calling over Skype from my iPhone works pretty good.)

Social apps (Such as Facebook or FourSquare. With Facebook I don?t like it won?t work offline, so I don?t use it as much when traveling abroad. What more my family can?t read my notes directly, so I rather use travel blog app to be in touch with my friends and family back home. It is fun though to use FourSquare in a foreign city. You can even get some local sale coupons, which gets handy sometimes.)

Travel blog app (Lately I have been using OnTheRoad.to. It tracks my location with GPS and allows me to post notes, photos and video directly ?on the go?. I don?t like to pay for data roaming, so I am using the app?s offline mode to document my trip instantly. I also connect it with Facebook, so it is like a replacement for my Facebook app I use during my travels. )

Reviews app (I use UrbanSpoon and Yelp, but I don?t really like them as much. I am still looking for a good app, that will have some reasonable reviews. If I need to book hotel directly from the road, I use the Expedia app.)

 

[whmurray]

I am always up in the air or on the road with my husband. And iPhone is like my second best travel mate. Here are my top 5 picks:

Maps (I use Google Maps to get around, find places, etc. There is only one thing that bothers me: I can't use it offline. So I might get some other app as well, that will work offline.)

Skype (I use the desktop version all the time at home and the iPhone app is pretty clever as well. The quality depends on the WI-FI connection, but usually calling over Skype from my iPhone works pretty good.)

Social apps (Such as Facebook or FourSquare. With Facebook I don?t like it won?t work offline, so I don?t use it as much when traveling abroad. What more my family can?t read my notes directly, so I rather use travel blog app to be in touch with my friends and family back home. It is fun though to use FourSquare in a foreign city. You can even get some local sale coupons, which gets handy sometimes.)

Travel blog app (Lately I have been using OnTheRoad.to. It tracks my location with GPS and allows me to post notes, photos and video directly ?on the go?. I don?t like to pay for data roaming, so I am using the app?s offline mode to document my trip instantly. I also connect it with Facebook, so it is like a replacement for my Facebook app I use during my travels. )

Reviews app (I use UrbanSpoon and Yelp, but I don?t really like them as much. I am still looking for a good app, that will have some reasonable reviews. If I need to book hotel directly from the road, I use the Expedia app.)

Google Maps is a travel app. The other choice are more like apps one uses while traveling.

 

[Tonester]

My Vacation has just been added to 'New and Noteworthy' on iTunes. All very exciting!

 

[goavs77]

My favorites...

I travel for business about 20 -30 weeks per year - here are the one's I find most helpful.

1) Flight Track - I especially love the update where you can track the incoming flight, so I can see when my flight will REALLY be taking off.

2) Tripit - I just use the free one, syncs nicely and imports directly from my company's travel provider website via email.

3)WeatherBug Elite - Tends to be more accurate than any other weather app, especially when it comes to forecasts. Also like the radar component.

4)Traffic - FANTASTIC when it comes to projecting travel time to the airport, but can be a little slow when new accidents occur. Usually spot on accurate.

5)Urbanspoon - I go to the same restaurants in the cities I travel to, nice to "shake" it up once and a while.

Special Mention - My 24 for those who belong to 24 Hour Fitness. Makes it easy to find the closest gym after I get off the plane.

Others - Gate Guru (usually know restaurants in the airports, but still nice to use), ESPN Radio and Catan for killing time during annoying flight delays.

 

[harshrajat]

1> iParkIt (free till 10th and i like it cause i am its developer, lol)
2> Awesome Notes
3. Facebook
4. Flight Track
5. skype

 

[lauriefoss]

Most of my traveling is birding-related. I use Google Maps extensively - once I took off along a greenbelt in an unfamiliar city chasing a bird - got pretty turned around, and used Google Maps to find my way back out. I use Flight Update - very accurate so far. The Weather Channel handles multiple locations very well. AAA discounts and AAA roadside. eReader - the easiest way to carry a bunch of books on a trip. DocstoGo carries .pdfs of my essential travel documents - password protected (in addition to my phone being passcode protected). Many birding apps but primarily BirdsEye for getting real-time location info for birds in the area.
Of course, there's List Master for packing list, gFlashPro to study flashcard deck of bird songs that I created, AroundMe to find a local eatery, gMail to keep up with email, Sunrise & Set to know when to get started in the morning in my new location, Clock for the alarm to get me up, Star Walk to enjoy the night sky, etc. Most of my apps I use nearly every day for something! Traveling just expands on the usefulness of them.

Laurie Foss
Austin, TX

 

[ifonefwenzy]

Yelp
Craigsphone
Maps (Lol)
Weather (thank you apple)
and Photos (don't even need a camera).

Okay so maybe I voted for 3 default apps. But they are crucial and that's exactly why I bought an iPhone!

 

[peacock99]

Google Earth
Wi-Fi Finder
Convert Everything
Spotify
Hostel Hero

 

[jen2398]

I travel every day for works and i use it 1.Navigon map.
It is very usefull.

2. Google map "i use it some times."

no other.