As travelers, it’s important to keep track of everything that goes on when we plan our trips: from the moment the idea to board a plane sparks to the minute we touch down, we want everything to run smoothly. Whether it does run smoothly is another story entirely, but because technology almost always seems to be within reach (or in our pockets), here are 10 iPhone apps that might help you relax just a little bit.
1 OpenTable
Category: Food & Drink
Price: Free
If you happen to be traveling in the United States or Canada and didn’t have time to research dining options before you left home, OpenTable help you with more than just finding restaurants. You can find a map for your dining options, search for the perfect place to satisfy your hunger based on price, reservation time, and type of food, take a peek at the menu, and reserve a table. Similar apps include Urbanspoon, Ness Dining Guide, and forkly.
2 Packing Pro
Category: Travel
Price: $2.99
When you’re running late for your flight, what you have in your suitcase is perhaps, the last thing on your mind, and later regret it when you remember you forgot your favorite book by the absurdly shaped sea shell on the beach. Whether you’re leaving home or going home, Packing Pro helps you keep track of everything from your passport to an umbrella. This app allows you to create and edit your own customized packing list, show items as packed or unpacked, and e-mail your packing list to others.
3 XE Currency
Category: Travel
Price: Free
If you have trouble wrapping your head around the conversion of your home currency to the currency of the country you’re traveling in, XE Currency is the perfect app. It has live currency rates and charts for every currency in the world, a converter, and can refresh the rates every minute. And the best part is you don’t even need access to the internet to use it.
4 iTranslate
Category: Productivity
Price: Free
If we were restricted to traveling only to the places we could speak the languages of, our travel experience would have gone into a drought. Luckily, it’s easy to buy a book about the French language or take a class or two on how to communicate in Spanish. But what happens when we’ve set foot at our destination, and the locals are speaking to you like their neighbor? iTranslate has dictionaries, a listen and speak feature, and a conversation mode to help you out when you’re tongue tied. Another translating app worth checking out is Google Translate.
5 TripIt
Category: Travel
Price: Free
As travelers, we are easily accustomed to organizing details of our trip, but because we’re still humans, we tend to forget something every once in a blue moon. TripIt helps you create an itinerary for better organization of your travels, from confirmation emails to reservations from cruises or hotels. It can help you keep track of flight details, and can store maps and directions.
6 Postagram
Category: Travel
Price: Free (Delivered in US for 99¢ and $1.99 in other countries, postage included)
If you’re the kind of traveler that likes to send out postcards to family and friends, Postagram allows you to do just that with a little extra. Postagram lets you pick a photo from your iPhone or take a picture to send as your postcard, which are printed on glossy photo postcards and only take two to five days for delivery in the United States, Europe, and Canada.
7 Flight+
Category: Travel
Price: $1.99
Flights can be a little disorienting with cancellations, delays, time changes, weather, the list is nearly infinite. Flight+ can take away some of the stress, where it allows you to find any airport or airline with details, maps of flights. keep up-to-date with your flight information, schedule reminders, track flights–anything to do with flights, Flight+ is sure to have it.
8 Weather+
Category: Weather
Price: $0.99
To put it simply, the weather you last see when the plane takes off may not match the weather you first see when you arrive to your destination. Even if you’re living in another country for a few weeks, the weather can be unpredictable and you might find yourself wearing a fur jacket in the middle of a heatwave. Weather+ helps take out some of the mystery of tomorrow’s weather and gives you daily and hourly forecast. Temperatures can be set in Fahrenheit or Celsius, multiple locations for weather-monitoring can be saved, and basically gives you information about everything you need to know about the weather.
9 Google Earth
Category: Travel
Price: Free
Weather you’re looking to visit a certain destination or if you’re already there, Google Earth can place you on the streets without leaving your seat. Google Earth not only gives you an image of what the destination will look like, but it lets you search for specific places and roads. The Earth Gallery also carries anything from trails to hike to tours in the city.
10 World Clock Pro
Category: Travel
Price: $1.99
If you have friends and family scattered throughout the world and somehow need to get a hold of them without disrupting their sleeping pattern, World Clock Pro just may do the trick for you. If you blaze trails on airplanes, World Clock Pro can help keep your schedule in check. World Clock Pro has an alarm clock, a view of the world map with all the time zones and cities you want, and a comparison view that helps plan activities internationally.
Did we cover all the best travel apps? What other apps do you find useful? Share with us below!
Hi Elica,
love your article! What do you think about Vamos for iOS? It was mentioned in another article as one of the apps that will change travel forever. I use it all the time abroad!
/David
Hello,
Thank you!
I think Vamos is a nice app if you are a social person and like to get out frequently, and discover new things. I just wanted to cover the 'basic needs' for travel with this article.
Elica
Hey guys,
Enjoyed the article but thought I would mention that your [dropcap] is showing
i am using a mobile phone so your mobile theme doesn’t seem to support the shortcode. Might switch over to just HTML instead.
Love the site.
Wow. So stupid that I don't even one of them. Well, I am more into social applications like Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, etc. I'll try them though. Thanks for having this posted.
currently using 4 out of 10 apps u listed above.. Postagram looks cool but too bad its not available in my country
Cool article. I used to use a few of these but recently I got myself Android. Hoping to find some similar apps there.
This is really a great list of iphone apps for travellers. Currently using 5 out of 10 and sugget to people to use 3, 4, 8, 9 & 10.