Road Tested Travel Apps

Posted on May 30, 2013 in FEATURES
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By Melissa Horn – 

It’s summer and that means the summer travel season is in full swing. However, it’s not too late to start thinking about the perfect getaway. Smartphones and tablets make excellent travel companions. Here are a few useful mobile apps, available for both Apple and Android, that can help make a vacation stress-free and fun.

Trip Planning

The top-rated Evernote app organizes anything imaginable, including travel-related information like itineraries, into digital notebooks which can be accessed anywhere on any device. Researching locales? Use Pinterest to visually search for locations, and pin favorites to a Pinterest board for future reference. Once a destination has been chosen, Kayak can find the best deal on flights, and TripAdvisor provides reliable reviews of hotels and attractions.

Road Trip 

Hitting the road? The Mad Libs (Apple only), Road Trip Scavenger Hunt and License Plate Game HD apps are a cure for backseat boredom. Gas Buddy will keep the gas tank full, and the Sit or Squat app will find a bathroom when it’s needed most. AroundMe is a must have app for finding restaurants, ATMs and supermarkets near a current location. Summer travelers can also rely on Google Maps to get them where they are going and Roadside America (Apple only) to find interesting and unique stops along the way.

The Destination

Explore a city with the City Maps 2Go app and never carry around a paper map or guide book again. HearPlanet turns a smartphone into an audio tour guide. It’s like having a tour guide in your pocket. Urban Spoon will find great local eats, and the Wi-Fi Finder app will point travelers to a city’s hotspot locations. Share travel adventures with family and friends with photo sharing app Instagram. And, for a more personal touch, Postagram will turn a vacation photo into a real postcard and send it to anyone in the U.S., Canada or Europe.

Take the tedium out of trip planning, and get the most out of your summer vacation this year with the help of some useful and fun technology.