You may not always have room in your luggage for a stack of guidebooks or maps but try to name the last time you boarded a flight without your smartphone in tote. (We couldn’t.) So, we broke out our iPhones and even got ourselves a snazzy iPad in order to find the most practical travel applications (apps) on the market, all of which can be downloaded through the iTunes Store. www.itunes.com
The Ultimate Bucket List
1,000 Ultimate Experiences
Know any jaded travelers? If they haven’t eaten fried-cricket skewers in Myanmar or gone whitewater rafting on Zambia’s Zambezi River, Lonely Planet’s new iPad app, 1,000 Ultimate Experiences, will prove that they have a lot more globetrotting to do. Its sleek, simple design allows your finger to trace over a towering deck of cards organized by categories including Best Value Destinations, Most Surreal Landscapes, Greatest Historical Journeys and Best Place to Have Your Midlife Crisis (consider Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for a little nip-tuck or England’s Silverstone track, home of the British Grand Prix, to test-drive a Ferrari). And with a sharing feature, agents can forward their favorite travel experiences to clients via e-mail. $9.99.
www.lonelyplanet.com
Tools of the Trade
Frommer’s Travel Tools
Frommer’s is hoping to eliminate pre-trip frazzle and frustration with its all-in-one Travel Tools app. The new app features an up-to-date converter of more than 170 currencies; a time zone translator; a tip calculator, with detailed tipping customs by country; a flashlight mode that stays lit for 30 minutes; a travel trivia game; and a build-it-yourself packing list. Users can also customize postcards to post on Facebook or Twitter and access Frommer’s Top 50 City Guides for free (an Internet connection is required). Barcelona, Spain; Grand Canyon National Park; Rome; Tokyo; and Walt Disney World are just a few of the popular destinations offered. Free.
www.frommers.com
Living Like a Local
Yelp
The last thing your clients want these days is to feel like a fish out of water and, with the Yelp app, they can live like a local when visiting a variety of U.S. cities. With more than 10 million reviews, Yelp provides clients with information on everything from restaurants and nightlife to dentists and hair stylists. Clients can filter search results by distance, price range, neighborhood and hours of operation in addition to getting directions through a built-in Google Maps feature. Free.
www.yelp.com
For the Frequent Flyer
IFlyPro
Your frequent flyers will want this handy app. Voted by Travel + Leisure as one of the most comprehensive airport guides in 2009, IFlyPro is more than just a flight tracker. While it provides accurate status updates and allows clients to track their flights, it also delivers detailed information on more than 400 airports, including terminal and parking maps, restaurants, cafes and retail stores, layover ideas, Wi-Fi locations and more. Stuck in Europe because of a pesky ash cloud? There’s an app for that. $6.99.
www.ifly.com
