It can be difficult finding your way around unfamiliar territory, but with the right app, you'll almost feel like a local. A few travel apps can make your trips safer and a lot more fun. Looking for the best Mexican restaurant in a new city? There are plenty of apps for that. Need to find a clean bathroom pronto? You're covered! Traveling internationally and need some help? There are apps that will update your departure and arrival in real time (land, sea, or air transport), warn you about delayed or canceled flights, help you avoid accidents and traffic jams, and more. You can even turn your iPhone into a personal translator to help when you're travelling overseas.
Best of the Best
Fotopedia Heritage (Free, app2.me/2907) Get ready for an endless visual journey. This is a beautiful way to navigate and discover all the 890 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Google Earth (Free, app2.me/2666) The world in the palm of your hand. Fly to far corners of the planet with just the swipe of a finger.
Kayak Flight, Hotel Search (Free, app2.me/285) allows you to book flights, hotels and rental cars.
TripDeck (Free, app2.me/2713) Syncs with Tripit and Flighttrack (at a price) to give you the best of both worlds.
Yelp (Free, app2.me/236) is our favorite dining app. We especially like the monocle feature which let's you point your camera down a street and see restaurant ratings.
Language Apps
iTranslate-The universal translator (Free, app2.me/2690) is a universal translator for your iphone. It translates written words for free, and you can purchase text to speech.
World Nomads (Free, bit.ly/cmfzRJ) has basic phrases for just about every language.
iSpeak ($1.99, bit.ly/dysbuG) Similar to iTranslate, it uses Google translation technology. iSpeak also has text to speech capability. It is available for most European languages.
Jibbigo ($24.99, bit.ly/bA2ack) will translate speech to text. This is very useful for languages that do not use the Latin alphabet. It is available in English to Spanish, Iraqi, Japanese and Chinese.
Travel Guides
HearPlanet ($4.99, app2.me/2686) Turn your iPhone into an audio guide to the world. It does require a Wi-Fi or data connection, which limits its usefulness.
Lonely Planet (Free, app2.me/2685) The app is free but you must pay to download info on a city. Still has a long way to go to catch up to the Lonely Planet books, but still very useful.
mTrip ($5.99, bit.ly/ce0RKM) has guides for cities around the world. Plan a detailed itinerary from their attractions and sites.
Conversion Apps
Units ($0.99, app2.me/2692) Very sleek app that can convert just about anything. It looks and works a lot like a calculator. You punch in digits and Units does the conversion on the fly.
Currency Converter (Free, app2.me/2693) Converts 180 currencies and 4 metals. It doesn't require an Internet connection, which makes it very useful while traveling.
Convert Any Free (Free, app2.me/2694) is a very user friendly conversion app for all conversions you'll need while traveling, including distance, volume, weight, time, area, temperature.
Trip Planners
Priceline Hotel and Car Negotiator (Free, app2.me/2695) is a great resource for finding deals on hotels and rental cars.
Southwest Airlines (Free, app2.me/2696) You can browse Southwest flights from your iPhone.
Kayak Flight, Hotel Search (see "Best of the Best")
Trip Organizers
FlightTrack Pro ($9.99, app2.me/288) Updates you on flight status, gates, weather, and more.
Tripit - Travel Organizer (Free, app2.me/287) Email your itinerary to Tripit, and they will sync it to your iPhone.
TripTracker Pro ($4.99, app2.me/2715) gives real-time status for flights, real-time itinerary push alerts, live weather reports, route maps, hotel information, and car rental information.
TripDeck (see "Best of the Best")
Dining Out
Open Table (Free, app2.me/2737) You can make reservations from your iPhone at over 14,000 restaurants across the US.
Urban Spoon (Free, app2.me/343) is a great app for the indecisive eater.
Zagat To Go ($9.99, app2.me/240) includes their famous restaurant rankings.
Yelp (see "Best of the Best")
