5 almost free iPhone apps you absolutely must take on your next trip

iphoneThere are more than 50,000 iPhone applications out there, accounting for over a billion downloads. Hard to pick just a handful to take on your next trip, isn’t it?

No worries. As someone who stood in line to buy the first iPhone, and has pretty much bought each subsequent iPhone within 24 hours of its release — not always with positive results, but that’s a story for another day — I’m here to help.

Here are five almost free iPhone “apps” I can’t leave home without.

Aroundme — Where’s the nearest hospital? How about a good hotel? If you’ve ever landed in a city and wondered “what’s close by?” then this little app is the perfect traveling companion. It tells you where to find the closest banks, bars, gas stations and movie theaters, thanks to your iPhone’s built-in GPS.

Cheap Gas! — In your search for inexpensive fuel, it’s impractical (not to mention wasteful) to drive through your neighborhood to take a real-time survey. This free app does all the work for you, pinging the site GasBuddy and displaying the cheapest fuel in your area. Want to get there? This app will show you a map, too.

CheckPlease — If you’ve ever wondered how much to tip your server at a restaurant, this is the app for you. Just type in your total, give it a percentage, and it handles the rest. Perfect for someone like me, who is really bad with numbers. This app even lets you split the bill among several people. There’s a 99 cent version that cuts out the ads and a better display, but for me, the free version works just fine.

FlightTrack — Ever wondered where in the world your flight is? FlightTrack offers a ready answer, allowing you to follow any flight worldwide. You can scan live flight maps that include weather radar, check gate numbers, and search flight schedules up to 11 months in advance. This nifty app even allows you to send an email update with your flight status to a friend or colleague. The basic version of this costs $4.99.

WorldMate — For most business travelers, WorldMate needs no introduction. Its new iPhone app offers a variety of must-have features for any traveler, including a currency converter, flight updates, integration with Google maps, and an online travel planner with the ability to consolidate your itinerary. Some of the more advanced functions require that you plunk down $39.99 for the “gold” app, but if you travel a lot, it’s worth the investment.

  • http://www.flightstats.com David White

    Chris,

    Flight Track is a great app. I use it myself. But it isn’t free. It will cost your readers $4.99 and $9.99 for Flight Track Pro. Both are well worth the cost.

  • Brett

    We are on our big Europe trip right now and I’ve loved using the TripIt app to keep track of our complicated itinerary. You can view it offline which is helpful when you’re in between wifi spots.

  • Jennifer Hanuschak

    Are there any free apps for tracking flights?

  • jmj

    Fligh Track alternatives using the iphone’s built in browser: http://www.flytecomm.com, and http://www.flightstats.com

    why not use the iphone’s built in calculator to calculate tips?

  • Merryl

    A great FREE app is 9-toolbox. It includes a tip calculator AND a currency converter, as well as listing holidays in a number of countries and provides several kinds of date calculators. One of which can tell you whether or not you’ll need to pack tampons on your vacation!

    It’s a little less nice since they installed a nag screen for their other products every time you start it up, but it’s still a great tool I love to have along.

  • Kevin M

    Um… wait, let me re-read that. CheckPlease allows you to type in a number, and a percentage, and it figures out what that percentage tip is?

    Jeez, it sound almost like a calculator. Which is built-in free in every smart phone I’ve ever seen.

    I don’t care how bad someone is with numbers, surely it’s not to the point where we can’t enter 49.58 times 0.15 or 0.20 on a calculator and get a result. Do you really have to have a place to enter the total and a separate place to enter the percentage?

  • Dave

    My new favorite travel app is PokerZig
    It lists all the poker rooms in Vegas, how to get there and, most importantly, when each and every poker tournament is being played.
    Makes planning my poker junkets a breeze.

  • Blake

    A free app that really helped me on my trip to Europe was OffMaps. I have an Itouch so finding a wi-fi signal in a car is impossible. With OffMaps I could download maps down to street level for off-line viewing.

    Like Meryll said, 9-Toolbox is a great tool to have.

  • http://www.mapquest.com MapQuest

    Try out the new MapQuest 4 Mobile iPhone App– it’s free & shows places that are around you using your phone’s built-in GPS!

    Check it out, we’d love to know what you think:

    http://wireless.mapquest.com/mq4m/iphone/index.html?pcar=ATT(R)&pman=Apple(TM)&pmod=iPhone(TM)&plco=&pimg=iphone.jpg&plis=NAV~MQ4M~WAP&cl=1

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  • http://www.langlearner.com Tom

    A great app for learning languages is LangLearner. They have products on
    IPhone, Windows Mobile, Samsung, and Android

  • http://www.whiteiphonedeals.co.uk White iPhone Deals

    Thanks for this post. I found it really useful. It was really interesting.

    Nice site btw!

  • http://www.twolaptopbag.com Mark Spritzler

    I use the TripIt and Yelp apps. Tripit for all the travel stuff, including flight status and checking in. And Yelp to help find good restaurants.

    For iPad the Kayak app is really cool.

  • http://www.back-packer.org Steve

    Unfortunately this post is a little bit old – a lot more Apps hit the Store. I often use “OffMaps” when I’m in a foreign country and want ot avoid high roaming fares.
    What about a new list? ;)