Travel Apps for iPhone

As many writers have commented, the “killer app” for the iPhone is the App Store.  There is nothing else out there in the marketplace and the popularity of it has overwhelmed Apple.

One of the struggles of the App Store is separating the wheat from the chaff.  Aside from your routine email, photo, twitter, and native Maps apps, here are some of our favorite links that we use whenever we travel.

• British Airways Flights App: This was one of the first travel apps in the app store.  It provides the live status of “The World’s Favourite Airline” flights.  You can track by flight number, airport, or route.  Additionally, you can view time tables for BA’s entire network.  The app also takes you to BA’s iphone-optimized site where you can check-in.  Also, there’s a link to BA’s main webpage.  We’d love to see an iphone-optimized site that allowed you to do everyone on the optimized sight that you can do on the main site.
• Flight Track Pro:  This is a fun little app.  It provides live status of any flight.  You can see airspeed, altitude and projected path (albeit delayed for safety reasons).  It provides weather outlook as well as FAA info on airport status for any airport in the U.S.  The app ties into the iPhone’s push notification system to let you know of time or gate changes.  It also provides a weather radar overlay.  We’d love to see “touch to zoom” for the map as well as add local information for international airports.
• National Rail Inquiries: This app is an answered prayer.  For those of us that do not walk around with an encyclopedic knowledge of the UK’s national rail network, this app is great.  You can identify tour home station and them use location services for the app to find where you are and get you via train to your home station.  You can use trip planner to “memorize” trips you will need to take while on vacation.  For example, you can have it remember when the trains leave Heathrow going to Paddington Station.
• Nearest Tube:   There are several apps out there for The Tube.  We like Nearest Tube simply for the face of the Augmented Reality feature.  When active, hold the phone up, looking through the camera lens and you see the various Tube stations, color coded and all.  For a more traditional option “2-D” option, we like London Tube (editors note: it appears London Tube now does Augmented Reality, as well.
• Packing Pro: I am horrible at packing a lot more than I need on a trip.  Additionally, when I travel subsequent trips, I get my packing list confused.  This little app does a great job of helping me make sure I do not take more than I need, do not leave something in a hotel room, and that I have the right stuff for the right trip.
• WorldMate Gold: This app repeats a lot of functionality of other apps.  What we like about this one is the complete travel itinerary it provides as well as all in one functions like weather, currency, and tip guide.
• Skype: We love our iPhones but we don’t love international roaming charges.  The well known computer app now has an iPhone app that does chat, sms, and voice.

Have any apps you like to use? Let us know about them!