Best Apps to Improve Your Travel

I've done some travelling recently.  I spent a few days in Chicago in between the Christmas and New Year holidays, and I made a day trip to Lexington this weekend.  I vaguely remember my parents planning trips when the best way to plan a vacation was to consult with a travel agent.  Now, the internet is the travel agent of choice for most people.

When planning a trip, here are three apps you might find helpful:

TripAdvisor - TripAdvisor is a great site to obtain travel information and reviews.  Like any review site, you must be willing to sort through the good and bad reviews to get the ones that seem the most reasonable.  Glowing reviews could have been posted by the location itself or by a company paid to manage their reputation.  Poor reviews could be by a competitor or by someone who would never be satisfied.

If you are willing to look for reviews that seem reasonable--not overly glowing but not extremely negative--you can find out a lot about potential destinations.  I have unearthed some great places to visit near me simply by using TripAdvisor.

However, TripAdvisor also has some free apps.  Not only do these apps give you easy access to all of TripAdvisor's content, but they also can provide offline access to some content in major cities.  To see what TripAdvisor apps are available, visit the TripAdvisor App Page.

Wi-Fi Finder - Sometimes, finding a place to connect to Wi-Fi can be difficult.  Yes, you can always look for a McDonalds or a Starbucks, since most have Wi-Fi available.  However, if you don't have one of these nearby, you might have to drive around for a while to find a hotspot.

Wi-Fi Finder is a database of Wi-Fi hotspots.  You can use it to locate a hotspot and then provide directions to it.  One caveat:  since hotspots change frequently, you may find that a hotspot that once worked is no longer available.  However, when you don't know where to go for Wi-Fi, this app can help you find the right direction.  You can download the app for iOS here, and the Android version here.

GasBuddy - Gas prices have come down lately, but they are still higher than when I started driving.  (I remember filling up for 89 cents per gallon once!)  If you want to save money on gas, GasBuddy can give you the cheapest prices along your current route.

Now, GasBuddy has an app!  Use it to find the cheapest gas along your route.  You can find the appropriate app for your mobile device here.