Must-Have Travel Apps

TechDadCentral has been on the road … lots of miles and plenty of travel apps. Here are the four must-have apps that I cannot travel without.

Poynt

Frankly, I was skeptical when I heard about Poynt. It is positioned as a “location-based search engine” and when I found out that they were located in Calgary, Canada (not eactly known as a city full of software developers) I just had to find out more. I met with the Poynt team at CES 2012 and they walked me through the app. Since then, Poynt goes everywhere with me. When traveling, I use if for:

- Restaurant reservations

- Finding nearby and inexpensive gas

- Local deal finding (using your current location!)

But the best feature is its Poynt 360 augmented reality on the iPhone. It uses your built-in GPS, compass and camera to display search results as an overlay of your current live view. Recently, I was in the North Beach section of San Francsico looking for a good restautant within walking distance. I fired up Poynt, aimed my iPhone down the street and Poynt 360 displayed clickable links to all of the local eateries wthin view.

As a guy, asking directions means admitting defeat and Poynt has become my go-to app whenever I have to assert my control over all things geographic.

Poynt is available for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and WIndows Phone.

TripIt

Prior to embarking on a one-week family trip, I once counted that I was carrying 17 different reservation confirmations – each on a separate piece of paper. My goal for 2012 is to become paperless and TripIt is crucial to my success.

Sign-up for a free TripIt account and all of your trip documents will be in one place – and available on your mobile device!

Here’s how it works:

- Make your travel reservations as usual (flights, hotel, train, rental car, etc.)
– When a confirmation email from each reservation arrives, simply forward it to plans@tripit.com
– TripIt then builds an integrated itinerary of all your reservations
– You can view your full trip in a browser or via the app on your smartphone

TripIt can even upload the full itinerary to your electronic calendar. If you have a Gmail account, TripIt can bet set to automtically scan your account on a regular basis for reservation confirmations. That eliminates the need for having to forward emails but seems just a tad creepy to me so I have opted out of that feature.

TripIt is available for iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7.

Alfred

When traveling, I avoid chain restaurants (with the exception below) and seek out places that only locals may know about. If I cannot find a friendly local, then I turn to Alfred on my smartphone.

You “train” Alfred by teaching it about the places back home that you enjoy the most. Then when you need a recommendation, Alfred matches your likes with nearby options. As your rate your enjoyment level at each new place, Alfred’s suggestions become even more accurate.

Alfred is available on iPhone, iPad and Andoid.

In-N-Out Burger

I fully admit my addiction to In-N-Out Burger. Living on the east coast, anytime I travel to the western states I immediately search for the nearest In-N-Out Burger. Known for its freshly made burgers, fries and milkshakes along with its secret menu – there is also a “hidden” In-N-Out location finder app that I stumbled upon one day. You can’t find it on the In-N-Out web site but fear not, TechDadCentral will hook you up.

The app is available for the iPhone only.

Ron Remy