It’s about this time of year that business travellers are jetting off around the world, racking up the air miles and the carbon footprint. So here are ten of the top iPhone apps you should have if you are a mobile warrior (plus a bonus app – we’re generous that way).
What’s Next by NileGuide — The equivalent of 200 professionally written guidebooks, in the palm of your hand, eliminating the need to buy one-off destination guides from Lonely Planet for $10 apiece. Plan itineraries in advance or get recommendations on the go, based on your personally set preferences like kid friendly or off the beaten path and get directions for how to get there based on your current location.
Price: $2.99.
TripDeck — Most of what TripIt provides, at 1/7 the cost of TripIt Pro. Forget calling the airline for flight status or ‘scraping’ data from the confirmation email into your calendar. Just forward email flight confirmations to Tripit.com; it tracks your flight details from the booking process to destination arrival and back home again. Late flights or the gate changes, TripDeck usually alerts you before the airline does.
Price: $10.
Flightcaster — Predicts flight delays up to 6 hours before the airlines do. The secret sauce? Flightcaster has built proprietary analytics engine that crunches factors such as airline, weather forecast, airport timeliness, current status of airplane now, etc.
GateGuru is specifically tailored for people waiting at airports. It tells you all the places to eat and shop near you and if they are worth losing your gate-adjacent seats.
ExpenseBay — Track business travel expenses and receipts on your phone. Take a picture of your receipt on the fly, enter in the data on your iphone, integrate credit card transactions, and it’s automatically wrapped up into an online expense report that is sent to accounting or QuickBooks. Three versions are available from $10 to free.
HopStop — Detailed, easy-to-follow public transit directions to get you anywhere you need to go in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., London or Paris.
goPostal — This app lets you create and send your own personalized postcards using pictures you took on your iPhone.
Price: free, plus $1.29 per postcard sent.
World Customs and Cultures — When you’re traveling in foreign lands, it’s important to know the customs and cultures in that area to avoid offending anyone. This app lets you look up quick tips and cultural differences by country.
Price: free.
UrbanSpoon — choose from restaurants in an area sorted by type of food or price. This app became very popular after being prominently featured in Apple’s “There’s An App For That” campaign. Just enter your details, shake your iPhone and you can randomly select a new place to eat.
Price: free.
Google Earth is the ultimate travel map – a satellite image of every square inch of the entire world. It’s also one of the world’s largest crowd-sourcing platforms with people uploading new street views constantly.
Price: free.
FourSquare – it’s not just competitive game where people try to “check in” at local places more often than their friends. Underneath this surface is a vibrant social networking site with great tips, reviews and helpful ways to meet up with people on the road like yourself.