FAVORITE TRAVEL APPS FOR iPHONE

As I mentioned yesterday, the iPhone is a traveling photographer's very best friend.  I love that I'm able to manage most aspects of my business - right from this little computer in my pocket.  Even more helpful, when I'm traveling my iPhone doesn't just help me keep in touch - it me keep my travel organized.  Below are a few of the Travel Apps I LOVE.

1. Tripit Pro

Tripit is by far my favorite travel-related iphone app.  Tripit is a service where you simply forward your travel itineraries, it reads the emails and then organizes them by trip.  It's really quite genius, and it's super helpful when you're trying to keep track of flights, hotel, rental car and more.  You can tap on any of your reservations and it gives you all the details for that component.  It also has some really useful features like being able to check for alternate flights in the event your travel is disrupted.  It tracks the status of your flights and alerts you if things change.

The app syncs with www.tripit.com, and you can view and manage all of your itineraries online as well.  It also has a social feature where you can connect with friends.  This allows you to see trips your friends are planning, see who's close by when traveling, and even sharing trips with your contacts (when traveling together).  Finally, it syncs to your google calendar or ical, which makes viewing your travel plans in context with the rest of your schedule a breeze.

There app is free, and so is the basic subscription online. If you're a regular traveler, the Pro subscription at $49 is well worth it.  With it comes the mobile alerts, auto-sharing and loyalty point tracking.

2. Flight Tracker Pro

Flight Tracker Pro is another can't live without travel app.  In fact, it's the Flight Tracker engine that powers some of the features in Tripit.  Tripit syncs your flights to FTP and it gives you the up-to-the-moment information about your flights.  In fact, I often get an alert from FTP about a flight delay/cancellation before it's reflected by the airline.  Seriously, I've been at a gate and gotten an alert that my flight was cancelled 5 minutes before the airline boards reflected the issue.  The pro version is required for the sync features, but the free version still lets you enter and track any flight.  

3. Kayak

Kayak is my favorite way to search for flights and hotels.  The search filters are super easy to use, and Kayak always has the very best prices (excluding deal sites like hotwire/priceline).  It also lets you search other sites like Orbitz and Expedia.  The interface is really easy to use, and it makes searching for travel arrangements super easy.

4. Gate Guru

Sometimes you're in an airport and you want to know where the closest bathroom, or ATM, or Chick-Fil-A is.  If that's you, this is the app for you.  Gate Guru uses GPS to give you local info about where to find when you're traveling.  It lets you search by terminal, gate, or by type of service.  It makes finding the nearest Airport club or coffee shop a breeze.  Best part  It also allow people to share reviews of different vendors in an airport - and in that way, its' a lot like YELP.  It's free!

5. Seat Guru

Seat Guru is a nifty little app that lets you put in your flight information, select the aircraft, and view information about which seats to choose, and which to avoid on your next trans-continental red-eye flight.  It makes it easy to identify the best seats, and the very worst - using red/yellow/green coloring.  Wanna know which exit row seat has the most leg room? Seat Guru has the answer

6. UBER

Hate trying to hail a cab? In a city where cabs aren't quite as convenient as NYC? Maybe you'd like to call a car service, but the idea of waiting 30-40 minutes for your ride to the airport isn't very appealing.  That's where UBER comes in.  Simply open the app, and UBER finds your location.  Then it dispatches one of it's black cars (luxury SUV or towncar type rides) to your location.  You can actually track your car on the map, and see when they're going to arrive - usually within 4-8 minutes.  When you're done, you simply get out.  UBER handles the payment - including the tip - without you having to do anything.  Of course, UBER is more expensive than a cab - but it's definitely one of the best transportation experiences I've ever had.

7. HOTEL TONIGHT

It's not very often that I travel to a city without pretty thought out plans, but on the chance that you are looking for a last minute place to crash for the night, Hotel Tonight is one of the coolest new apps I've seen.  In each of their cities, they negotiate "Hotwire"-like prices at 3 hotels.  Unlike Hotwire, you can see exactly what hotels they are offering for that night, with some pretty killer photography to show you exactly what you're getting.  It really is for the last minute booking - you can't book a room until after noon on the day of your stay, but you do get to book right through the app. If you sign up using code JATEN, you'll get a credit of $25 towards your first stay (just cause I'm nice). 

What about you?  What are you favorite travel apps that I might have missed? Leave a comment below!