Essential Road Trip Gear - iPhone Travel Apps

I just got back from the trip of a lifetime: a 41-day cross-country road trip with my boyfriend, Kurt. While on the road, we both had our brand new iPhone 4s along to assist us in finding hotels, restaurants, music, and directions. In preparation for the trip, we both loaded up on apps that we thought would be helpful as we travelled -- some turned out to be essential, and others were useless. In the hopes of helping other hopeful road trippers armed with iPhones (or iPads, or iPod Touches), here's a list of the ten apps we found most useful along the way:

Maps -- The standard mapping app that comes on iPhones is fantastic, and we found that it was much easier to use than MapQuest (an app we classified as "useless"). As long as you map directions and focus on critical parts of your route while you're in an area with 3G, the app will retain the pictures and the route, even when you are out of an AT&T service area. Also, the GPS function continues to work almost everywhere, so you can track your progress along the way.

Pandora -- we both had it, and Kurt's Mini has a hookup allowing us to plug our iPhones in and listen to Pandora on the car stereo. It's so much better than searching for radio stations each time you hit a new town. And Pandora somehow often manages to keep working even when AT&T's data signal was weak-to-nonexistent.

Mint -- we also both had this, and for a trip that lasted longer than a month (thus spanning more than one billing cycle for most credit cards and utility bills), it was essential. Mint.com is a great tool for staying on top of personal finances from anywhere with a data signal. You can check all of your accounts in one place (although it does obviously require some set-up before you go if you don't already use Mint.com).

The Weather Channel -- another one we both have, providing a great way to get current weather conditions and track storms both where you are and where you're headed. Our only complaint is that the app doesn't work well unless you get a good 3G signal.

Yelp -- I signed up for Yelp before we left, and I immediately became obsessed with checking in everywhere and earning badges. But aside from those fun features, it really proved to be a very useful tool for finding attractions, hotels, and restaurants, and the ability to read reviews was a huge help in picking where to eat and where to stay.

Kayak -- I also got Kayak, and it was more helpful than we expected. Most of the time, it served as a good resource for finding hotels. It doesn't necessarily tell you whether rooms are available, but it provided a good starting point for our searches in many of our destinations.

Priceline -- I love Shatner, so I of course I got the Negotiator app. I was disappointed in it most of the time -- the hotel information you get when you browse isn't very accurate (especially as far as prices go), and our first couple of attempts at bidding on a room were unsuccessful. I was ready to write it off as useless, but then it helped us snag a room at the Omaha Hilton (a very fancy hotel, for Omaha) for one of the lowest rates we paid anywhere on the whole trip. That one success redeemed the app, at least as a supplement to Yelp and Kayak.

Flashlight -- We used the Flashlight app when rummaging through items in the trunk at night, and once when we were camping and forgot to take our real flashlight along to a campfire presentation that started at dusk. For our walk back to our tent, the app was almost as powerful as our super-heavy-duty flashlight, especially because it controls the LED flash on the new iPhone.

OpenTable -- I have an OpenTable account and got the app before leaving. At first, reservations were impossible because of a time zone issue. An update to the app near the beginning of our trip remedied that, making this app very useful for finding and reserving tables at local restaurants. We often made reservations while walking to the restaurant, and we managed to rack up enough dining points to earn a nice gift certificate.

AAA -- Kurt is a AAA member and got the app while we were on the trip. It provides convenient lists of spots that offer discounts to AAA members, and it tells you how much the discounts will be. The list includes hotels, as expected, but also various other locations (e.g., museums) where we would not have thought to mention AAA otherwise.

All of these apps, and many other travel-related apps, are available on iTunes in the App Store.