Best iPhone travel apps available (for free)

If you love to travel, the iPhone is a great companion to take with you. It is small, it can keep you connected with friends and loved ones while you are away, and it can help you find a great restaurant for dinner. There are so many great travel apps available for the iPhone that you could spend days sorting through them trying decide which ones will be most useful.

While many of the most impressive iPhone travel apps come with a hefty price tag, there are plenty of very useful apps that cost nothing at all. In fact, some of the free travel apps available for the iPhone are the best of all!

One of the most useful free travel apps for the iPhone is Urbanspoon. This handy app functions similarly to a casino slot machine. Give your iPhone a shake and it will pick a restaurant for you. Shake it as many times as you like until you find a restaurant that is pleasing. You can narrow down your list of options based on a specific neighbourhood, the type of food you want to eat, and the amount of money you feel like spending. Urbanspoon also will provide you with a list of reviews for the restaurants you are considering.

If you have the latest iPhone 3GS, Urbanspoon has a very unique feature called the scope that travellers can utilize. Using the built in GPS and compass features, the scope will identify all of the restaurants in close proximity to your location. Travellers can quickly find restaurants nearby and pick the one that sounds most appealing.

Live Flight Tracker from FlightAware is extremely useful if you will be travelling in the United Kingdom, Canada, or the United States. This free app for the iPhone will provide you with the real-time status of flights in these three countries. Not only can you track commercial airline flights with this app, you can also track private charter flights. Users will enjoy the simplified search functionality that allows you to query based on the airline, route, and even the registration number of the aircraft.

One of the most difficult aspects of travelling abroad is the language barrier. If you are travelling to a foreign country and you are not familiar with the language, you will want to have a translator handy. Luckily, there are several free iPhone apps that can provide the translations you need. iTranslate from Outer Space Apps is an easy to use translator that comprehends 43 different languages.

Travellers will notice that iTranslate will auto correct any errors that you might type. This is extremely useful and will likely ease your frustration when trying to translate foreign words. This iPhone app is also nice because you can change the size of the font to make it easier to read.

Exchange rates can give you a headache during your travels abroad. With the help of a free app called Currency, you can easily convert between 90 different currencies. Simply pick your base currency and then you can convert it into several other currencies. The results are displayed clearly on one screen. The exchange rates used by this app are continuously updated.

Without a doubt, Google Earth has to be one of the most entreating travel apps for the iPhone. After you arrive at your destination, simply use this app to target in on your location and take a look at what is around you. Tied to each location is a variety of photographs that have been geo-tagged. Browse through them to see what other people have explored at your destination. This app will also locate any Wikipedia articles that are relevant to your destination.

If you like to blog, Scirbular is one iPhone app you will most certainly love. This interesting little app has been designed to allow travellers to leave notes about the various places they visit. When you arrive in a new destination, simply open this app and it will reveal several different places around you. If you are curious about the Starbucks in front of you, open Scribular and read the notes that have been left behind by previous patrons. This is also a great way to collect some lesser known information about the places you visit during your holiday.

Scribular works in conjunction with a website by the same name. If you want to type in a sizable note for others to read, you will not have to spend extra time typing on your iPhone. Just simply head to this app’s website and enter the relevant information there. Users can also update their notes if they forget to add something or want to change a comment they made.

Looking ahead at the weather forecast can be very useful while you are travelling. The Weather Channel app is free for the iPhone and provides a detailed look at weather forecasts on the international level. This app displays temperatures in either Celsius or Fahrenheit, which the user can select based on their preferences. You can also use this app to email a forecast to somebody else. If you have a number of places you frequently travel to, The Weather Channel app will bookmark each one for convenient access.

Travel Channel Go from The Travel Channel is a free app for the iPhone that many travellers will appreciate. This app features recommendations by its popular hosts such as Samantha Brown and Andrew Zimmern. You can also see what other travellers have to say about your destination. Find recommendations for the best places to eat and visit while you are on holiday. This travel app also includes a number of maps to help you get to your final destination.

While there are many iPhone apps that can be used regardless of your destination, there are plenty that are designed specifically for one particular city. Depending on your needs, it is a good idea to spend some time browsing the available apps. You will likely notice that multiple apps accomplish the same tasks. Reading reviews is a great way to find the best apps available.