Best Smartphone Apps for Business and Leisure Travel

These free and inexpensive smartphone apps will help reduce the stress and hassle of being away from home, for business or leisure travel.

World Customs and Cultures – Learn which hand gestures, like thumbs up, are an insult in another country, how to hand your business card, even how close to stand to someone when speaking with them. You can search categories such as gestures and taboos in more than 165 countries, searching by country name or flag. Or, just use the GPS location to figure it out for you. Free for iPhone.

Tripit – Organize all the details of your trip in one place, including reservation numbers for airline tickets and hotels, and your appointments. Simply forward the information to Tripit, and the app creates a detailed daily itinerary, including maps and directions, even the weather. A bonus feature is that it links to others on the same trip, a handy tool whether you are going to a company conference or an important family event, such as a wedding or 50th anniversary celebration. The only drawback is that this is feature is only for users of LinkedIn. Free for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. The free version includes advertising, or buy the ad-free version for $3.99.

Rocket Taxi – This app helps you find a taxi in more than 10,000 cities worldwide, using GPS or Wi-Fi to search for the taxi company nearest you, and rates the company in a conventional star system of one to five stars, for service and reliability. It will also estimate the cost of the trip in the currency of the country you are in. Costs $.99, for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Free Wi-Fi Finder – This app does just what it’s name says – it uses GPS to find the nearest free Wi-Fi location, so you can bypass annoying and expensive connection and by-the-minute fees. More than 500,000 hotspots in more than 100 countries are listed,and the database is updated weekly. And best of all, the Free Wi-Fi Finder app is free. For iPhone and iPad. There’s also a free Wi-Fi finder website.

Translators – There are plenty of translation apps that cost up to $19.99, but World Lens is free. Just take a screenshot of a sign or other foreign text, including menus, and the app translates it into English virtually instantly. World Lens also translates from English into another language, so you can take screenshots of something you write on a notepad. For iPhone only. FancyTran is a free translation app for both BlackBerry and BlackBerry PlayBook, with a dictionary mode and a feature that tracks your translations so you don’t have to re-type, “what time do you close?” as you travel from one country to another.

SitOrSquat – This could be the most important travel tool of all, especially for families traveling with young kids who always seem to have to go at the most inconvenient time. This app finds the nearest public restroom. Or, you can search by the app’s rating system to find the cleanest bathroom, or one with diaper changing facilities, based on input from users. New restrooms are added daily, by users, to a list that’s closing in on 100,000. Free for iPhone and iPod, Android and BlackBerry. This useful app is now sponsored by Charmin.

Your next vacation, romantic getaway or business meeting will be easier to enjoy with these free and inexpensive travel apps.


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