Five Essential Travel Apps For iPad

I’ll admit it. My online life has become significantly more enjoyable since the iPad entered my household. Magazines and newspapers are now alive with interactivity, photographs and video are suddenly a breeze to share and planning for my next adventure has become easier than ever. Indeed, the iPad is a robust and dynamic device, if of course you have the right applications at your fingertips. Travelers listen up: If a trip to the Apple store is in your near future—and perhaps, a vacation shortly thereafter—then check out these apps to help get you on your way.

Kayak HD (Free)
The travel aggregator’s tagline is “search one and done,” and it’s easy to see why. Kayak has long been the leader in flight, hotel and car rental search since the website-turned-app hunts for the lowest price available on hundreds of websites. The app provides easy access to the multi-airline search system it’s long been known for, plus it gives users automatic suggestions for up-to-the-minute hotel deals in the city you’re flying into. On one big screen you can instantly view past searches, hotel options and airline itineraries.

Zagat To Go ($9.99)
As a lifelong New Yorker I’ve always loved Zagat guidebooks, the maroon-jacketed restaurant reviews first introduced in the Big Apple in 1979. Now over 30 years later, Tim and Nina Zagat have moved their indispensable wealth of diner-generated reviews to the iPad with Zagat To Go, currently featuring critiques for over 40,000 restaurants, café and bistros worldwide. Scan for new dining experiences on interactive Google maps or switch to book view to compare as in Zagat’s classic guidebooks (where you can also sort by ratings, service, etc.). The app covers over 30 U.S. cities and regions including New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Miami plus a handful of international destinations like London, Hong Kong and Paris.

Flight Track Pro ($9.99)
With this multi-platform app you can track the exact location of a flight, monitor gate changes, check for delays and dial up the current weather in the airport of your choice. Even better, if you’re on a plane that offers Wi-Fi from Gogo Inflight—currently American, Delta, United, Air Tran, Alaska Airlines, Air Canada, Frontier, U.S. Airways and Virgin America—you can turn your iPad into a real time airshow screen, so you can track your flight’s progress while you’re in the air.

Skype (Free)
Staying connected while traveling is always a challenge—especially during trips outside your mobile carrier’s coverage. That’s why I love Skype, which lets you bypass pricey hotel room phone calls and ever-present cell phone roaming fees. The social networking app lets you connect to any Skype number for free, as long as you’re using a Wi-Fi connection (or pay 2 cents per minute for a connection to landlines). Can’t find a hotspot? Then download Wi-Fi Finder, a free app that helps you locate over 320,000 free or paid Wi-Fi locations in 140 countries across the globe.

Outside Magazine ($3.99)
You’ve gotta read something while you’re stuck on all those trains, planes and busses, right? Each issue costs $3.99, which is a veritable bargain if you’re like me and live overseas where American magazines cost at least ten bucks a pop. That, and the app is beautifully designed with the same photographs and stories you’d expect from the print version. Even better, if the magazine runs a story with a television component just click the “Watch on Outside Television” link to immediately load the video. Case in point: The January issue featuring The Man Who Saw Too Much by Hampton Sides, about a first-responder who developed PTSD—a story covered by yours truly that you can also watch on Outside Television here.

I told you the iPad was a must have.

To learn more about David LaHuta's life in Bermuda read Bermuda Shorts at http://DavidLaHuta.blogspot.com

And to follow his adventures on Twitter visit https://twitter.com/DavidLaHuta