Back in January, I jumped aboard the iPhone train, and haven’t looked back since! I picked up my wonderful little 4S the day before my birthday, and I LOVE it! (Seriously, I love it. It literally synced up to my Macbook that was sitting at home via the Cloud while I was still in the Verizon store.) So not only am I constantly hooked up to the internet and email, but there’s also so many awesome apps you can download and add to it!
Along with several music apps (piano, pitch pipe, metronome), I immediately started to add travel apps. Since I got it before my trip to Europe, I loaded several apps that had information on Vienna, and even got some that had maps and info on Salzburg and Bratislava. There’s even an app to help you find where the local Wifi hot spots are while on your travels. I’ve since added a couple apps on Zadar, Croatia in preparation for my August trip; along with TripAdvisor, Yapta, Kayak, several official airline apps, and even an app to let me know how long the lines are for all the rides at Disney World. And for those who also have these kinds of smart ph0nes, you all know how handy they come it when you need to kill time on a long flight (or train ride!) Yay for games!
It’s invaluable when you are traveling and flying alone to be able to easily reach people and let them know where you are and that you got to your destination(s) safely. When you are traveling in a foreign country, it’s not always convenient or cost effective to try to call home on the phone. It’s much easier to send a quick email or post a FB status update letting folks know that you are safe in your destination. I’m finding that most airports either have free internet, or limited access free internet most of the time. For example, when I was in Munich, I was allowed access to the airport wifi for 30 minutes free. (And for those places that don’t have it, there is usually a Starbucks somewhere nearby where you can hop on to their wifi.) Granted, if you have a US phone plan and you are traveling in the US, your data plan will cover you, but let me tell you, you do NOT want to have your data roaming on when you are overseas!!!!! Turn it off before you leave the States or you may return home with a bill in the thousands. (I was warned about this before going to Europe, so I thankfully did NOT have to learn from experience. 🙂 )
I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve also added Skype on my phone and will have to get around to giving it a test run. And for traveling domestically, I even have an app that lets me find local NPR stations so I can be sure to catch the latest airing of Fresh Air with Terry Gross no matter where I am! I’ve also found apps for traffic reports, and finding where the closest happy hour is no matter what town I am in. And I recently added GarageBand on my phone, so I can record song ideas as they hit me, or record coachings and lessons.
But I’ve only just scratched the surface!
I would love to hear about YOUR favorite travel apps. Or music apps. Or games you like to play to kill time while you are on the road. I’m always up for downloading great apps to my awesome phone! Please share!
