Whether you’re a leisure traveler or a corporate road warrior, you’ll find a wealth of mobile apps to help make your journeys more productive and enjoyable.
The problem is that there are so many of them—about 350,000, according to Henry Harteveldt, principal analyst at Forrester Research.
“If you’re a frequent traveler, you’re going to want applications that can help you improve your productivity, reduce your chance of delay or chance of stress, and help you maximize your enjoyment during your off hours,” Harteveldt says. “There’s no single application that can do [all] that. Some, such as those that track frequent flier or loyalty program account activity tend to be more popular with business travelers. But social media applications, entertainment applications and destination applications are really as relevant to leisure traveler as they are to business travelers.”
The apps highlighted below cover a wide range of needs, from booking a hotel to getting around town to getting work done.
Planning Your Trip
When it comes to booking a flight, it’s hard to beat Kayakfor its simplicity. Enter your destination and travel dates and you’ll get several options that you can sort by price, time, or airline. A single click brings you to the appropriate booking site. You can also book hotel reservations and rental cars. (Free: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone/iPad)