How to Best Use iPad for Travel

Sure, travel’s going to be a high point in your life, assuming you don’t do it the wrong way. Before you create nightmares out of your planned destination, here are ways you could maximise your iPad to give you the vacation you’ve been rooting for all your life. Or this year, if you’re a regular flier.

1. Nothing beats preparation.

If you’re the kind of traveler who want to decide on the spot and boom, pack your bags and go, then you could be in for a heart attack. Although such an approach is bound to be more adventurous, you won’t find yourself smiling when you ran out of supply of shirts for packing too less or when you’re left hungry for lack of provisions.

The best vacations are not those you think out of a whim and do. Rather, you’ve got to put things in the right order and take time to prepare. Unless you’ve got money to burn. And plans to buy new things to offset every vital thing you’ve left behind.

In this regard, there are iPad apps that should come in handy in your preparation process. Employing them while your i-tablet is on its iPad mini keyboard case, for instance, could be the best decision that you will make for your vacation. Not only will these make the job easier, their given format will make you think your vacation better.

Price: free

TripIt Travel Organizer is one such app that fits your needs like water to a thirsty camel. By keeping the details of your sojourn in one spot, together with the email confirmations, you get things mapped out in advance. For starters, things will definitely become easier once a single page with all the travel details gets created when your reservations are forwarded to plans@tripit.com.

Additionally, this makes it a lot easier to compare notes with your circle of friends. The best thing is this app’s free.

Price: $0.99

Another handy tool is Packing (TO DO!). It may make you part with $0.99 but that’s a pittance compared to what this app can do for you. With this app, you make sure nothing’s left behind. This is like your personal secretary that tells you all the vital things you need to take with you when you transfer from home to your paradise destination or from one hotel to another. So you won’t have a problem brushing your teeth or putting on your fave shirt.

And you can easily sync Packing(TO DO!) to your iCloud for better access. Of course, making sure you’ve brought the iPad is a big advantage.

2. Widen your options.

Price: free

To give your journey less of the bumps, it’s always best to know what are your dining options. Good thing Yelp is there to give you just that. With a choice of places to eat laid out – from famous restos to local eateries – you’d satisfy your taste buds like no other. And this app’s free to boot.

Price: free

And another alternative to Yelp, should you want to widen your options some more is TripAdvisor. They may offer you similar services but one is a good enhancement to the other by filling the gaps in between. There could be other forms of entertainment – other than eating out – that TripAdvisor can give more fully than Yelp. Also, this one comes free.

Price: free

And when you’re in another side of the planet and don’t know how to navigate the streets from where you are to your chosen destination, this app’s heaven-sent. Nothing guides you as well as Google Maps, showing you the way to the gas station, for instance, like you grew up in the area. As you may already know, this service from the search giant’s free.

3. Gets you going.

Price: Free

In a stranger’s paradise, you probably will need to convert your dollars to the local currency every now and then. Be in in Moscow or in Paris, this is where XE Currency app becomes handy. And the best thing is you can use this currency converter even when it’s on offline mode as it will base the conversion factor on the latest one stored.

Price: free

This app will help you get your message across to people from different races. With over 50 distinct languages on store, iTranslate gives you translations in a jiffy. More importantly, you get to listen in making you capable of holding a conversation or asking directions to the comfort room, for that matter, even when you’re totally murdering the local tongue.