Most Popular iPhone Travel Apps

By Rachael King

iPhone Tools For Road Warriors

Road warriors, take heart. A raft of software applications for the iPhone are designed to make that dash between time zones and airport terminals a little easier. They can help executives handle all manner of travel-related tasks, from booking hotel rooms to calculating exchange rates to switching flight plans. Many include location services that can help travelers locate nearby restaurants, Wi-Fi hot spots—even bathrooms.
In fact, some of the most popular iPhone applications involve travel. Here's a rundown of the top 20 most downloaded travel-related iPhone apps, as of April 23 . Each slide includes the name of the software distributor, release date, and information on user ratings. Apple does not disclose download figures. All apps listed are available for free.

No. 20: SitOrSquat

Distributor: Jonathan Glanz
Released: Oct. 7, 2008
50 ratings with an average of 2 1/2 stars
This indelicately named but oh-so-useful tool helps you find clean bathrooms wherever you are and lets you rate bathrooms that might not be listed.

No. 19: NBC New York Traffic Cam

Distributor: 3rd Dimension
Released: Aug. 7, 2008
3,348 ratings with an average of 2 1/2 stars
Need to zip across Manhattan to make a meeting? 3rd Dimension has built an app that lets users view live traffic cameras in the New York area to see where the roadblocks are.

No. 18: iTraveler

Distributor: Don Chung
Released: Feb. 15, 2009
291 ratings with an average of 2 stars
This tool lets users search Expedia (EXPE), Orbitz (OWW), and CheapTix for flights, hotels, and rental cars.

No. 17: Flight Sites

Distributor: Sojern
Released: Jan. 6, 2008
378 ratings with an average of 2 1/2 stars
Sojern's Flight Sites organizes airline Web pages to make it easier for road warriors to check in, find flight status, access frequent flier info, or even book a flight.

No. 16: WorldView

Distributor: Andreas Linde
Released: Mar. 12, 2009
359 ratings with an average of 2 1/2 stars
Wondering if it's raining at your destination? This app lets you check one of more than 9,000 Webcams around the world right from your iPhone.

No. 15: Oxford Translator Spanish Free

Distributor: Marty McDonough
Released: Mar. 27, 2009
436 ratings with an average of 2 1/2 stars
¿Se habla Espanol? People who need help with their Spanish can use this free sample version of the Spanish Pro translator, which includes translations for greetings and emergency situations.

No. 14: Hotels.com

Distributor: Hotels.com
Released: July 7, 2008
3,164 ratings with an average of 2 stars
Hotels.com has built an app that lets you search for hotels and book rooms by city, airport, landmark, address, or your current location.

No. 13: Travelocity TravelTools

Distributor: Travelocity
Released: July 9, 2008
2,208 ratings with an average of 2 stars
Frequent travelers can tap this tool for the gamut of information, including flight schedules, gates and times, airport delays, and nearby hotels.

No. 12: Kayak

Distributor: Kayak Software
Released: Feb. 11, 2009
782 ratings with an average of 2 stars
The software lets users connect to the Kayak travel search engine for any number of tasks, including booking or changing flights and hotel rooms.

No. 11: TripIt for iPhone

Distributor: TripIt
Released: Apr. 3, 2009
123 ratings with an average of 3 stars
The application can make it easier to organize and share travel plans by automatically generating a master itinerary for your trip from travel confirmation e-mails.

No. 10: Language Translator

Distributor: Piet Jonas
Released: Oct. 24, 2008
3,453 ratings with an average of 2 1/2 stars
Those who like to use Google's online language translation tools can now use this software to translate words, phrases, sentences, and whole paragraphs of text into different languages right from their iPhone.

No. 9: The Currency Converter

Distributor: Krishna Vegesna
Released: Apr. 5, 2009
36 ratings with an average of 3 1/2 stars
How much is that in zloty? Users can find out quickly with this app, which offers up current exchange rates for more than 85 commonly used currencies.

No. 8: Cheap Gas!

Distributor: David Hinson
Released: Sept. 9, 2008
48 ratings with an average of 2 stars
Nobody wants to return a rental car without a full tank. This app helps travelers in the U.S. and Canada find the least expensive gas in a given area.

No. 7: Currency

Distributor: Jeffrey Grossman
Released: Sept. 12, 2008
7,378 ratings with an average of 3 stars
Developer Jeffrey Grossman has come up with a tool that lets overseas travelers get up-to-date exchange rate information for more than 90 currencies and 100 countries.

No. 6: Trapster

Distributor: Tenereillo
Released: Apr. 6, 2009
1,073 ratings with an average of 2 1/2 stars
This tool from Tenereillo sends iPhone alerts aimed at helping users avoid police speed traps and red light cameras.

No. 5: Wi-Fi Finder

Distributor: JiWire
Released: Dec. 19, 2009
14,231 ratings with an average of 2 stars
For travelers looking for a Web connection on the go, there's Wi-Fi Finder, which is designed to unearth free and paid hot spots at nearby restaurants, cafés, and hotels.

No. 4: Choice Hotels Locator

Distributor: Parsus Solutions
Released: Mar. 5, 2009
1,046 ratings with an average of 2 1/2 stars
For the budget traveler, here's a tool that sniffs out rooms at nearby Choice Hotels, including Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality Inn, Sleep Inn, and Econo Lodge.

19: No. 3: Yelp

Distributor: Yelp
Released: Sept. 15, 2008
412 ratings with an average of 3 stars
Yelp's insightful reviews of restaurants, shops, cafés, and more—written by a community of locals who seem to know where to find the best of nearly everything—are now available on the iPhone.

No. 2: Urbanspoon

Distributor: Wanderspot
Released: Nov. 1, 2008
9,939 ratings with an average of 3 stars
This tool actually shakes up the way you look for restaurants. Shake your iPhone, and Urbanspoon will pick a good restaurant for you to try. Keep shaking until you find one you like.

No 1: Google Earth

Distributor: Google (GOOG) Mobile
Released: Feb. 2, 2009
53,916 ratings with an average of 3 1/2 stars
In addition to searching global satellite and aerial images, Google Earth for the iPhone lets users look at photos and Wikipedia articles associated with particular locations.