There are many free travel apps, useful for vacations. I don’t have an iPhone, and with all the apps talk on the web, sometimes it feels like I’m the only one. The proud(ish) owner of a Blackberry, I’m well aware of the relatively meager apps available for this smartphone. Nonetheless, I do have a few, and not all are the free ones that came with my Blackberry — though my kids love to play Word Mole and Brick Breaker. Over time I’ve downloaded and discarded a 
handful of apps (Reuters took up too much memory, for example). These are the top 5 best free travel apps for my smartphone, the ones I use consistently for travel plans on the go.
1. Urbanspoon – This free app works like a charm to find restaurants in most well-traveled vacation destinations. It works within price ranges and types of cuisine. Urbanspoon is best for mainstream travelers; it doesn’t have a global reach with completely reliable recommendations in all markets, but will grow with time.
2. Google Maps – Love, love Google maps. This is the best free travel app I have, if we judge by my frequency of use. It’s the most complete, reliable mapping app I’ve seen; my partner uses it on his iPhone, and on both smartphones we can judge freeway traffic, and choose travel routes accordingly.
3. FancyTran – I have to admit, I haven’t traveled anywhere where I need to use it yet. But this free online translator app gets my wanderlust stirred up: 64 languages are supported, with an interface to Google Translator, Bing Translator, and other reliable online services.
4. Kayak – There are several online travel planning aggregators, but Kayak is the best free travel planning app due to its ease of use, intuitive navigation, and speedy aggregation of hotels, flights, car rentals through its meta-search engine. While I typically use Kayak on my desktop computer, downloading it on my Blackberry was a snap.
5. TripIt – I’m forgetful; I scribble flight numbers and confirmations on scrap paper, and forget to take my notes with me. TripIt keeps track of those important confirmation numbers for air travel and hotels, as long as I input them on the program instead of the back of a used envelope. Accessing that information at m.tripit.com ensures I’ll never miss my flight again.
Now, downloading all these interactive smartphone apps can chew up a lot of memory. I recommend turning them off when not actively using them, so as to not affect your Blackberry’s speed or effectiveness. With all the major expenses that go along with a vacation, it’s reassuring to know that these best travel apps are free.
I am so behind the smartphone 8 ball, I just downloaded the Facebook app to my Blackberry this week. I do like the sound of Urbanspoon! Must join current century.
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Now I wish I had a smartphone
Yelp is a pretty popular app for an iPhone, Blackberry and the like too, by the way. I haven’t tried it yet.
I love TripIt and UrbanSpoon.
i love this list – AND urbanspoon! we have a droid and i love how you can “shake” it to get a new idea.
i also am exploring every trail. you can take photos and GPS your trips, and then upload them – they’ll even show in google earth if you get enough hits. FUN!
Great travel app selection. I’m a big Kayak fan. I’m not sure about your Blackberry, but I have an app on my Droid that kills selected apps when not in use, which saves on battery life.
My fave is UrbanSpoon. Just waiting for the international version that’ll cover my favorite destinations: Vietnam, Bhutan, India…
Thanks for this list. I’ve been lazy about searching for apps for my crackberry, but will download these and get even more addicted!
I have to try TripIt; sounds exactly like what my ‘Berry needs! My husband acts all superior with his DROID, but these apps may help even the score. He reminds me of the ads which say “DROID does.” Well, until DROID does the dishes, I have no use for it!
Great list! I particularly love Urbanspoon, I use it ALL the time. I just read an article by Julia Dimon on the top 5 travel apps for the iPad, you should check it out!
Perfect! I just got my new phone and I am looking for some useful applications which I can upload in my phone for future use. Thank you for the listings. The internet really provides so many answers.
[...] awesome. There are some really great apps out there for travelling bloggers which would only look even better on a bigger screen (and after all, the iPad is just a larger version of the iPhone in so many respects). If you are [...]