Best Travel Apps for iPad - Traveling with iPad - Maps on iPad

Many of us bought the Apple iPad for travel. The iPad is light and thin, it is a convenient travel guide. Remember all those heavy backpacker paperback city guides? There is much to choose for travel. I have selected what I see as the best travel apps. Travel apps get you to your destination and how to enjoy your destination. The best travel apps show you what you may need while you are traveling on your iPad. Think travel, you think maps, language, travel and food guides. All in the glorious user friendly and vibrant color and interaction of the iPad travel applications. 

The best travel apps start with apps that you can use wherever you travel. Google Earth for iPad is most impressive and a must for travelers to visualize your destination. The Kayak Flights iPad app is great to compare and book your travel package. FlightTrack - Live Flight Status is a great way to track your flight information. There are a number of great weather apps, with weatherundergroud my current favorite weather app. Beat the Traffic HD app is great for city maps in the U.S. and Canada, use it for traffic jams and route planning. When we travel we like read. Check out these great comics on iPad apps and the iBooks and Kindle apps for iPad. These are some of the best travel apps for iPad, there are many more though. Let’s start our adventure.

1,000 Ultimate Experiences iPad app was one of the most anticipated apps being based on Lonely Planet’s best selling 1,000 experiences book. Whilst it has disappointed some because of the depth of information there is much anticipation of it growing in depth. This iPad travel app takes you through a graphical journey of many popular travel destinations in iBook format. The format is user friendly with the card sections and something different such as ultimate sailing trips and safaris, the strangest obscure museums or even classic campervan routes for those wanting to relive the Beatnik’s journey for instance.

Each destination is represented by a card which you swipe, flick and thumb your way through. Each card has a basic summary of playful and unique activities and landmarks for each location through video and images.  The app is great for goal building and trip planning. Lonely Planet TV videos are included.

For mine Lonely Planet has only touched the services of a multimedia travel experience and this app or other apps will really expand to take full advantage of the iPad interactive screen. We are seeing the reinvention of travel books.  What is missing in the current app is a search capability which needs to be added in future upgrades. This app started at $19.99, went to $9.99 and you can now download 1000 Ultimate Experiences App for iPad for $3.99 from the App Store on iPad.

FlightTrack – live Flight Status app for iPad provides you with real time flight information. Great if you want to see if you plane is on time and what gate it is arriving.  New York Times lauded the iPad app as ‘The best flight tracking app out there! Beautiful maps and real-time updates. “Brilliant.” ‘

The flight tracker maps are zoomable with satellite and weather radar input.  FlightTrack has over 4,000 airports worldwide with 1,400 airlines covered.  The iPad has an airport Board View to see all flights from over 1400 airports as an add-on.  The app is perfect for iPad with the high resolution Retina Display.  Forbes said that “If you travel by air, you’re going to want this application.”

Of note the FlightTrack does not track private flights. The app is developed by Mobiata make other iPad Travel apps including FlightTrack Pro, TripDeck, HotelPal, StayHIP and HomeAway. You can download FlightTRack-Live Flight Status app for iPad for $4.99.

Google Earth seems right at home on the iPad. The full screen and vibrant colors with Google Earth satellite images seems tailor made. The huge change is how much more effective the app is on iPad rather than iPhone. Size does matter in this instance. Google earth has user friendly menu options for countries and their cities, landmarks and zip codes.

Google Earth has fast load times as it utilizes Apple’s A4 processor. This enables you to pinch, zoom and rotate all the Google Earth images as you study the earth. There are few features that differ from desktop Google Earth.  The one that stands out is 3D buildings which would be most impressive doing a tour of the site. Google Earth comes on most iPads when you buy them. 

Another favorite travel iPad for is Kayak Flights app. You can use Kayak Flight to look for ideas, check out prices and book your next trip with this app. One feature I liked and relevant in today’s world debt crisis is how you can budget for packages once you know you budget look for hotels, cars and flights with Kayak Flights app. Indeed the Kayak Flights app appear quicker on the iPad then the same search online. Indeed the Kayak Flights app appear quicker on the iPad then the same search online.

You get the search information you want and the images look superb on the iPads screen. You now can use it to budget your time, expenses and specific trips making balanced decisions looking at topography and the landmarks.

National Geographic developed the World Atlas HD app for iPad. I like the app as a travel app for iPad as you make your travel plans. You can look at the world’s maps with information on major cities, population, size, climate, politics and religions. You can take advantage of a touch screen to access the facts. So we have a great travel app that your children can prepare their home assignments with.

World Atlas HD has two avenues for maps, Satellite maps and Executive maps. The large screen of the iPad makes these maps clearly viewable. To navigate the maps simply pinch to zoom in and out of the map or information icons. For those familiar with Google Maps there is a similar view and intuitive nature. You download the World Atlas HD app for iPad for $1.99 from the app store.

When you are travelling through time zones you need a clock that changes with the time zone and an alarm clock. Fishbone Studio has upgraded the iPhone Clock Pro application for the iPad. The clock’s interface can be set as analog or digital. Clock Pro HD can be used as a stop watch, cooking timer, sleep timer, nature timer and a Metronome. There are plenty of uses for a traveler needing a world clock.

The app is being updated for IOS4 for the iPad as it has been for IPhone 4. The main concern has been the clock being turned off when other apps are used. Other complaints were about the snooze buttons when the screen shut down. This has been resolved in iPhone 4. There are other world clocks but his seemed to have more stability and features. What I was looking for was a good world clock and alarm clock. You can download Clock Pro HD for $1.99.

Beat the traffic HD on iPhone has taken a natural morph as an iPad app in HD. The app is favored for picking traffic hotspots. You get live traffic maps with traffic flow and accidents in more than 100 American and Canadian cities.

In 33 major cities you a get live traffic cameras. These cities include New York City, Houston, Atlanta, Toronto, Phoenix, Seattle, San Bernardino, Minneapolis, Denver, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, Providence, Nashville, Memphis, Louisville, Hartford, Buffalo, Salt Lake City, Raleigh-Durham, Tucson, Fresno, New Haven, Omaha, Bakersfield, Boise, Chattanooga, Redding, Macon, Beaverton and Chico.

Another feature is weather reports with seven day outlooks which help the travel plans. The Canadian maps also come in metric, the U.S. are in imperial only. The app’s interface has weather and traffic on the same map. When planning your trip use the Beat the Traffic search tool. There is also a Grayscale color mode if you are colorblind. Download Beat the Traffic HD for iPad for free.

The iPad lends itself for a great travelling aid. It has the size between your laptop and phone that enables some computer functionality and convenient email and social media communication. The light weight of the tablet also makes it convenient. I have selected some of the best iPad apps here for travelling. These are to help your journey.

This article is best the start. Please visit these other great hubs to help plan your trip.

• Best Weather apps for iPad
• Best Comics apps on iPad
• iBooks and Kindle apps for iPad,
• Best Trading apps for iPad
• Best Business apps for iPad
• Zagat To Go iPad app

Take full advantage of what iPad has to other for the travel in this modern age. You have a WiFi or 3G options for your iPad make sure you plan for your internet availability on your travels. Bon Voyage!

Feel free to leave comments about your travels and iPad travel apps  experiences and progress. I am sure there are other travel enthusiasts who would benefit from this type of information on the best travel apps for iPad.