ipad apps while traveling in WA

Friends recently asked me for my comments on ipad travel apps while they are on holiday in WA later this month.

Well firstly, I assume you have a 3G capable ipad with a good plan - I think the 10Gb $150 plan from Telstra is the best... with greatest coverage. That being said, they'll be large tracts of land on which you'll have no mobile coverage... so look to download content and emails content when you pass through towns.

Secondly simply getting access to the web in an easy way is one of its greatest benefits.

It's also a great device for reading books - downloading as any whim takes your fancy. As far as I'm concerned in Australia... you can't beat Kindle for ebooks for range and price. However, if you're looking at reference books, indexing & table of contents isn't as good as it could be.

Getting more serious on travel apps.... there's plenty there but here are some of my favorites in no particular order.

Oh - and down't forget to get a car charger that supports the extra current required by the iPad and not just the iPhone.

Wikihood (free)
Shows you places of interest near your location. Makes it simple to access wikipedia content.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/wikihood-for-ipad/id378364975?mt=8

TripAdvisor (free)
Great to dip into to figure out what towns to visit and what to do when you are there - eat, sleep, see. Lots is user reviews.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tripadvisor-hotels-flights/id284876795?mt=8

Urbanspoon (free)

Restaurant reviews from around Australia. It certainly covers major  cities well... not sure how well it covers smaller towns in WA.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/urbanspoon-for-ipad/id369267453?mt=8

Pkt Weather  $1.99 (AUD)
Great weather app

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/pocket-weather-au-hd/id374504736?mt=8

Simplepedia
As you will often be out of mobile coverage range while traveling around Australia, a bit of simple planning on sites you will be passing through and saving their relevant wikipedia pages to an offline view can be very useful. Very educational to the kids - and the info is usually much better than info displayed at many of the sites!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simplepedia-for-ipad-simple/id364908410?mt=8


Discovr Music $1.99 (AUD)

You'll be hearing a lot of different music so trying to figure out more of the artist and related musicians can be made much easier with this.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/discovr-music-discover-new/id412768094?mt=8


Mud maps

I must admit that I still prefer my maps in physical books - Gregory's for WA... rather than on a screen. This came in handy to look at maps as they are already downloaded unlike google which relies on access to the internet.

I don't know too much about the VMS app for Australia and that might be worth investigating if you have the cash to spare...if we did another big trip we'd definitely be looking at it.

http://itunes.apple.com/app/id452180520?mt=8

Shonky Maps (free)
You can download maps that cover all of Australia from the following site:
http://shonkylogic.net/shonkymaps/

Bit Map

Once you have Shonky Maps (or others) you can use a program such as this one to upload them onto the ipad to view.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/bit-map/id337172542?mt=8