Best Travel Apps

Memorial Day

As we commemorate all the Soldiers that fought and continue to fight for our freedom, Memorial Day tends to be the weekend families take their first summer vacation and many college students capitalize on their new found summer freedom!  If you are a resident of Washington, you probably travel east of the mountains and visit places such as Moses Lake, Lake Chelan, and the like.  If you're not, you probably travel somewhere that is either a tradition or a special destination.  But what apps are available for your summer vacations?

WSDOT

I traveled home last night from Lake Chelan, Washington, which is a tourist destination all summer, but especially on Memorial weekend, Fourth of July, and Labor Day weekend.  Chelan offers warm summer weather, a gorgeous lake, great beaches, family friendly hotels, a great nightlife, and phenomenal wine tasting.   What's not to love?  Well, the traffic during peak travel times can be pretty harsh with 1-2 hour delays.  An app that I find to be very useful in picking the perfect time to depart is the WSDOT app.  It's a free app available on the iPhone and Android phones.  It offers cameras, travel times, road restrictions, and other details about your planned route.  Instead of sitting in almost an extra 95 minutes of traffic, I got home within the normal travel time of 3 hours.

GasBuddy App

All over the country, we are suffering from abnormally high gas prices, but it's also an unfriendly reminder of last summer.  On the west coast, we are experiencing very high gas prices because of a fire in a California oil refinery.  With the national average at $3.65, California, Oregon, and Washington are all experiencing gas prices upwards of $4.29.  We can expect the prices to keep climbing until repairs and preventative maintenance are complete.  These high gas prices are keeping friends and family close to home and making more local vacations.  So, how to we find the best gas prices for the road trip?  I've referenced GasBuddy before but I have to mention it again seeing has it has saved me countless dollars over the past few months - especially with the rising gas prices.  It is available for free on iPhone and Android.

Urbanspoon App

Many people go on vacations locally, but can be unfamiliar with the local eats.  The Urbanspoon app is hard to dislike and puts vacationers in touch with local food.  It uses three rolling bars that act much like a typical slot machine and allows you to select features like price, area, and category (such as, Mexican or Buffet).  After making your selections, you just shake and go.  It's available for free on iPhone and Android phones.


If you have other smartphone apps that you would suggest to our vacationers, please let us know.  We would love to hear!