5 Apps to Ease Your Holiday Travel

Traveling can be stressful. The packing, getting to the airport two hours before takeoff, or God forbid you’re gassing up the car for a road trip longer than two hours. Whew! Here are a couple of apps that can help take some of the edge off your travel.

Flight Track (Android, iPhone – $4.99) – From Mobiata, Flight Track lets users receive real time status updates on flights from around the world. You can also get info on weather and even build your flight itinerary 11 months before take off. If the worse possible scenario occurs and your flight is canceled, Flight Track will send you an update and help you find an alternate flight. And since the app updates live flight info, you have a three day cushion, so you’re not inadvertently thrown into panic mode.

Trapster (Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Ovi, Palm OS, Windows Mobile -Free) – For the road warriors that are braving crowded roads, wallet-violating gas prices, and being cooped up with loved ones for hours at a time this holiday, here’s a little something to make the trip go somewhat faster. Trapster keeps an eye out for police speed traps and lets you know when its time to ease up on that lead foot. In addition it alerts users about those pesky red light and speed cameras. The app also is handy for updates traffic hiccups like jams, accidents, and detours. You should pay it forward and report any new traps you stumble across on your travels. (Disclaimer: Black Web 2.0 does not in any way, shape, form, or fashion condone unsafe driving habits. We want you to get to your destination safely and in one piece.)

Packing Pro (iPhone – $2.99) - It never fails, no matter how many times you go over that mental travel list, you manage to leave something behind on the way there or the way back. Stop the madness and download QuinnScape’s Packing Pro. This app is all about organization, featuring fully customizable lists complete with categories, subdivisions and types — perfect for the micro-manager. There’s also a serious pre-departure to do list with over 100 items and multi-item selection for simple list building. There’s currently a limited time 1st year anniversary sale with regular Packing selling for 50% off and Packing Pro for 25%. Hurry while the offer lasts!

Hotels Near Me (Android, Blackberry, iPhone – Free) - Some travelers like to live dangerously and not book their hotel until the last possible minute. For those daredevils, Blumedialab.com has created Hotels Near Me. Simply click the “Hotels Near Me” tab or enter the city and state where you plan to stay and the app will pull up a list of available rooms at competitive prices. The app currently has a listing of 66,000 hotels in over 71 countries, so I’m pretty sure you won’t be left sleeping at the airport or a bus station.

SitorSquat (Blackberry, iPhone – Free) – Sigh, you’re driving at a good clip when the inevitable happens, you or someone in the car has to go to the bathroom. You’re tempted to pass the communal bathroom jar around, but then you remember you have this handy app. Created by Densebrain and sponsored by Charmin, SitorSquat is a list of over 65,000 toilets worldwide, ready and waiting to service your derriere — for better or worse. Updating by app users, the list also includes bathroom hours of operation, whether or not there’s a changing station, as well as a condom and tampon vending machines, and handicap accessibility. Most importantly there are pictures, ratings, and comments so you do have to do a cirque du soleil-type balancing act in some skeevy gas station hovel masquerading as a bathroom.

Hopefully these travel apps will alleviate some of the stress that comes with packing up and changing locales for a couple of days. Happy Holidays and safe travels from everyone on the Black Web 2.0 staff!