Qype (Free)
If you’re out in town and have no idea where to go, Qype could be your best new friend. Restaurants, bars, shops – even doctors – are all covered, along with user ratings and reviews giving detailed tips on where to go. Almost 200,000 cities are covered.
Spondle (Free)
A fantastic free events app that ensures you won’t miss that gig or show, Spondle is currently UK-only. You can search through theatre shows, festivals, exhibitions, comedy, concerts and even dating events.
AroundMe (Free)
AroundMe is one of those augmented reality apps which allows you to quickly find out information about your surroundings. Using GPS, the app shows you the nearest bank, bar, petrol station, hospital and more.
London City Guide – GuidePal (Free)
Travel guides can be expensive, but Guidepal has a large number of free guides for all kinds of destinations. Each is written by objective local residents and covers the best attractions, restaurants, tours, and more, all without going online.
The Mobile Food Guide
Here’s a quality online restaurant guide, regularly updated and currently covering over 4,000 of the best restaurants in the UK, Ireland and the US (with more to follow). Includes reviews, menus, opening times, web links and photos, plus one-touch dialing to book a table.
Flixster (Free)
Ideal for cinephiles, this app locates your nearest cinemas and looks up film times in a matter of seconds. Best of all, you can look up reviews ripped from Rotten Tomatoes and even view a movie’s trailer.
Tip Calculator (Free)
Calculating a tip at the end of a meal can often be a head- scratcher. Avoid embarrassment by quickly and easily calculating exactly what you should tip, including the option to split it between a group.
Toilet Finder (Free)
There’s nothing worse than being caught short in an unfamiliar town, with no idea where the nearest WCs are. Toilet Finder is the world’s biggest public toilet database with more than
60,000 conveniences from all over the world. Best of all, you can add newly discovered loos or report missing toilets.
Nando’s In London (Free)
Quite a few restaurants and fast food chains now have apps. If you get the Peri Peri cravings and need to find a Nando’s, this will sort you out stat. Handy map directions mean you won’t get lost, no matter how hungry you are, and you can see each branch’s facilities.
ScanSearch (Free)
ScanSearch is an augmented reality app that locks onto your position using GPS, then shows you a full list of services in your local area, including eateries, pubs, shops and more. Simply hold up your phone and they’ll be pinpointed on the screen using the camera.
Taxi Route GB (Free)
TaxiRoute gives you a list of locally subscribed taxi companies and gives you a quick estimate of how much that taxi fare home should cost, based on current location. A map shows you the predicted journey so you know if you’re going on the ‘scenic route’.
Wikitude (Free)
This augmented reality app was voted best of its kind three years running. Hold up your phone and you’ll see your immediate surroundings, with local services such as attractions and restaurants highlighted, complete with user reviews.
Hangover Helper (Free)
You’ve had your big night and now you’re suffering. Hangover Helper can get you out of the most terrible day-afters, including giving you local taxi details if you find yourself in an unusual bed, and auto- generating text messages to let your friends and family you’re still alive.
Radar Rabbit (Free)
Not got a date for tonight? The Rabbit can help. Enter your profile, view other people’s profiles to find a close match, and chat with members in your general area, all for free. You never know when you’ll find that special someone!
Translator (Free)
If you find yourself in a foreign land, with a sign/menu/set of instructions that are completely indecipherable, the translator could be your best buddy. Simply enter the word or sentence you need translating and this app will do the rest.
Skyscanner (Free)
Compare flight prices across more than 1,000 major and minor airlines and book the best deal. Pin favourite searches to your Start Screen to get the latest prices, and when you’ve got your flight, share it over email with travelling buddies.
GPS Calculator (Free)
This multi-faceted app uses your GPS location to calculate everything from hyper-accurate distances, projected destinations if you were to travel this-fast, and even unit conversions. City data for 2,700 places lets you find out cool did-you-knows like the exact distance between any two.
TripIt (Free)
Organise all your flight, hotel and even train or taxi bookings in this brilliant app that will then build your own private itinerary. You can email confirmations to plans@ tripit.com, or set the app to automatically comb your email for reservation-like documents.
GateGuru (Free)
Get a map of more than 180 airports in US, Canada, Europe and Asia so you’ll know where your gate is, and more importantly, where its closest bar is. It doesn’t have maps of all the major airports, but the ones it does have are pretty great.
Addison Lee (Free)
The most reliable minicab service in London is even slicker when you order via its streamlined app. Previous pick- ups and drop-offs are saved, so you can book a cab in less than a minute – and get in one in less than five.
British Airways (Free)
If you fly our national carrier, you need its boarding pass app, which delivers real-time flight info and lets you pin current boarding passes to your Start Screen. You can check in online here too, and if you’re leaving from Heathrow Terminal 5, it will tell you what gate you need to be at.
Track My Life (Free)
Always on the road? GPS and the good ol’ clock combine to help this app track how long you’re in transit versus how long you’re at home or the office. The Live Tile shows you up-to- date info on how long you’ve been travelling or stationary in the past 24 hours. Did we mention the graphs? Scary.
Hotel Finder (Free)
If you’ve just landed in unfamiliar territory, this app will find the hotels closest to your GPS location. Its database has 230,000 hotels worldwide, also searchable by star rating and criteria, with results laid on the interactive map to compare prices and proximities.
TripAdvisor (Free)
Get the lowdown on hotels and restaurants from travellers just like you with the Windows Phone app of the popular web forum. A Near Me Now feature lets you find the closest place to park your weary bones.
Translator with Speech (Free)
Don’t know how to order the paella with extra seafood? This app will translate speech into other speech, from a database of 54 languages. Just say the phrase into your phone, and it will regurgitate it in a passable foreign language to a nearby waiter.
Currency (Free)
Not sure if a million rupees is a rip-off? Convert it back to pounds sterling in this free and easy app that updates with live currency rates.
Polyglot
Translate text between more than 30 languages and play back the translation so you know what it sounds like. It works from voice to text too, so you can record what people say and get it translated.
Heathrow Airport Guide (Free)
An incredibly useful one for any frequent flyer, this app updates with live flight times. There are interactive terminal maps and listings of all the restaurants and shops to help you zip around efficiently, plus you’ll get notifications of any changes to your flight.
TheTrainline. com (Free)
Book a train, plan a journey and check all the train timetables. This streamlined app supports all the train companies and you can buy tickets up to 10 minutes before you travel, to collect from more than 1,000 stations in the UK.
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