6 Free iPad Apps For Planning Vacations

Over the past decade, booking travel plans has become exponentially easier. Gone are the days when we relied on travel agents to book flights, hotels and car rentals. Why call an agent when you can do your own research quicker and more thoroughly online? And now, mobile devices, including the iPad, are making travel planning even easier, giving vacationers the option to book on the fly.

The iPad is on its way to becoming the digital travel companion of choice — with games, books, music, news, magazines, social networking, e-mail, shopping and more, it has just about anything you could ask for to make your travels more entertaining. With increasing app options, it’s also making vacation planning much smoother.

While there are a ton of paid travel apps for the iPad, we decided to keep it simple and test only free apps. Your vacation will probably cost a hefty amount — why nickel and dime yourself with iPad apps to plan it?

We tested a slew of free iPad apps for travel planning, including apps for getting inspired, booking flights, hotels, car rentals and cruises, checking the weather and doing currency conversions. Check out our top six picks below and add your own recommendations in the comments.

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1. & 2. Inspiration: “Travel + Leisure” & “National Geographic Traveler”

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If you’re not sure where you’d like to go on vacation, there are a number of apps out there to get you inspired. We recommend Travel + Leisure’s iPad app, which just debuted earlier this month with its free holiday issue, the first issue formatted for the device.

Beyond the free holiday issue, subsequent issues will be made available for $3.99 each, but full digital subscriptions are not yet available. The app is only loaded with one issue so far, but it’s a promising look into the future with interactive features, including videos, slideshows and maps. While interactivity is limited, the current features beat out other travel-focused magazine apps for the iPad.

For narrowing down destination types, check out the “Destinations” feature, which enables you to plan your trip by type — including arts and culture, beaches and islands, food and wine, and more — and then choose a city to read more about it. Each city description includes a guide of Travel + Leisure’s top picks for what to see, do, eat and drink and where to stay. The only downside is that getting back to the “Destinations” feature requires navigating via the app menu — a simple “back” button would be extremely helpful in this case.


While the National Geographic Traveler iPad app isn’t focused on vacation planning per se, we also recommend taking a look at it, as it includes full issues of the paper magazine, enhanced by video, photo galleries and detailed maps. The interactive features are limited, with only a few additions per issue, but they function well and add to the content. As the world’s most widely read travel magazine, National Geographic Traveler features top-notch content about locations, cultures and experiences. You can’t help but be lured after reading about the destinations it covers.

The app is free and upon downloading, you receive a complimentary download of the previous month’s issue. Each subsequent issue costs $3.99, or a subscription for eight digital issues can be purchased for $10.

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3. Booking Flights, Hotels & Cars: KAYAK HD

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The easiest app to use for booking flights, hotels and car rentals is Kayak HD, hands down. We agree with KAYAK HD’s self description: “KAYAK HD brings you the best travel shopping experience for iPad.”
Booking flights is a breeze. After choosing your destination, dates and other preferences, the best flights appear by price. Tapping on a flight pulls up more flight details and information on which sites you can book the flight for the price listed.

Booking hotels and cars is just as easy. After inputting your preferences, options are displayed by price. Hotels can be narrowed down by stars, brands, name, and price, and cars can be sorted by price, agency or car/class. If you’re worried about location, hotels can also be viewed via an in-app Google Maps experience.

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4. Finding Cruises: Conde Nast Traveler: Cruise Finder HD

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Sometimes you just want to float out on the sea for a few days (or weeks), and that’s when cruises come in handy. Conde Nast Traveler provides a great app for finding the best cruise ships for your needs. Cruise Finder HD enables you to narrow down ships, cruise destinations, and your preferred features. Each result appears with an overall rating, ship size, ship features and a brief description. For example, I chose to search Caribbean cruises with shore excursions, spas and Wi-Fi. You can view search results on a map or in a list. My results are pictured above in the map view.

Choosing the “Read More” button on a listing takes you to a more descriptive page, where details such as price, cabin size, and number of restaurants, swimming pools and balconied cabins can be found. From there, you can also save a ship to your favorites, share it via, e-mail the listing, visit the cruise line’s website, find travel agents, or book the trip by phone.

One of the features we’d really like to see is the option to book a cruise from within the app. It currently offers a great way to find ships that fit particular lifestyles, but booking is limited to clicking through to the cruise line’s website or calling. And who uses phones these days, anyway?

Get this app while it’s hot. It is currently being sponsored by Bing for a limited time, making it free to download, but beginning December 1, it will cost $3.99.

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5. Weather: The Weather Channel Max

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One of the most important factors for a fun vacation is having the right type of weather. You can’t ski without snow, and a beach without sunshine isn’t ideal. Before you plan that early-January trip, make sure you already know a bit about the climate patterns of your destination, so you can pack accordingly.

As your departure date arrives, though, turn to The Weather Channel iPad app to keep tabs on the weather at your destination. Bookmark it and see the three-day forecast ahead. For U.S. or European destinations, video forecasts are oftentimes available as well.

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6. Currency Conversion: XE Currency

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With international travel, you’ll probably need to convert your country’s currency to the destination country’s currency. Being aware of current exchange rates will help you spot good deals and save money.

XE.com, one of the most reliable currency conversion sites out there, offers the XE Currency iPad app, supporting more than 180 currencies with up-to-the-minute rates. Choose up to 10 currencies, listing them in any order. To choose a base currency, simply click on the currency and enter the amount you’d like to convert; the base currency is always highlighted for easy recognition. For example, I chose to convert U.S. $100 to nine other currencies (as pictured above).