Happy New Year everybody! It’s a new day, a fresh start, and a joyful vision of travel all over France.
It’s time to plan trips – for this month, for April, June, Summer, August, Fall and on into winter and Christmas. As always, there’s way more to see and do than anyone can do even in a decade – so let’s get started.
To simplify our lives and packing, how about jettisoning some of the paper for the iPhone travel apps? I like the idea of using the 21st century to explore the 17th.
Everyone is buzzing about the many travel apps on the iPhone or iTouch, so here are a few, harvested from a bunch of sites. Please note: I have not received any apps nor any money for endorsing or even mentioning them. This is just pure research and is only a sample of what’s out there.
A. General Interest for travelers
1. Shazam – for local music which is often not available outside the borders of a particular country. France has amazingly diverse musical traditions and fusions, which tend not to be available from US commercial outlets – for obvious reasons.
2. WiFi Finder – Especially useful for Skype users, to avoid expensive international data rates. It tracks 200,000 hotspots (free and paid) in 135 countries. (Note: Found this on multiple sites – not highly rated, but in common use it looks like. )
3. Skype – oh my – WiFi access to free or very cheap calls. My son told me about this one. My best friend’s daughter called me from Thailand, with a webcam. We were able to talk and see each other – very little delay, great picture. Amazing! (You probably all already know about this one.)
4. IAmHere – sends an email with link to Google maps. Go ahead – make your friends jealous!
5. SiteOrSquat – ok it’s neither delicate nor euphonious – but it helps the traveler find clean bathrooms and you can even rate bathrooms that haven’t been listed.
6. WorldView- lets a traveler check webcams for weather (9,000 sites)
7. Tripit for iPhone – automatically generates master trip itinerary from travel confirmation emails – not a top priority for the simple trip (“I’m going to France for 3 months” or I’m island-hopping through Indonesia and have no idea where I will be on any given day”.)
8. Yelp – Yelp is the well-known source of reviews of restaurants, shops, cafes, and so on- written by locals and users. Tap local, candid knowledge before you spend your precious euros.
B. France and Paris (also in no particular order)
1. Rick Steves: Rick Steves has created a bunch of applications: (a) Historic Paris Walking Tour, with text, audio, and video; (b) Louvre Tour; © Musee D’Orsay Tour; (d) Versailles Tour.
2. Paris Metro iPhone – Eliminates the need to struggle with big paper maps and look obviously out of place and touristy. It’s searchable, by station. Its GPS lets you locate the closest stop. AND it can plot your route – you input your starting point and end point by metro station and it will display the best route.
3. Lonely Planet iPhone Paris City Guide. Many people love Lonely Planet’s resources for navigating Paris.
4. Frommer’s Paris iPhone App Guide – Get the picture???
5. Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport Guide – CDG is huge and crazy – especially after a 10-12 hour flight or lots of layovers. Depending on your comfort level with big and strange, maybe this could be re-assuring.
6. Language applications – there are a bunch of these. I suggest looking them up on-line or talking to friends who have used them and choosing the one(s) that work for you. Some offerings include: (a) Free French Tutor and French Essentials- self-explanatory – can help the traveler get familiar with the sound of spoken French (b) Talking French Phrasebook. Simple – displays what you want to say in English and French, and then talks to you. © Oxford Translator French Pro iPhone – More options than simple phrases – with icons for categories, e.g., food, drink, hotel/lodging.
7. Paris2Go: An all-around Paris application with information, highlights, transportation, and neighborhood info – i.e., what’s near where you happen to be. I looked it up. It’s a searchable map and guide, with access to pages of in-depth and updated historical data, maps, and so forth – not just short squibs. You can browse without an internet connection. .
8. Paris Street map: very handy because the streets of Paris are not always that easy to navigate and it is a great pocket resource and you don’t have to look so silly unfolding a big paper map. It is GPS enabled, helpful. The Paris Offline Street Map works without an internet connection.
9. Paris Lite HiGuide: GPS enabled map of Paris, helpful.
10. Follow the Tour de France! – use Rabo iTour or http://www.itourdefrance.com .
11. mPassport – Access to medical care in Paris, developed by HTH Worldwide, a global health and safety services company. mPassport is an application that helps English-speaking expats and travelers access medical care in Paris – search, map, and choose among pre-selected English-speaking doctors, dentists, hospitals, and pharmacies; get an appointment on short notice; translate medical terms and find equivalent brands; get directions from where you are or from landmarks.
According to AmericaBlog, medical care in France is fast, inexpensive, and patient-friendly – they assume you have a right to the care and worry about the money later.
One final tip: Take your iPhone charger and adapter with you or check one of your apps for the Apple Store nearest you in France!