BEST OF FREE TRAVEL APPS

Your iPhone is indisputably your most reliable road warrior, so use it to the max to make your mini and epic journeys convenient. Here are our picks of the best free travel apps you must immediately download to navigate like a pro.

FLIGHTVIEW Track upcoming and in-air flights, and receive status alerts via push notification. Check gate assignments, delays and cancellations. Worried about your spouse or Mom as they travel? Plug in their flight info and use the attractive flight map to see a flight's progress that include alerts at layovers and final destination. Forward your itinerary confirmation emails and FlightView will automatically load them into your Trips.

SEATGURU Not all seats are created equal. Inherent limitations even the same cabin/class can leave you feeling envious about the comfort of your neighbors. SeatGuru app lets you access over 700 seat maps from approximately 100 airlines. It features advice and insights drawn from tens of thousands of passenger reviews, so you can always find the best possible seat for your flight. A good idea to check this before you book your flight.

SIMPLY PACK Who doesn’t hate the packing part? Thanks to this app, a packing list is created by picking from a Master List of all potential packing items broken down into convenient grouped categories. Once these items are selected they can be transferred to individual Trip Lists with the simple touch of a button. Now you have a list of only items you need to pack. You can even set priority levels, Quantity or Weights for any item. Repeat the cycle above to generate each new trip-packing list.

GLOBECONVERT The last thing you need is a separate app for different kinds of conversion needs. This app packs it all in for you. Convert anything from currency to volume, weight and temperature and you’ll never be caught scratching your poor old head again. The app is simple and super easy on the eyes, even with the ads that pop up in the free version.

GOOGLE TRANSLATE Yes, you can speak Greek. Or Brazilian Portuguese or even Swahili. All you need is this essential translator that allows you to either type in a phrase or even speak into the phone and let the genie in the phone spit it out in any language you choose. Now you can even use your camera to snap a photo of signs and get an instant text translation. A bit rusty on a language for lack of practice? Use this app and you’ll be saying more than “jambo” again in no time.

-- GD