Travelfish sets a new benchmark in iPhone travel guides with their guide to Angkor

by Scott Carmichael on

Travelfish has long been one of the most respected resources for travel in Asia. Their site covers Backpacker information for Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Of course, information provided on a web site is great for preparing a trip, but once you are actually on the road, you’ll need to find Internet access to get to it.

This is where the new Travelfish iPhone app can help. Their first app covers Angkor in Cambodia, and my oh my what an impressive app it is. In fact, as the title describes, I’m so impressed, that I’m calling it “a new benchmark in iPhone travel content”.

The application only runs in landscape mode, but it takes perfect advantage of this by presenting plenty of wide screen content. The app covers everything (and I really do mean everything) you need to know about the region For beginners, there is a huge background section, with history of the country and the region itself. It also offers 8 entire sections on how to plan your trip, with everything from visa information to the local weather and what to pack.

The sleep section shows all local hotels on a map, describing the different areas in the city. The application lists the 40 best hotels, hostels and guesthouses, along with a full review, online booking link, phone number and of course, its location on the map. Similar comprehensive guides are offered for restaurants, sightseeing attractions, local transportation.

The walking tours portion takes you on an iPhone guided tour, complete with when to start and exactly how to reach each highlight of the self-guided tour.

The maps support your location, and can be customized to show more (or less) locations.

Final thoughts

Of all the iPhone tour guides I’ve seen, this one really is the most comprehensive. I love the design and ease of use. Best of all, the application stores all its data on your phone, so there is no need for an (expensive) data plan when roaming abroad.

The program is perfect for pre-planning, as well as acting as a live guide when you are actually in Angkor. Each portion of the application offers handy features like bookmarks and “show on map”, and the designers make fantastic use of the touch friendliness of the iPhone and iPod Touch letting you swipe to browse articles.

You’ll find the Travelfish Angkor app in the iTunes store, where it sells for just $7.99.

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Nokia Green Explorer — discover a new way to be an eco-friendly traveler

by Scott Carmichael on

During my visit to the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, I came across an interesting eco-friendly product from mobile phone maker Nokia. Their “Green Explorer” site is part destination guide, part eco-friendly guide, and part mobile guide service. The site covers all continents, and offers content from Lonely Planet, the WWF, UNESCO, routeRANK and TripSketch.

The end result of these 5 companies working together is a single “portal” of eco-friendly travel information, user submitted guides and photo galleries of each destination. The guides cover the basic things you’d expect, but adds information like the UNESCO world heritage locations, WWF eco facts and a green trip planner which allows you to calculate the most eco-friendly way to get there.

Because the site is part of the Nokia OVI labs, you can even tag locations and routes, and save them to your Nokia phone. Combined with the recently announced free navigation service and Lonely Planet guides from Nokia, you can turn your phone into an eco-friendly GPS unit. Add the Nokia CO2 offset application and you can create a pretty impressive green travel companion.

The user submitted content on the Green Explorer site is pretty limited, but the site is still quite new (and in beta phase). Once more people start adding their own content, the Nokia Green Explorer has the potential to turn into something very impressive.

Inflight Wi-Fi provider Aircell secures a massive round of new financing

by Scott Carmichael on

Things are looking very good for inflight Wi-Fi provider Aircell. They just passed the 700 installed plane milestone, nine commercial airlines have committed to the service, and they are on track to introduce a new streaming video service on a trial basis.

Of course, when you go from just 1 plane to 700 in a little over a year, you are probably burning through cash like it is going out of style. Which is why today’s news of a new financing round is great news for travelers. The company secured $176 Million, a fantastic feat in an otherwise gloomy financial market.

With at least one new plane a day being outfitted with the equipment required for in-flight Internet access, we slowly move towards the magic day when all major carriers have Wi-Fi on a majority of their fleet.

Visit a ghost town – Road trip tip

by Gadling Staff on

If you’re looking for an interesting side-trip, or you just want to get out of town for a quick day trip, visit a ghost town.

To find a ghost town, log on to ghosttowns.com, which lists hundreds of ghost towns by state and county and describes what makes each spot unique and “ghostly.”

You may be surprised at how many ghost towns are in your area. Just don’t get scared.

Email your docs – International travel tip

by Gadling Staff on

Missing documentation is among the the most challenging issues an international traveler can face. So, take a moment and email yourself the following:

  1. a scanned copy of your passport
  2. a scanned copy of your birth certificate
  3. a detail copy of your itinerary
  4. your airline reservations
  5. your hotel confirmations

While traveling, if you need any of the documents, you just need to get to your email client, and you can reproduce them easily.