How to organize travel info for iphone?
July 22, 2012 2:12 PM   Subscribe

I am researching travel in advance of a trip. I like to have the material available both online and if I lose access to the internet. It will be mainly accessed using an iphone. Mostly organizing maps, reviews from yelp, Urban spoon, and some emails. Any advice on good ways to do this? THanks!
posted by dougiedd to Travel & Transportation (11 answers total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is what Instapaper was made for.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:15 PM on July 22, 2012


I've used Evernote to do this. They have an iPhone app, as well as a desktop app and a web interface. One especially useful feature is the ability to "clip" web pages, which basically lets you store a copy for later use.
posted by cosmic.osmo at 2:17 PM on July 22, 2012 [2 favorites]


I actually created a blogger account to organize information for myself on resources for a specific topic. Posterous would be another option. You can send posts to it via email, which is really convenient for me.
posted by Michele in California at 2:22 PM on July 22, 2012


I used Evernote on my then-ipod touch when we went to the UK a few years ago. Making the things I wanted to be able to look at without an internet connection was easy - just make it a favorite (star it or whatever the particular thing is on Evernote). I had different categories for things to see and do, places to eat and drink, maps/directions.
posted by rtha at 2:27 PM on July 22, 2012


In advance, the above have good suggestions. In the moment, on the trip, I highly recommend screenshots (of maps, websites, etc) and photos (of local maps, train schedules, and so on). That way, you can take the information with you, and you don't have to rely on your memory if something changes. It sounds like a dumb tip, but it saved me on several occasions over the past year!
posted by quadrilaterals at 2:41 PM on July 22, 2012


Buy one of the GPS apps (there's one by Garmin for only about $40) and you will be able to use it without data/wifi. Works perfectly, and well worth the price. I've tried screen-capping maps but it's utterly annoying when the level of detail isn't high enough and you miss important intersections.
posted by Pomo at 2:49 PM on July 22, 2012


City Maps 2 Go works offline, and you can create your own bookmarks. If I read a good restaurant review I'd bookmark it on the map. Couple that with one of the many notes apps, and you should have a good system in place.
posted by backwards guitar at 2:52 PM on July 22, 2012


I would use any combination of Dropbox, Tripit and Evernote that fits your style, as they all have web and app access. If you have Tripit watch your in box, it will try to catch emails about your trip and make an itinerary for you (from booking confirmations, mostly). With all three tools, you can print things to pdf, clip them, save screenshots, etc. Useful for boarding passes, reservations, as well. Note for Dropbox and Evernote, you can "favorite" items to view them off-line, if that's ever an issue (for example, I use them on my iPod touch). Tripit can be accessed on or off-line.
posted by trixie_bee at 4:11 PM on July 22, 2012


Nthing Evernote. Load up everything you want on desktop; install iOS app; sync. Everything you clipped at your fingertips, even w/o data access (once synced).
posted by skypieces at 10:24 PM on July 22, 2012


Pocket is miles ahead of Instapaper, particularly on mobile and not screwing up article formatting. I used Instapaper every day for a year or two and switched to Pocket within a week of finding it. You can also tag stuff you save to help with organization.
posted by 23 at 1:41 AM on July 23, 2012


Galileo is a great app for offline maps.
posted by doctord at 4:09 PM on August 7, 2012


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