Joshua Tree National Park, CA

I’m setting my Joshua Tree National Park iPhone app to free for Father’s Day.  Thanks to all the dads out there who helped foster a love of the outdoors in their kids.

Get your free app here –> iJoshuaTree

I recently upgraded my crappy old cell phone that didn’t even have a camera to an iPhone.  All I can say is – I love my iPhone!  And I’m not sure how I managed without it.  All this time I could have been taking quick photos or videos, using the built in GPS when I was lost, and Yelping a quality restaurant nearby.  Oh well.  Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be thrifty especially when it comes to having the ultimate multi-functional travel device in your pocket.

So now I’m an Apple fangirl toting around an iPhone and a MacBook Pro.  The next logical step of course is to proclaim my love for the following free travel apps:

In a new city and need to find good place to eat nearby?  Yelp it. I loved Yelp on my laptop and I love it even more on my phone for easy access to reviews of nearby businesses.  I don’t even need to know where I am.  I just hit the geolocate button and it will map out where I am and directions to nearby businesses.

Need to check flight or hotel prices quickly?  Search 1000s of travel sites at Kayak.  Of course there are other travel price comparison sites (Priceline, Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, etc.) you can check also if you like but their apps are either non-existent or have severely limited features at this time so you are just better off visiting the regular websites.

Make your friends jealous by sharing your travel photos with them on Facebook.  You can take photos and video on your phone and upload them instantly.  It is amazing how many people I hadn’t seen in years that I have met up with because they saw in my status updates that I was going to be in the same location as them.

Why do you need the Skype app when you can just make a call on your iPhone?  Because sometimes you go over your minutes or you are calling overseas.  Skype rules for cheap calls.  The only snafu: You can’t Skype over the 3G network so you have to be in a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Take a spin around the a virtual globe with Google Earth.  A very cool app to zoom in from outer space to your current location or spin the globe and daydream about your next travel adventure.

The iPhone is an amazing multi-functional travel gadget.  The apps and hardware (longer battery life, please) are only going to get better.  Mobile is the future.