The Healix Travel Vaccination app (compatible with iPhone, iTouch and iPads) lists all of the immunizations required of and recommended for visitors to any country. Information on health risks is included. The free app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store.
The hotel “meta-search” engine Trivago.com has an application that allows smartphone users to search the Internet for hotel rooms while on the road.
The free app “Copenhagen Open” has information on the city’s restaurants, shops, attractions, events and more. The proximity of each site to your location is given along with a description, open hours, prices, contact info, etc.
From the city’s visitors’ bureau, Wonderful Copenhagen, preview the app on the website and download it to your smartphone by texting the code “cphopen” to +4522904000.
Language Services Associates has an iPhone/Android app, INTERPRETALK® Mobile, which allows users to connect to a live interpreter, for any of 15 languages, in less than 30 seconds.
Using your smartphone anywhere you have cell phone and Internet service, download the free app from the iPhone App Store or Android Market, enter your contact and credit card billing information, request an interpreter from the language list and click on the “connect” button. While the interpreter is on the line, you are charged $2.89 per minute.
Switzerland Tourism’s “City-Guide Zurich” iPhone app, available for free download from the Apple iTunes Store, allows users to find interesting places and events in the city or the quickest route to a hotel or ATM.
The offline guide includes an integrated city map; public transport information, and tours with text and pictures to help you explore the city independently. All content is available in German, English, French, Italian and Spanish.
In Paris, violent thefts on the Métro, trains and buses rose 40% in 2010, and police say that more than half of the thefts in recent months involved cell phones, particularly “smartphones” (iPhones seem to be targeted).
Security tips — be cautious of where and when you pull your phone out in public; keep it in a zipped pocket, and avoid sitting or standing next to an exit door (thieves snatch and run).
The Israel Ministry of Tourism has released the iSrael iPhone and iPad application, which provides detailed, regularly updated information on tours, accommodations, leisure activities and events in Israel and includes mapped directions to heritage sites, archaeological sites, museums and nature reserves.
To download it in English or Hebrew, type “Israel tourism” in the Apps search bar on an iPhone or iPad or visit http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/israel-tourism/id393773314?mt=8. For info on travel to Israel, visit www.goisrael.com.
Before our trip to Eastern Europe in August and September ’09, my husband, Fred, and I bought an updated Garmin GPS with the Europe map — very easy to use.
orldI read Ed Graper’s letter “World Cell Phone” (March ’10, pg. 48) and have a few comments.
In response to Lawrence Schonbrun’s “Person to Person” question (Nov. ’09, pg. 77), using a cell phone worldwide is easy. You need just two things: a “world phone” and service.