Best Travel Apps for BlackBerry

I have yet to go to Apple’s Dark Side of mobile technology and have been sticking to my guns with my BlackBerry. My husband and son both have iPhones and love theirs, but I like to type with my fingernails (grin) and that’s just not something I can do with an iPhone. iPhone lovers rave about all their apps for travel, but BlackBerry offers a wide variety as well. Here are a few apps I’ve used on my BlackBerry and some others that I’m trying out real soon.

Planning

• TripIt Travel Organizer puts your itinerary on your BlackBerry, no matter where you booked your travel. It also syncs your plans with your BlackBerry calendar (FREE).
• Before you embark on your next road trip, download MapQuest for Mobile, a free, full-featured mapping and directions application. And while you’re on the road, Simultravel GPS locates hotels near you, displays rates and will connect you with a travel agent to book the room (FREE – for the app, not the room!).
• When traveling abroad, Navita Translator translates more than 50 languages simply by speaking words into your BlackBerry or typing them (FREE).
• Pack the umbrella? Check ahead with WeatherBug, The Weather Channel or Weather Eye (all are FREE).

Dining and Shopping

• Use Poynt and WHERE to find places to dine and shop while exploring a new city (both are FREE).
• To save money on food, Kids Meal Deals provides instant access to thousands of restaurants offering “kids meal deals” and “kids eat free” promotions near you using GPS or ZIP code search (FREE).

Games

• When the natives get restless, keep kids of all ages entertained with hundreds of available games. Examples include: Connect 4 Fun, the classic four-in-a-row Checkers game ($2.99); Hangman Kids, fun to play and a great way to learn new words (FREE); SketchIt, a variation on Etch-A-Sketch that even allows you to save your drawings ($2.99); Super Baby Go!, to amuse even the youngest travelers ($3.99); and Yahtzee Adventures, the popular dice game ($6.99). 

Just For Fun

• Post photos directly to your Flickr account with the Flickr app (FREE).
• Explore the Magic Kingdom right from your BlackBerry with ReadyPath Disneyland ($4.99) and WDW Maps ($2.99).

And Did You Know that BlackBerry has a new Twitter app perfect for sharing details of your trip with friends and family back home? You can now view locations of geotagged tweets with BlackBerry Maps and view tweeted photos from Twitpic, YFrog and TweetPhoto. And best of all, it’s FREE.

Update: I finally went to Apple’s Dark Side once my roller ball fell out of my BlackBerry.