Archive for 2008
Sep 5th, 2008
iPhone: Best Travel Accessory Ever — Part 2
In the last post I covered all of the apps that come pre-installed. This time I’ll be covering applications that I downloaded from the App Store. These range in price from free to $9.99.
PageOnce
Cost: Free. I can keep track of all my bank accounts with one glance so I will know when I start to run out of money.
iXpenseit
Cost: $4.99. Allows me to keep track of my day to day spending. I can set up different categories such as lodging, transportation and food. And then I can see reports on how much we’ve spent so far.
Currency
Cost: Free. Keeps me up-to-date on the current exchange rate.
Lonely Planet Italian Phrase Book
Cost: $9.99. The usefulness of this one should be painfully obvious. The bonus is it not only shows you what the phrase is, it speaks it aloud for you so you can here the proper pronunciation.
FileMagnet
Cost: $4.99. Allows me to upload PDFs and other files to my iPhone. I can keep handy maps to the various Rick Steves’ walking tours, hotel reservation confirmations, and train schedules.
I know there are a lot of reports out there right now about people experiencing problems with their iPhones, but I haven’t had any of these issues. Mine works perfectly.
Posted in Travel Tools | No Comments
Aug 6th, 2008
iPhone: Best Travel Accesory Ever — Part 1
Is the iPhone the greatest travel accessory ever? I’m pretty convinced it is thanks to the iTunes App Store. There is an application to cover just about all your travel logistic needs. Here are the ones I think will be particularly helpful and how I plan to use them both before and during our trip to Italy.
I’ll start with the built in applications and in another post I’ll cover ones I’ve gotten from the App Store (both free and purchased).
Maps
I plug in the address of our hotels and bookmark them for later referal, then I take a screen shot of the maps and organize them into their own photo album (to take a screen shot hold down the home button and then press the power button). When I need to see where we’re staying I can call up the Photos application and voila! Now if only I could access my customized Google Maps and view all of my bookmarked locations at once it would truly be perfect.
Contacts
In Contacts I’ve entered all of the phone numbers and addresses of the hotels where we’ll be staying and organized them into a separate group. I’ve done the same thing with emergency contact numbers, like credit cards, banks and our pet sitters.
Calendar
In Calendar, I’ve entered our itenerary including flight and train information, and which hotels we’re staying in on which days. Plus any reservations we have for tourist attractions (like the Last Supper in Milan, and the Uffizi and Acadamy in Florence).
Safari and Mail
The usefulness of these will depend on the prevalence of free WiFi, but lots of hotels include that so I should be able to check email, and post to the blog on a fairly regular basis without having to hunt down and pay for an internet cafe.
iPod
This one is really self explanatory. But I will say I don’t know how anyone survived a transatlantic flight before iPods existed.
That’s all for now, check back later for part 2.
Posted in Travel Tools | No Comments
Aug 3rd, 2008
aTravelogue 3.0
Welcome to the brand new redesign of aTravelogue.com. This website has lain fallow for a while now and for that, I apologize. But now with a fresh new design and a trip to Italy approaching very soon, I hope to be posting here a bit more frequently.
You’ll notice that this site is far from complete. I’m hoping to be putting up more of the old information along with new stuff in the next few weeks.
In the meantime, let me know what you think of the redesign (and if anything isn’t working like it should.
Posted in Maintenance | No Comments
Mar 20th, 2008
Honeymoon in Italy
I finally broke down and bought our tickets to Italy this week so it’s time to start planning in earnest. And just in time for our trip, I see that Rick Steves has put up a series of iPod tours for Italy. Excellent.
I have recenty started reading his Italy book, and we’ve been working our way through his Italy shows. I’ve got a vague outline for our itinerary and should be firming it up in the months to come. I do know that our trip will start in Milan and end in Rome, it’s the middle bit that is still fuzzy.
Posted in Travel Tools | No Comments
Feb 7th, 2008
Hammocks
Originally uploaded by fauxbro.
If you come back from the Yucatan with one impression only, it is likely to be this: they make hammocks.
In fact not only do they make them there, the are aggressive about selling them. On the beach, in the shops, at the ruins…
These hammocks, however, were innocently hanging in a shop, not trying to force themselves on anyone. The shop was right next store to Treseluna (or something like that) where we had breakfast nearly everyday we were in Tulum. IT was delicious.
Posted in Mexico, Photos | No Comments
