Great Mobile Apps for Your Trip Organize your upcoming trip by turning your phone into the equivalent of a useful and entertainingelectronic Swiss Army knife. Here are 10 excellent road-tested travel apps for you to take with you.Just download and travel on to your destination.

TripIt Here's an app that lets you forward all your confirmation emails from airlines, bus companies,hotels, and more. TripIt also will instantly organize everything into a single trip itinerary that youcan then view on your phone or even on your computer. The service also lets you share itinerarieswith friends or family members, even co-workers. GateGuru If you're hungry but don't have a lot of time between flights, or maybe you've just finished yourbook and need to pick up a new one for the next leg of your trip, here's the app for you. Forgetabout trying to find that elusive wall map of the airport terminal when you deplane from your firstflight, you can get the lay of the airport with GateGuro. The app offers a gate-by-gate list ofrestaurants, shops, services and more in most US and Canadian airports. Skype If you're planning a trip outside the US but don't want to have to return home to a ridiculouslyexpensive cell phone bill, just rely on Skype's mobile phone app. It allows you to make low-costcalls using the Internet instead of using your expensive cell phone provider's expensive per-minuteinternational plan. Combine Skype with free Wi-Fi when you're in the hotel lobby or café of yourchoice, and you'll be calling landlines or other cell phones for just pennies instead of dollars, plus ifthe party you're calling also has Skype, the call is free. HopStop If you've even been lost on that new-to-you public transportation system, don't worry any longer.Just take HopStop with you and plug in your start and end points to find the best train or bus routesin the city you're visiting. HopStop is currently available for use in New York City and Long Island,San Francisco, Paris and even New Jersey. A total of 16 cities, states and different regions altogetherin the U.S. and Europe.

Tweetdeck If you would like recommendations from your Twitter friends or followers for a great hike orrestaurant, boutique hotel or museum, while you're traveling? Just hop on Tweetdeck, and enjoy itseasy-to-use and customizable Twitter client designed for mobile phones. You'll end up happilyloaded down with great replies, like "you've 'gotta try" and "don't miss." If you don't have a Twitteraccount, consider signing up for one free. Travel-info swapping has got to be one of the best reasonsto join the fun. Yelp If you're standing on a hot street corner dreaming of Italian ices, gelato or even a wine bar, just useYelp to search for restaurants and shops. Search by category or by search term. Yelp uses yourphone's GPS to serve up nearby shops, or you can search by ZIP code or city. However, you'll haveto take some of the reviews with a grain of salt because they're written by the people and for thepeople. Clearly, however, some of the people have questionable taste. But, it's a good place to startwhen you're looking for quality stops in a new city. Hipstamatic Of course, your phone snapshots are great, but could they be better, or cooler? Hipstamatic is hereto help. This app's filters do digitally what plastic cameras like the Diana and the Holga do to yoursnapshots, they make them look "arty." Light leaks and wacky exposures make it even more fun.But, beware, Hipstamatic is highly addictive, and, you will probably have at least one friend whowill whine that you're posting too many crazy photos on your Facebook page. AutoStitch The landscape directly in front of you is screaming out for a panoramic photo. With AutoStitch, youcan take 2 to 5 snaps of any scene and they'll be digitally sewn together to create a panorama. Rightthere in your phone while you watch it all happen. Neat. iTalk Lite Photos are nice, but how about a soundtrack to go with those memories from vacation? With iTalk,you can use your phone to capture the sounds of your trip, from bird calls and street sounds to theband around the corner. The free iTalk Sync program lets you download audio to your computerusing Bluetooth. Guide Apps A good guide app is great to have, even though good crowd-sourced information from Twitter orYelp is nice to have, a good guidebook is still number one. The app version works just as well if notbetter. Companies like Not For Tourists and Sutro Media make some high quality guides you canuse that are written by travel experts. When your phone has one or more of these great road-tested travel apps, your upcoming trip isgoing to be a lot more pleasant and entertaining. Just download the apps you want and have a greattrip.