Do you feel like you need a vacation from planning your family’s summer vacation? Planning a family vacation is a lot of work. With school winding down in less than two weeks for us here in Georgia, I find myself scrambling to get some summer vacation plans set into stone. We hope to make it to Myrtle Beach this summer, and my nieces want a weekend in Atlanta to visit the Georgia Aquarium and to do some shopping. As technology and more specifically apps become ever more present and useful in my day to day life, I find myself utilizing several Windows 8 travel apps to plan our summer travels.
Here are some Windows 8 travel apps that might be very useful for planning your summer vacation:
Bing Travel app for Windows 8 – The built-in Windows 8 Travel app, powered by Bing, lets you explore over 2000 destinations from all over the world through beautiful photos and panoramas. Travel guides, booking tools, real time currency conversion, and weather provide everything you need to turn travel inspirational into your next great trip. The Bing Travel app encourages users to book their air travel and hotel reservations through it, and passes users through to the site of the airline or third-party travel partner via the Internet Explorer browser.
Cool Features:
Explore destinations all over the world. View top attractions, 360 degree panoramas, pictures, maps, and more.
Editorial selected travel articles provide travel inspiration and tips from trusted sources.
The Travel app detects the person’s location via the device’s geolocation detector and fetches search results that are relevant to the your location.
If a user is not ready to book, he or she can “pin” information to the Start menu or share it with another person with a single click.
WorldMate app for Windows 8 – WorldMate is the world’s number one mobile travel app. To use WorldMate simply register an email address, and forward any pertinent travel messages such as flight confirmations or hotel reservations to WorldMate’s website. The app will do the rest, setting up a user-friendly itinerary complete with maps.
Features include:
Itinerary Viewer – Have all your confirmation emails and trip information organized in one place!
Mapping – See where your hotel, car pickup or next meeting is located.
Share your trips via Facebook.
Facebook Log in- Have one less password to remember.
See which friends are nearby to your trip location.
Living Social – Living Social is the Windows 8 app for you, if you are looking for great deals on dining, attractions, and activities. You can browse deals for the city you are visiting, and make purchases right from the app. Focusing mainly on dining and entertainment, the Living Social app shows featured limited-time deals in the surrounding area.
Meet½Way app for Windows 8 – This Meet1/2Way app is great for a road trip. You can use it to find new and interesting venues located half way between you and your destination. If you’re like me and want to plan a stop at the half way point for a potty break, this app will be very helpful. Although, I think the app was intended for finding a compromise or half way point when meeting up with friends or family.
What are your favorite apps or tips for planning vacations?
You might also be interested in learning about my favorite Windows 8 Recipe Apps.
Disclosure: I am a Windows Champions Blogger for 2013. As part of my participation in the program I will have the opportunity to try out new products and promotions.
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Thanks for these apps – I will definitely have to check them out. We travel approximately once a year, by vehicle because it’s cheaper so these will really come in handy!
Even though I’m not planning on actually going away far this summer, I love apps like this that let me dream! Seriously, planning pretend vacations is one of the most relaxing past times!
We’re taking a road trip to Arizona this summer, but we’re taking a more scenic way through Utah. We’re pretty excited as it’s our first real vacation as a family of 6!
I’m deathly afraid of Windows 8!! lol it looks so scary!! My dad is a big fan, so I’ll be sure to pass these travel solutions on to him!
Super helpful apps! We travel a lot so I think I will have to check these out.
Windows 8 literally makes me want to cry, but you have inspired me to investigate what apps we can use to plan some travel this summer. Thanks 🙂
It definitely took a little time for me to get used to Windows 8, but now that I love it.
HA! I never knew my computer could do that! I’m brand new to Windows 8 so that is pretty cool.
Wow, Windows 8 look so cool but I have heard mixed things about it.
Wow I didn’t know about some of these apps. I have really got to get better about keeping up with all the new apps. Thanks for sharing.
One day I hope I’ll need this app. 😉