mTrip Blog » Travel

Three New iPhone Travel Guides – Dublin, Istanbul & Munich

Sabrina — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:09:08 +0000

mTrip has three new city guides available – you can now travel with mTrip to Dublin, Istanbul and Munich.

All guides are available for download in the App Store – Get more information at mTrip

All travel guides currently available include: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, London, Madrid, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Washington, Dublin, Istanbul and Munich, with new guides being added monthly.

If you have any questions about the guides please don’t hesitate to get in touch - support @ mtrip dot com

Don’t forget to leave a rating in the App Store!

Thanks for your support,

The mTrip Team

New Features & Updates on mTrip!

Sabrina — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:57:58 +0000

As a new and growing company, mTrip is constantly evolving with new technology and features so travelers will always have the most intelligent and animated trip experiences. At mTrip’s launch we put much focus on two of our most unique and technologically advanced features – Augmented Reality (AR) and the brilliant mTrip Genius.

As you may already know, Augmented Reality is one of the newest and most exciting features on iPhone apps, especially in the travel industry. AR allows travelers to not only gain a greater perspective of their surroundings, but also to get a quick snapshot of all the tourist attractions, restaurants, hotels etc in any given area. While more and more developers are starting to add AR to their apps, mTrip was one of the first in the travel industry to launch this feature, even ahead of Lonely Planet.

Last week we talked about the mTrip Genius, a travel itinerary planner like no other. It generates your trip itinerary based on all the important factors you would normally take into account before planning a travel itinerary – trip dates, accommodation, travel interests, pace preference, traveler ratings and so on.

The Genius looks simple but what’s really going on behind the scenes only the intelligent algorithm knows! Leave that to us!

The mTrip Genius technology is exclusive to mTrip!

So what’s new on mTrip, you ask?

Search Function

Whereas before the mTrip search function allowed you to find a point of interest within a specific category, you can now search much more broadly.

Once you are in the app, just go into the ‘More’ tab and tap on ‘Search’ – start entering the point of interest name or even street name and mTrip’s travel directory will pull up the matching queries. Each search query that is populated will indicate what type of point of interest it is – restaurant, hotel, attraction, etc…

Multi-Tasking on iOS 4

If you have the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 and you have updated your system to iOS 4, multi-tasking will be one of your greatest tools. Lets say you want to add a new hotel to the travel guide but you don’t know the address and therefore need to access the Internet. Instead of quitting the app and starting over, you simply double tap the home screen button; this will bring you to more options for choosing what you want to do next. When you are done, double tap it again to return to mTrip.

Currency Converter

Go into the ‘More’ tab in the mTrip app to access the new currency converter and get exchange rates for the city you are visiting. Do note that the currency converter will give you the exchange rate for the city associated with the travel guide you purchased (if you purchased mTrip Paris it will give you the Є exchange rate). It will use your home currency automatically for the exchange rate but if you want to change that, go into ‘Settings’ in the ‘More’ tab and simply change your home currency. Don’t forget – within each point of interest in the travel guide directory, mTrip already lists out prices in your home currency. The work there is already done for you!

New Design for Directions

mTrip has simplified its design within the Map, for getting directions to and from points of interest. Now you simply tap on either the walking symbol or the subway symbol to get where you need to go, fast.

Edit/Delete Points of Interest

For those mTrip users that are creating their own updates to the travel guide, this will be a helpful update. If you add a point of interest to the travel guide and later decide you want to edit or delete it, no problem – the option is now given to you. Simply go into your Favorites and edit or delete the point of interest from there.

Additional Travel Guides Added

This month mTrip added five new city guides to its repertoire – Madrid, Moscow, Vienna and Washington, D.C. We are frequently adding new city guides monthly so check back soon for the latest travel guides!

Download an mTrip Travel Guide for iPhone and iPod Touch!

Image source: Augmented Planet - http://www.augmentedplanet.com/2010/09/mtrip-augmented-reality-city-guides/

Thanks to the 280,000 travelers who downloaded mTrip Travel Guides!

Sabrina — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:07:37 +0000

mTrip just reached its two month anniversary since launching its travel guides and after such a short time, we would like to thank the 280,000 travelers who have chosen to upload the travel guides to their iPhone’s and iPod’s.

We have received tons of positive feedback and comments in the App Store and directly via email, Twitter and Facebook. The enthusiastic reactions of travelers is very encouraging for us, especially as such a young start-up who was only developed in October 2009.

With the initial launch of mTrip, we published nine travel guides in five languages. By the end of September, we should have about 20 destinations in seven languages available! Also, do stay tuned for other exciting surprises come September

We would like to say a special thank you to the travelers who provided suggestions for new features and also for providing their experiences having traveled with mTrip on their iPhones and iPods. Some suggestions have been incorporated into the next update, which will be available in about one week. Many of the other suggestions have been incorporated into the update which users will see in September. It should be noted that the updates are always free!

If you have any comments or suggestions, please email us at support@mtrip.com

We regularly distribute free travel guides to those who follow us on Facebook. To follow us on Facebook, simply click on the button “Like” below.

At such early stages, we are really happy to announce our forward-moving footsteps thanks only to our fans! We appreciate your support and hope you continue to travel with mTrip!

mTrip Genius is no lightweight trip planner!

Sabrina — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:54:29 +0000

mTrip Travel Guides launched just two months ago with some of the best technology for travel apps out there. One of mTrip’s most unique trip planning features is the all mighty MTRIP GENIUS!!!

This feature is exclusive technology, in other words, mTrip is the only travel application offering this complex feature. The mTrip Genius is like your personal tour guide because not only does it plan your trip itinerary, it also guides you around the city to each point of interest you plan to visit. Let me explain…

For the traveler, its simple because the mTrip Genius does the thinking for you; however, what may look like a simple trip itinerary planner is really the work of a genius algorithm calculating your trip itinerary to absolute perfection. Visiting a new city? Don’t know what neighborhoods to visit? What attractions to see? How to order your trip?

So what elements are packed into the mTrip Genius’ algorithm to create your most customized trip itinerary?

* Trip Dates * When you launch the app, a screen pops up that asks you to indicate your trip dates on a calendar – the day you arrive at your destination and the day you return. Further, you are asked to specify what period of the day you are leaving.

* Accommodation * Next, you are asked to tell the guide where you are staying for the duration of your trip. The point is to tell the guide your start point for your trip so mTrip can create an itinerary that makes geographical sense. You have multiple options – you can find your hotel in mTrip’s travel directory, add a place to the guide (if the hotel is for some reason not in the directory or if you are staying with a family member, for example), OR you can simply choose ‘City Center’ if for example you don’t know where you are staying. You can always change your start point later and re-order your trip.

* mTrip Genius * Here’s where you get to tell the guide your preferences. Whereas you can choose to create your own trip itinerary from scratch (adding points of interest one by one), I’m going to explain how the Genius does all the work for you.

When you click on the mTrip Genius, you are taken to a screen that asks you to specify your sightseeing preferences. The four main categories are museums, monuments, parks and religious. You can choose the intensity (or lack thereof) for each of these and then you can also choose the intensity of your trip overall. Do you prefer a fast-paced, non-stop globe-trotting experience or do you prefer to slow it down to a strolling pace?

Next, you indicate whether you want the guide to suggest Top Attractions or Alternative Attractions. The way the Genius calculates this is based on traveler ratings and number of ratings. Higher ratings from more people indicates a top attraction whereas high ratings from fewer people indicates an alternative, off-the-beaten path and possibly hidden gem type of attraction! Lastly, tell the guide whether you want to include your favourites in the itinerary. When perusing the guide, you can save a point of interest as a favorite, which will add it to your trip itinerary.

Now you are ready to launch the mTrip Genius! Now that it knows the facts, it can work its magic to create your ultimate trip! This will only take a few seconds and voila! You can view each day of your trip in list or map view. In list view, you will notice that you can get distances and directions to each point of interest. You simply indicate if you want the guide to calculate the route from the previous point of interest in your trip itinerary (this is very helpful when you are actually traveling to and from each place in the order your itinerary suggest) or if you want to choose your current location on the map and get routed from there. You can then view your route step-by-step by either Subway or foot. It’s magical!

What else can you do from your trip itinerary? You can view each point of interest from the travel guide directory so you can get the details and make sure this trip suggestion is of interest to you. If not, you can edit your trip itinerary, remove points of interest, move them around to suit your schedule or even add your own places from the travel guide directory or your own personal ones. You can also change or regenerate your trip itinerary at any time if the weather or your plans change, etc…

Don’t forget to check out the Smart Order tool, another one of mTrip’s Genius functions. This tool will take your entire itinerary and ‘smart order’ it so that it makes sense based on the geographical locations of each point of interest and your starting point (your accommodation or the city centre). Once your trip is Smart Ordered, check out your itinerary in map view. You will notice the logical order of your trip – no more running around the city and wasting valuable time on your awesome vacation!

Did I mention that there are no roaming fees and no Internet connection required for this? What a GENIUS!!!

Any questions about the mTrip Genius? Leave a comment and let us know how we can help!

Get an mTrip Travel Guide! Current travel guides (as of August 20, 2010) include:

Paris Guide
London Guide
Berlin Guide
Rome Guide
Venice Guide

Amsterdam Guide
Barcelona Guide
Madrid Guide
Moscow Guide
Vienna Guide

New York Guide
Chicago Guide
San Francisco Guide
Washington Guide

Traveling Solo? 10 Tips for keeping safe & having fun.

Sabrina — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:46:17 +0000

After being introduced to few solo travel blogs this week, I was inspired by the topic and wanted to share some tips for those independent travelers out there. Solo traveling is a great way to experience a city. Here are a few tips for stay safe while doing it.

Buy a Guidebook geared toward solos

There are a slue of guidebooks out there, all that appeal to different types of travelers. Pick one that can help you plan your trip itinerary and guide you around the city with suggestions of places to visit. If you happen to be a savvy traveler, opt for a guidebook on your phone that can give you directions and maybe even take you around the city in Augmented Reality!

Plan Ahead

Find out how long it will take and how much it will cost to get from the airport to your accommodation or city centre. Taxi drivers more often than not will take you a longer route than necessary.

Check out Independent Travelers Meeting Places

There are a lot of cities that have well-known meccas for solo travelers – these include cafes, bookstores and youth hostels with bulletin boards and calendars of events. You can find inexpensive tours, cheap or free lectures, social gatherings to join and more

Choose your first nights accommodation

At the very least, have your first nights accommodation worked out. Even if you are one of those ‘of the moment travellers’, it’s important while traveling alone to at least have a defined start point.

Keep your identification & money safe

Whether it be your purse or wallet, always be mindful of your belongings. Certain cities are known for pick-pocketers and if you look like a tourist, you are a perfect target.

Don’t look like a tourist

Exude confidence and walk purposefully. If you look lost or confused you are a perfect target. Instead of carrying a huge map and paperback guidebook, opt for a travel guide app on your phone. This is much less obvious and will be an even better resource for getting you around the city.

Keep to open, public places

Especially at night you will want to stick to safe places where there are lots of people around. Be smart about where you choose to go.

Do talk to strangers!

While traveling solo, you want to meet new people and make connections with other independent travelers and locals. Keep your wits about you but don’t be afraid to engage in conversation with people in cafes, hotels and other safe places. You might make some good connections. If you choose to stay at a hostel you are sure to meet lots of like-minded travelers that could even become new travel buddies.

Enjoy your solo experience

Learn to eat alone comfortably and happily. Choose lively bistros and cafes where you are likely to meet interesting people. Try to find places that locals or tourists frequent. Whether you meet tourists or locals they are both great experiences for different reasons.

Be open-minded but safe

People travel alone because its an adventure and a great way to meet new people. Scam artists can be very charming though so you have to be careful who you engage in conversation with, who you trust and where you go. Being open-minded but smart and safe at the same time are the most important things to keep in mind for your solo trip!

Download an mTrip Travel Guide

What do Apple iPhone apps have to offer Travelers?

Sabrina — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:44:48 +0000

The iPhone has opened the door to a world of opportunity not only in the tech world, but also in our personal lives. More and more developers are jumping on board daily to create the most interesting, useful and unique apps for every type of user you can possibly imagine.

From books and music, to travel and weather (and a whole lot more), iPhone apps are appealing to every interest, every daily dilemma and every person.

I could write for hours on how the different categories of iPhone apps benefit users but I want to focus in on the category of Travel.

So, how do iPhone apps help travelers?

From pre-trip planning, to sightseeing and post-trip sharing, there is a vast amount of apps that cover one, some or all of these activities.

Pre-Trip Planning

There are some iPhone travel apps that help you book your flight and then send you your flight itinerary so you have a record on file. Others focus on recommendations for hotels and tourist attractions to visit. Before you even leave for your trip, you can have your entire trip itinerary planned out, day by day, activity by activity. Some travel apps even take into account ones personal travel interests, trip dates and geographical locations to determine the most personalized trip for the user.

Sightseeing

This is obviously the big one. It’s not unusual for a traveler to stop by a bookstore before a trip and pick up a travel guide to take along on a trip. While paperback travel guides are the tried and tested solution for those seeking more info on tourist destinations, they don’t necessarily offer the traveler the most advanced and unique trip experience, nor do they offer much more value beyond some trip recommendations.

For travelers seeking a more heightened experience, they can opt for many different types of iPhone apps.

Types of apps include advanced travel guides that might be user-generated and/or produced by travel pro’s, traveler-generated ratings, reviews and comments for tourist attractions, map functions, directions to and from destinations, sharing features like postcards and updates sent through email and social networks, and even Augmented Reality tools which overlay helpful travel info onto one’s phone, allowing the person to experience and learn a city in a way they have never been able to before.

Users have to be careful though as some apps might require Internet and they could incur roaming fees. This is always important to check out before going ahead and buying the app.

Post-Trip Sharing

After a trip, many travelers like to have a place they can store all their memories. More and more developers are taking into consideration this very important need and are adding a new platform to their apps, the Internet. Developers are creating social network sites where travelers can share their trips, photos, memories, ratings, reviews and more with other travelers and always have a place where they can refer back to their trip and remember the good times they had.

Here are a few travel app recommendations we will leave you with:

FlightTrack - Track all your flights worldwide with zoomable maps and real-time departure info

Wi-Fi Finder - The largest directory of paid and free Wi-Fi Internet access in 140 countries

iLanguage - Quick, accurate and easy two-way translations

The Currency Convertor - Updated currency conversion info for all commonly used currencies

For more on planning a trip with the iPhone, visit mTrip Travel Guides

Image source by Okinawa Steve at http://www.flickr.com/photos/15427016@N02/

mTrip is Seeking Guest Travel Bloggers !

Sabrina — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 19:12:52 +0000

Are you passionate about travel and technology? Are you a good writer? Do you have interesting news and advice to share with travelers?

mTrip is seeking guest bloggers who are also travelers themselves. We are looking for writers who are knowledgeable on the topic of travel and are city experts where they live or the cities they have visited. Our readers are looking for the best attractions, restaurants, shopping, hotels, shows, bars and more to visit. Our guest bloggers should be knowledgeable on the best places to visit in cities around the world. This might be the city where one lives or perhaps where one has traveled to. Other topics could include technology and its influence on travel or emerging trends in the travel industry.

If you have what it takes to be an mTrip city expert, get in touch at fenster@mtrip.com. If you have any interesting travel stories or samples to share with us send those along as well.

We look forward to hearing from you!!

Get a Free mTrip Travel Guide on the Fourth of July!

Sabrina — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:28:56 +0000

Celebrate Independence Day with mTrip and grab your free travel guide in the App store on the Fourth of July!

This promotion is open to all customers but it will only be on July 4th. After that all mTrip Travel Guides will go back to their regular price.

Grab a FREE guide and celebrate with us!!!

The travel guides are available for download at the below links or on the App Store.

For other guides (at regular price) visit http://mtrip.com

Happy Fourth of July!

The mTrip Team

AUGMENTED REALITY ON THE IPHONE: A NEW JOURNEY FOR TRAVELERS

Sabrina — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:19:04 +0000

Augmented Reality (AR) appeared on the iPhone a few months ago as an experiment. Some iPhone apps are now offering practical apps in various fields and particularly in the travel industry.

Helpful information is super-imposed onto ones iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, allowing the person to get a snapshot of all the points of interest in any given area.

Its a new journey with AR and this technology offers exciting opportunities for travelers:

• Better understanding of the environment abroad

• A quick snapshot of points of interest in the area (museums, monuments, restaurants, subway stations …)

• An easy and useful guide around the city (no need to read a map)

Characteristics of a good Augmented Reality application include:

• Operation without a connection (using roaming abroad is extremely expensive)

• Not limit to display the names of landmarks and their distances from the screen (to avoid going back and forth between multiple screens, which can be annoying over time)

• Augmented reality must be connected to a comprehensive directory of points of interest in order to show a true snapshot

A travel guide for iPhone that integrates augmented reality, for example, allows a traveler to view the restaurants around the area, display their distances, the types of cuisine, price ranges, the ratings given by travelers, whether a point of interest is open or closed, etc …. and therefore making an informed restaurant choice within a few seconds. Very convenient!

Here is a clip of augmented reality in the mTrip Paris Travel Guide:

Top Five Europe Travel Tips

Sabrina — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:37:59 +0000

Consider Accommodation options

If you are on a budget, consider inexpensive options for your hotel accommodations. Think Hostel or Bed and Breakfast. You can even look into a service called Couch surfer but I don’t advise this unless you are fully comfortable with it. If you choose to stay in a hotel but you are on a budget be sure to research some of your cheaper options. Lastly, if you are traveling alone definitely check out some of the hostels. It’s one of the best ways to meet new friends, connections and even possible travel buddies.

Travel Prepared

Things to include are a travel guidebook or travel guide app on your portable device, paper map or mapping function on your phone, a camera, and at least an idea of the types of attractions or areas of the city you want to visit. Whether you are a super prepared traveler who creates a travel itinerary in advance or a backpacker who plans last minute and goes off the beaten path, being prepared will ensure you get the most out of your trip experience.

Find Travel Passes

Look for passes for trains, museums and more. By doing so you can save a lot of money, especially if you plan on visiting a lot of museums and using the train for the majority of your transportation.

Experience the Local Culture

Taste the local food – it’s a huge part of the culture and it’s a must if you truly want to experience the city you are visiting. Another part of experiencing the culture is getting to know the locals. Your trip experience will be completely different if you take advice from a local or better yet, if you spend some time with locals. They know all the best restaurants and hidden reservoirs you would likely never find on your own. In other words, avoiding the expensive tourist traps and opting for recommendations from locals will be an experience not to forget.

Visit Small Towns and the Countryside

Go off the beaten path from the many museums and monuments in the great cities of Europe. You will get a much better feel for the country you’re visiting if you take a step away from the fast-paced city life. People are friendlier, it’s less noisy, hotel and food are cheaper and the pace is much slower.

If you have any other tips please don’t hesitate to leave comments!

Download one of mTrip’s Europe Travel Guides: Paris Travel Guide, London Travel Guide, Amsterdam Travel Guide, Berlin Travel Guide, Rome Travel Guide or Barcelona Travel Guide.

Image source: kokorowashinjin at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kokorowa/