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The travel app written by pros, edited by you

Monday, 6th Aug 2012
by Richard Speigal, Editor

Seville

The trouble with travel guides is that they’re out of date the moment you buy them – even before that, really. And the trouble with travel websites is that you can’t carry them in your bag and read them on the plane.

Blue Works, an app developer based in Bath, has solved this by repackaging Hunter Publishing’s professional travel writing into iPhone apps that allow you to read the guide, add your own notes and photos before, during and after you travel, and (this is the really clever bit) provide the latest information to your fellow travellers within the app.

Become the editor

So, for example, if you find that a tourist attraction is, say, no longer open on a Wednesday afternoon as it says in the guide, you add a page note to this effect and everyone else with the app gets that message. Similarly if a price has changed, or a telephone number, or a hotel website, or…well…anything. And because you’ve got the app too, you get the updates from everyone else.

Even better, the professional travel writers behind the guides have accounts too, so they’ll be verifying, updating and sharing information all the time.

The company are producing new titles all the time (apparently, there will be around 500 covering the globe in the end!) but they’ve already published 4 Spain-related books by Kelly Lipscomb, covering Andalucia, Southern Spain, Madrid and The Basque Country.

How to get the app

Each app gives a substantial insight into the history, culture, geography, ecology and generic travel aspects of Spain as a whole, before delving into the specifics of its regions. The Andalucia app covers the region in depth from the coast to the Sierra Morena, giving more detail on the sights to see, including those that are away from the beaten track, as well as the more obvious. The usual accommodation and restaurant information is there too, along with recommendations for transport, including good deals.

The apps have only just been launched for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and are priced around the same as the Kindle versions. Given the extra bells and whistles in the app version - particularly that you can plan and record your travel notes and photos within the book (try doing that on your Kindle!!) – and that the community of travellers sharing updates is going to grow, it all seems like money (£7.49 or €8.99) well-spent to me.

Download from the App Store at: itunes.apple.com/gb/app/andalucia/id541004184

Tags: costa del sol, gadgets, history

Related holiday pages: Costa del Sol, Inland Andalucia

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About the author

Richard Richard quit his job and founded España Breaks with wife and business partner Lisa back in 2002. The couple enjoyed a life in Spain for some years and brought back a passion for all things Spanish. They now run their company from Bath where they live with their very lively son Oscar. Richard remains madly enthusiastic for everything Spain, travel and web related.

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