Useful Travel Apps for Alaska?

While we were in Hawaii in March on the Pride of America, we downloaded and used the Gypsy Guide App on our smartphone as we toured by rental car in each port. The app was basically a tour guide narration that was triggered by GPS locations as we drove and worked WONDERFULLY! It was like having our own personal tour guide!

Does anyone know if there is anything similar for Alaska? We hope to drive the Yukon Highway from Skagway next summer and it would be great to have an app that tells us a little bit about the sights along the way. We have used Murray's Guide when we did this drive a couple of years ago, but having a GPS guide would eliminate the need for someone to be constantly reading as we drove.

And on a related note...are there any other type of Alaskan travel apps that anyone can recommend?

While we were in Hawaii in March on the Pride of America, we downloaded and used the Gypsy Guide App on our smartphone as we toured by rental car in each port. The app was basically a tour guide narration that was triggered by GPS locations as we drove and worked WONDERFULLY! It was like having our own personal tour guide!

 

Does anyone know if there is anything similar for Alaska? We hope to drive the Yukon Highway from Skagway next summer and it would be great to have an app that tells us a little bit about the sights along the way. We have used Murray's Guide when we did this drive a couple of years ago, but having a GPS guide would eliminate the need for someone to be constantly reading as we drove.

 

And on a related note...are there any other type of Alaskan travel apps that anyone can recommend?

Not likely to find such an app. The demand isn't there for some one to spend the time writing it.

It's not an app, but pick up a copy of the Milepost. They had an app, but I think they dropped it.

***Update: They do have an app. You get the app free and then you can download the entire guide so it's on your device.

It's not an app, but pick up a copy of the Milepost. They had an app, but I think they dropped it.

 

***Update: They do have an app. You get the app free and then you can download the entire guide so it's on your device.

Sounded good until I checked a little closer...

The app is free, but to download the guide costs $24.99 and the reviews were pretty bad. I would be better off just buying the guide I think.

Thanks though! :)

FYI - Check your cell carrier's coverage for Alaska. I doubt that a cell phone app that needs service would work well there. In port you may have service but traveling outside of town maybe iffy.

I have Sprint and I've been researching their coverage for Alaska and the ports we'll be at so that I'll know what I can and can't expect to receive.

FYI - Check your cell carrier's coverage for Alaska. I doubt that a cell phone app that needs service would work well there. In port you may have service but traveling outside of town maybe iffy.

 

I have Sprint and I've been researching their coverage for Alaska and the ports we'll be at so that I'll know what I can and can't expect to receive.

Can you tell me what ports your Sprint will work in? I also have Sprint.

Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk

FYI - Check your cell carrier's coverage for Alaska. I doubt that a cell phone app that needs service would work well there. In port you may have service but traveling outside of town maybe iffy.

 

I have Sprint and I've been researching their coverage for Alaska and the ports we'll be at so that I'll know what I can and can't expect to receive.

The nice thing about the Gypsy Guide apps that we used in Hawaii was that they didn't use any data to operate...they just needed to receive a GPS signal.

Here's a link to Sprint's coverage map, https://coverage.sprint.com/IMPACT.jsp you may have to input the port name to see the coverage for that specific area. I was reading that for the most part it's roaming, but you won't be charged, but I was going to call Sprint to make sure.

Sprint may work, but again coverage usually in the towns, and less coverage outside of town, generally speaking.

I wished Alaska had a driving tour guide app. It will be a lot of fun driving on those scenic highway

My fav app is Maps.Me.

http://maps.me/en/home

Once the maps are downloaded, I don't used to use the data on my phone. Great product during the cruise when you are trying to identify the land mass near you.

My fav app is Maps.Me.

http://maps.me/en/home

 

Once the maps are downloaded, I don't used to use the data on my phone. Great product during the cruise when you are trying to identify the land mass near you.

Thank you!

We used the Alaska App last year and it was wonderful. We never would have seen as much as we did without it. Someone does have to read it, but it tells you everything along the way. http://www.thealaskaapp.com/

Thanks for recommending The Alaska App. Just downloaded it and it looks great!

We are going to use the Murray Guide that another Cruise Critic member recommended.

http://www.explorenorth.com/library/roads/south_klondike_hwy.html

The Denali Life app. Although they haven’t added them yet, it will include shuttle schedules for getting around glitter gulch.

http://denalilife.mobapp.at/landing/Desktop#.WQFg98a1uUk

 

Does anyone know if there is anything similar for Alaska? We hope to drive the Yukon Highway from Skagway next summer and it would be great to have an app that tells us a little bit about the sights along the way.

I'm not sure what type of vehicle you are using, but we are renting a jeep from Alaska Green Jeeps, it comes with a gps and a DVD narrated tour and maps.

I'm not sure what type of vehicle you are using, but we are renting a jeep from Alaska Green Jeeps, it comes with a gps and a DVD narrated tour and maps.

Not quite as handy as a GPS guided tour commentary, but still nice!

I just checked the Green Jeeps website and unfortunately the price ($235 withOUT tax) is about double what we are paying for a one-day rental from Avis ($125 with tax). Guess we will stick with Murray's Guide and we can take turns being the "reader".

We used the Alaska App last year and it was wonderful. We never would have seen as much as we did without it. Someone does have to read it, but it tells you everything along the way. http://www.thealaskaapp.com/

Thank you! I've used their site and booked several activities I'd not seen elsewhere.

We used the Alaska App last year and it was wonderful. We never would have seen as much as we did without it. Someone does have to read it, but it tells you everything along the way. http://www.thealaskaapp.com/

This looks like a great app to have but it looks like it's only available for Apple. I can't find a version for my Android phone.

Can you tell me what ports your Sprint will work in? I also have Sprint.

 

Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk

We have Sprint .we visited Anchorage/ Talketna/Wasilla area the last few years...we were told SPRINT does not have towers on Alaska so you will be roaming. We can talk and text but don't use data unless hooked up to the internet.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

We have Sprint .we visited Anchorage/ Talketna/Wasilla area the last few years...we were told SPRINT does not have towers on Alaska so you will be roaming. We can talk and text but don't use data unless hooked up to the internet.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

I added the Sprint Open World plan to my phone a few months ago that has free calls, texts, and 1 GB of data in Mexico, Canada and some other Latin America countries. Apparently this plan has been discountinued, but I was assured that I am grandfathered in and still have the plan. Now they are offering a plan called (I think) Sprint Global Roaming...or something like that, but calls outside the U.S. are now 20 cents/minute.

Travel Alaska in the Google Play Store is a decent app. Chimani Kenai Fjords is a new app - I'll be trying out for our Seward/Kenai Fjords visit in August.

As for Sprint - we've had an unlimited data plan for years, and we've never had cell coverage issues in any port, except maybe Icy Strait. We drove Anchorage to Fairbanks and down to Soldotna, and had issues with suing data (no additional charges) during our travels.

L.J.

There are all kinds of Alaska apps in the Google Play store. Alaska 511 looks useful to drivers, although since so much of the state doesn't have data service, you'd probably need to look your planned route up while you are somewhere with wifi. There are a couple of Alaska Wallpaper apps if you want to get in the mood. ;) I downloaded Travel Juneau and Alaska Magazine as well as Travel Alaska, haven't looked at any of them yet.

I found Maps.ME not particularly useful. It didn't find our actual location on board - while connected to WiFi it thought we were in Cuba, when not connected to wifi it never found a location at all. It did find our location in towns, and in fact I used it in Juneau to drive to Mendenhall and then back to downtown, but it couldn't find attractions by name (didn't have Glacier Gardens, for example). It didn't pinpoint our position during the flight when the phone was in airplane mode with GPS enabled. (The app says it will take longer to find its position that way, but when it was still searching after 20 minutes, I gave up.) I guess you can say it's worth what I paid for it, but I was disappointed it wasn't more useful.

Just back from our 2 week cruise to Alaska.

Did not try to use the Maps.me app, but did have fun using Google Maps. Even with my phone in airplane mode, Google would show our current GPS location. Sometimes it took a minute or two once I turned the phone on for the location to register. The whole concept is pretty amazing to me actually!

I had a couple of large paper maps clipped to our cabin wall and although Google Maps didn't show many location names, it was easy to compare the app to the paper maps and determine where we were.

As far as using Sprint when we were in ports...not great. My phone was always on roaming and even trying to send texts was hit or miss. I had a free internet (250 minute) package on our ship so not being able to use my phone wasn't much of an issue. I thought it would be fun to have internet access on the trip, but found I really didn't use it much. At the end of the cruise I still had over 2 hours of time left!