RoadsideAmerica.com, a popular site devoted to fun and quirky tourism attractions, including those on Route 66, launched an application for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch a few days ago.
The app costs $2.99 for one of six U.S. regions, or you can pay $5.99 a year to cover the entire country. It works with iPhones and iPod Touches with operating systems of 3.0 and higher.
Screen shots of the app and a list of features can be found here and here. The app is loaded with road-friendly features, including:
- In the network, the app will provide you the nearest attractions, driving directions, phone numbers, hours of operation, and reader tips.
- The app contains 70 categories. Also, “the app photo galleries display thousands of never before-published images, and access to special “research” attraction targets not yet on the web site!”
- The app is set up so you can send tips and photos to the RoadsideAmerica.com site, plus Facebook and Twitter.
- Special road-trip tools, including Sunset Alert for scheduling photo ops and Tourist Interruptus that gives you a fake phone call and gives you an excuse from overstaying your welcome to a tourist trap.
According to RoadsideAmerica.com, the app contains access to more than 6,300 tourism sites.
Merging of fun with functionality, I suspect this app will become a big hit. The Roadside America app can be downloaded through iTunes.
UPDATE: I finally had a chance to download it Monday. (I would have sooner, except I left my iPod Touch at the office during the New Year’s weekend — Doh!) The app works even better than I anticipated. It’s fast, it’s easy to use and read, and it even found an offbeat road attraction less than three miles from my house that I didn’t even know existed. Highly recommended.
Just downloaded the app and opened the all-U.S. feature. Some of the content comes from the old book – but the app’s access to current tips makes up for most any concern of out-of-date-ness. And the “themes” option enables the creation of customized roadtrips. Who knows? Our 2011 summer vacation might be based on “zombie army” or “utopia”! So far, this looks like a winner!
Hi Andrew — Doug from RoadsideAmerica.com. Thanks for checking out the app! The only old book content you might encounter would be a small group of “golden” stories (also appearing on the web site), where the attraction has essentially remained unchanged. And even these places tend to have more recent visitor tips letting us know if a statue’s shirt was painted a different color, or something vital! We update the attraction facts (phone, address, hours, etc) as soon as we hear about a change. Bonus: The app includes several hundred “research” places not yet on the web site — we’re hoping travelers notice these are nearby, and can shoot a quick photo or tip over to us.