TripIt launches a free iPhone app for travel planning

Name: Budget Travel LLC
Price range: $

By Beth Collins

October 3, 2012

We've been singing the praises of TripIt, a free online travel organizer, since it launched in September 2007. We love how the site makes it ridiculously easy to keep track of the millions of reservations (flight, car, hotel, restaurant, etc.) that go into even the smallest trips.

Now there's something else to love (well, if you own an iPhone, at least): the new TripIt iPhone application. Tons of users were asking for it, so TripIt not only designed the app, but made it free—a nice touch. Instead of having to go to the website, you can just download the app and access your full travel itinerary right away. TripIt will be making a big announcement about it tomorrow, but it's already live on iTunes, so there's no need to wait.

EARLIER

See our earlier blog post on TripIt: "A neat trip-planning tool."

Plan Your Next Getaway

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D.C.: Smithsonian is extending museum hours this summer

Three of the most visited museums in Washington, D.C., will stay open later in the evening this summer. While the museums don't charge admission, officials hope that visitors will use the extra hours to spend more money in gift shops and restaurants—helping to bring in revenue to the for-profit arm of the Smithsonian Institution. Every day through Labor Day, the National Air and Space Museum and National Museum of Natural History will stay open two hours later, until 7:30 p.m. The National Museum of American History, recently re-opened after an $85 million renovation, will stay open at least an hour later. The museums open at 10 a.m. daily. Meanwhile, after being closed for an 18-month renovation, Ford's Theater has reopened with improved seating, upgraded lighting and sound systems, and—best of all—a new timed-ticketing system that allows travelers to plan their visit in advance, rather than wait in line all morning. Details at Ford's Theater. Washington, D.C., is our pick of one of the top ten budget travel destinations of the year, especially for families. EARLIER The National Museum of American History re-opens after a multi-million dollar renovation

Travel Tips

Greyhound gets fancy new buses and gives away tickets via Twitter

Greyhound has debuted new buses on its routes out of New York City to Boston, Montreal, and Toronto, and the company will replace the rest of its fleet in the coming months. Perks on the new buses include free Wi-Fi, three inches of additional leg room, and power outlets for charging laptops and other devices. To celebrate Greyhound's exciting new changes, BudgetTravel.com's This Just In blog is partnering with Greyhound for a ticket giveaway. You have a chance to win one of two pairs of round-trip tickets good for any Greyhound route in the U.S. and/or Canada. To be entered to win, Budget Travel readers need to join the free Twitter.com microblogging service and follow @GreyhoundBus (at (twitter.com/GreyhoundBus) and/or @BudTravel, post a Tweet (in other words, a short message) along these lines: So exciting! @GreyhoundBus redefines bus travel with its more comfortable #NewBus! @BudTravel [this Budget Travel blog post, or http://budurl.com/w8s7] Greyhound will select one lucky winner each day, over the next two calendar days. It will announce the winner here on our blog, This Just In, and on Twitter in our budtravel newsfeed. Contest open to anyone in the US and Canada, but: The winner must be 18 or over. Greyhound and Washington Post company employees are not eligible. Not valid for Province of Quebec residents. Void where prohibited. UPDATE: CONGRATS TO http://twitter.com/travelinganna, OUR FIRST WINNER (3:45 p.m. ET, Tuesday) Twitter is the free service for posting and reading 140-character messages on the Internet, using your computer or a smartphone. Many of its users are avid travelers and share great tips. EARLIER Buses are back, at least for trips between cities

News

Back from Paris and ready to report

Now that I've (barely) recovered from macaron withdrawal, I wanted to thank you again for all of the advice you gave me before I left! Your comments were a great resource as I scouted the city. I made it to almost every macaron establishment mentioned in the comments, so stay tuned for a slide show about my discoveries and preferences. I'd particularly like to thank Melissa Whitlock, Kate, Anne Buchanan, and Melissa for their suggestions. Thanks also to Elizabeth and Margaret for their recommendations of Studio 28 and all the movie houses along rue Champollion. When I stopped by the Art Deco movie palace Grand Rex, though, I learned it has the unfortunate habit of dubbing all its international films into French. I'll be compiling all my research into an article about destination-worthy cinemas throughout the city. Carla in Canada suggested a great falafel place in the Marais—thank you! L'As du Fallafel was fantastic. Let me follow that up by saying that if you continue along rue des Rosiers towards the Pompidou center and make a right at Rue Vielle du Temple, you'll spot a park lined with benches a little bit up on your left; it's an ideal falafel-eating location. I'll be posting more Paris articles and hotel reviews in the coming weeks—plus, if all goes well, a somewhat-humorous video about trying to crack the Velib bike system. As always, your feedback is welcome!

Germany: The centuries-old Oberammergau Passion Play reboots in 2010

Mark your calendars now for summer 2010, when the Oberammergau Passion Play will be performed for the first time since 2000. The five-hour play, which begins with Jesus entering Jerusalem and follows the story through his death and resurrection, involves more than 2,000 actors and singers, many of them locals from this Bavarian town about 60 miles southwest of Munich. Performed for 102 days every 10 years, the show attracts viewers from around the world—nearly 500,000 of them each time. Oberammergau has been hosting this spectacle every decade since 1634. Why the devotion? Back in the 1600s, the bubonic plague was wiping out villages left and right; the Oberammergau townspeople made a pledge to God that they'd perform the Passion Play every 10 years, in return for his mercy. As they say, the rest is history. The first performance isn't until May 2010, but tickets go on sale this month and sell-out quickly. Consider letting a tour operator complete the experience for you—Trafalgar Tours has already announced 15 itineraries with tickets to the play included (the cheap seats, purchased separately, start at $65). It sounds like a beautiful experience—two acts, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, of nonstop action, in an impressive open-air theater with hillside views. The whole play is in German (with English translations on paper), but with material this dramatic, it's sure to make an impression regardless.

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