Lonely Planet finally launches country guide apps, kicking off with 6 iOS editions

Lonely Planet has launched a series of new country guide apps for iOS devices, with the new range kicking off with Italy, Ireland, France, Spain, Australia and Costa Rica.

Each edition costs $9.99 USD (£6.99 GBP), and true to form the guides contain content and recommendations from experts with intimate knowledge and experience of the destinations.

They also contain detailed maps for the entire country, working entirely offline so you don’t have to worry about roaming fees.

The apps combine background information on each country, practicalities, suggested itineraries, and thousands of author recommended places to eat, drink, sleep, shop and visit. The series include information on every region that’s covered in their equivalent print guidebooks.

The offline maps allow you to zoom in to a particular region, city, neighborhood or street. And you can pinpoint your location on the map using GPS. It’s also easy to flip between the maps and text.

“Lonely Planet has established itself as an industry leader in the travel app space with almost 10m downloads of our city guide apps,” says Jeremy Kreitler, VP Wireless Services for Lonely Planet. “Responding to user feedback and given the popularity of country guidebooks, we are excited to be the first travel guide publisher to extend our product range to include country guide apps.”

Whilst the apps are available to buy directly from within the Apple’s App Store, they can also be bought as in-app purchases within the Lonely Planet Travel Guides App, its digital repository app for all things Lonely Planet.

Lonely Planet already has audio and walking guides, phrasebooks and offline translator apps, as well as seventy city guide apps available in the App Store. Indeed, last year we reported that it was making its NYC guide available for free for a few days in the build up to Christmas. We also reported on Wenzani, a local travel app curated by friends and experts.

➤ [Lonely Planet] Italy | Ireland | France | Spain | Australia | Costa Rica