

Updating your travel apps on your smartphone or tablet at the New Year is a good habit to have—like changing smoke-detector batteries. A number of new and established apps offer more sophisticated tools and information this year to make your travels more enjoyable, easier and safer.

In my own New Year's updating, I tried nearly 50 apps to find the best of breed. Here's a list of my favorites. (All apps are free of charge except where noted.)

For Travel Shopping

There's no single perfect app for shopping for airfare, but Kayak's app sails through the ocean of choices with a lot of power and grace. Kayak searches many data sources seeking the best price information, including checking airline websites and other online reservation sites. It then sends you to the site you select for booking.

Among other sources, Kayak's free app shows fare data from airlines, including the number of flights at that price. Kayak

Airfare can be sorted by price, time, duration, airline, number of stops and preferred layover airport. With hotels, there's a quick search for deals for tonight near you, or you can sort traditional results by star-rating, price, brand, name or distance from a location. Kayak offers a flight tracker, a price alert notification service, an airline directory, baggage-fee directory and airport information. Kayak also offers a packing list feature—basic lists categorized as general, business, romantic and family—and a currency converter as well.

One of the best features is fare "buzz.'' Take a route and pick a month: Buzz shows the "absolute best'' fares and the average fares found in other users' previous searches, and tells you which airline had that price and how old the search was. Fare history is hard to find and extremely valuable. Knowing what other shoppers were offered can let you know whether the fare you're offered is a good deal or not.

TripAdvisor's app has a built-in baggage fee estimator: Tell the app how many bags you plan to check and whether you have elite status on any airlines that would waive bag fees and it builds the fee charges into fare quotes you get. The app also has information on whether Wi-Fi is available on a flight and what the aircraft type is. It also shows the cost of options such as upgrading to a premium economy seat.

Hipmunk's app has an easy-to-read calendar display of fares by date, and trips are shown with a time bar and connections labeled in the middle making it easy to see duration and routing. You can sort by its "agony'' rating: The site looks at connections, history of delays and other factors that make some flights less desirable.

One other shopping app of note: Skyscanner has an easy to use "explore'' function that shows the price to go many different places.

For Pre-Departure Planning

Use SeatGuru to find recommendations for the best seats to reserve on flights. And an app called Seat Alerts can notify you when a seat you want opens up, instead of checking seat maps constantly. The app can be set to look for any window seat or any aisle seat, or for specific seats.

Once you have email confirmations of your bookings, you can organize them into one useful itinerary with the Tripit app. Just set up an account and forward the confirmations to Tripit does a usually accurate job of identifying your airline, hotel and car reservations.

Once you've booked and are ready to go, consider a packing tool like Packing Pro ($2.99). It isn't as obsessive-compulsive as you might think. Packing Pro gives you sample packing lists for men, women, couples and families, as well as business trips, light-packing and super-light packing. There are pre-trip to-do lists, which include taking out the garbage and setting up an automatic email response. You can adjust packing lists based on forecast temperature, whether it's a domestic or overseas trip and whether you'll be washing clothes while traveling. You can create lists from scratch and customize your own lists.

For Flying

Flight tracking is important because travelers need to act fast when things go wrong at airlines—and things often go wrong. Being the first to know of a cancellation or long delay can put you first on the phone or in line to rebook.

FlightTrack Pro, a $9.99 app, offers a host of flight information, including delay history and real-time status. Mobiata

My new favorite: FlightTrack Pro. It costs $9.99, but is well worth it. FlightTrack Pro pushes alerts to your phone or tablet, shows a map of your flight with weather and lets you tap into a host of features, such as terminal maps, Seat-
Guru evaluations and a search function for alternative flights. You can email your flight's status to someone. FlightTrack will sync with Tripit and find trips to track on calendars.

FlightBoard ($3.99), made by Mobiata, the same company that produced FlightTrack, is an app showing airport-like information displays. You can sort the arrivals and departures by city or time, which could be helpful in finding another flight after you miss one.

For those long hours waiting or harried races to connecting flights, there are several useful airport apps worth considering. Travel Nerd gives lots of information about public transportation, phone numbers for shuttle and taxi companies, terminal maps showing airport lounge locations and other amenities. It even has parking rates at airports and nearby hotels, which can be considerably cheaper.

GateGuru has star ratings on airport restaurants as well as discounts offered. It can tell you the closest restaurants depending on where you are in an airport and get you a free pretzel at Auntie Anne's with a special offer on your mobile-phone screen.

For Destinations

Once you get to where you want to go, you'll want to have a good mapping program. Google GOOG +1.41% Google Inc. Cl C U.S.: Nasdaq $579.18 +8.08 +1.41% July 11, 2014 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1.60M AFTER HOURS $580.00 +0.82 +0.14% July 11, 2014 7:53 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 13,060 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap $388.22 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $1,281,680 07/09/14 Publicis Seeks Fresh Outlook o... 07/07/14 OK Glass, Go To The Office 06/23/14 A New Face Near the Top of Goo... More quote details and news » Maps can be invaluable when you're in an unfamiliar city or want to make sure the cabdriver isn't taking the long way.

Travel App Box ($1.99) is a useful tool that includes functions to help convert currency and clothing sizes, use public transportation and look up country codes for phone calls.

For dining, Yelp has long been a good source of restaurant ratings and information. OpenTable's app can help you book a reservation and Alfred, a fun "butler'' app can recommend choices you might like after asking you about some of your hometown favorites.

Write to Scott McCartney at