Nothing can ruin a vacation like a lengthy layover spent sitting in an airport, but finding the best use of your short time can be challenging when you’re in an unfamiliar locale. That’s why Travel Channel and personality Anthony Bourdain are stepping in to help, with the new universal app called Travel Channel Layover Guide with Anthony Bourdain.
If you aren’t a fan of Tony B., step away, because this app is all about the chef’s personal tastes, as seen in the first season of The Layover, which wrapped in January. Designed for stays of 24 hours to 48 hours, Layover Guide features all of the places to see, eat and drink that Bourdain recommended on the program. In all, 10 cities are covered: New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Montreal, Singapore, Hong Kong, London, Rome and Amsterdam. More cities are to be added to the app later this year.
To start, Bourdain gives a brief video overview of each city. Then you can see recommended locations and how much time you’ll need to make the trek. The built-in maps are helpful for seeing where you are in comparison to hot spots, but the app could use some improvements when it comes to user friendliness. Layover Guide offers the ability to add your own notes and photos to places recommended by Bourdain, as well as to create your own layover plan. That’s all great, but without being able to add additional locations—say, I really want to hit a gelateria by the Pantheon in Rome instead of the one in Bourdain recommendatins—there’s no way to include that in the app. This flexibility would make Layover Guide much more useful to travelers. Additionally, I was disappointed that websites and directions were not supported in-app, instead launching Safari and Maps respectively.
If Layover Guide were a free download, I’d tell you there’s no reason not to give it a look, especially if you’re headed to one of the included cities soon. But, considering its minimal content at this time and its price, I think this one is for serious fans of Bourdain and The Layover only.
