Making a good travel and transportation skill is difficult. We are used to graphical interfaces to plan our travels and, for the time being, controlling using voice is a bit clunky. You may have noticed that some of the most popular skills (Maps, Uber, Flight Tracker, Translate This, Distance Between, I’m Driving, Gas Prices, Lyft, Avis, OneBusAway, Places) are not on this list. That’s because they ratings below 4 stars. They are much more popular than many of the skills on this list, but they’re not as well received.
We will certainly see this list change as time goes on and developer learn how to provide information in an accessible way to users.
Dave’s Airport METAR & TAF Reader by Dave Jacobowitz – 4.2 out of 5, 137 ratings, 52 reviews
This skill obtains airport weather data and reads it aloud.
Random review: I love the app. Having Alexa read back ATIS is the only way I think there is to get accurate Altimeter (barometer) reading on Alexa at this time. But, I would ask Dave to please add Maine’s two main airports: Portland International Jetport (KPWM – not to be confused with Portland International Airport in Oregon!!!), and Bangor International Jetport (KBGR). If author can add these, as well as one more…. in New Hampshire, would be nice to have KPSM added (Portsmouth International Airport).I’ll up my rating to 5 stars if these airports could be added. Also, need to be sure that Alexa allows verbal syntax for Portland, Maine…. as in: “Alexa, ask Airport Weather to get Portland, MAINE”. That’s the only way to differentiate between Maine and Oregon. (4 out of 5)
TransportMe by Eric Ho – 4.6 out of 5, 43 ratings, 42 reviews
Do you need to quickly find the closest rental bike, scooter or station in your area? Let TransportMe help you!
Random review: It’s really satisfying knowing the options in the
area near me without having to open multiple apps but instead through asking
Alexa. For any Pokemon Go fans, it’s extremely helpful to get you to raids on
time when time is tight and taking a car would take just as much time.
Fantastic resource! (5 out of 5)
Cruise Radio News by Cruise Radio – 4.9 out of 5, 16 reviews
Follow the latest in cruise ship news and breaking stories from Cruise Radio.
Random review: Tried this out because I love cruising. News segments are great! I would use this all the time if I didn’t already get my news on Facebook lol. (5 out of 5)
Virtual Concierge Service by Dana Young – 4.5 out of 5, 16 reviews
With the Virtual Concierge, Alexa can provide your guests with answers to dozens of questions about your property, places in the area and things to do – answers that you as the host specifically define.
Random review: Amazon had a special buy two echoes and get $30 off so I ended up getting four because I have four beach cottages and I thought that this would be a great way to stay one step ahead of the competition. I just installed two of the four today and I have to say that I am just blown away by how useful this is going to be for my guests and it looks like it’s just going to keep getting better. I already see some changes I need to make but I think this is an incredible platform for owners to provide for their guests.I always try and get over to see and say hello to my guests in person but in the event that I am not able the virtual concierge is there now to answer questions that they may have wanted to ask me. And I am completely thrilled and look forward to adding new information constantly. Thank you Dana! (5 out of 5)
Quotify by Bluefin Technology Partners – 4.8 out of 5, 9 reviews
Quotify is a fast and convenient way to get multiple auto shipping quotes from customer reviewed companies.
Random review: thankyou to whoever created this! I ship my car regualry and i am always bombarded with emails from shipping companies and quotes that are not real. My quote was fast and accurate. I have booked with easy auto-all completed within minutes! thanks quotify!!! (4 out of 5)
My Disney Visit by Jonathan Brown – 4.4 out of 5, 28 ratings, 5 reviews
When asked, Alexa will tell you how many days until your next visit to Disney World.Alexa can also tell you the operating hours for each of the four major parks at Disney World.
Random review: Works great. (5 out of 5)
Flight Service by Leidos – 4.4 out of 5, 49 ratings, 3 reviews
Leidos Flight Service provides METARs, TAFs, AFDs for airports requested by ICAO codes.
Random review: I don’t have a lot of experience with it yet, but I can already mention two positives and one negative. I was quite impressed that the updates came faster than on aviationweather.gov. The metar KEWR 171451Z came through alexa maybe two minutes after it was issued. On aviationweather.gov it took 20 minutes. I was also thoroughly impressed that details in the remarks section came in full and correct, for example 58016 came correctly as “three-hour atmospheric pressure steady or increasing, then decreasing; or decreasing then decreasing more rapidly”. As a negative I mention that it understands letters better than through the phonetic alphabet. For example ee yu ar was understood all the time, but echo whiskey romeo only in half of my test calls. Documentation says we should use the phonetic alphabet. (4 out of 5)
Washington State Ferry by Blink UX – 4.4 out of 5, 15 ratings, 6 reviews
Get the next departure times for any route in the Washington State Ferry system.
Random review: It is ok at telling you the next 2 ferries, or the last ferry, but not the next 3 (“what are the next 3 ferries?”), or any other times (“when is the ferry after 6pm?”).This makes it less useful for planning ahead.The skill also makes you open it by its (rather long) name, rather than just ask alexa naturally. (3 out of 5)
Air Canada by Air Canada – 4.3 out of 5, ratings, 6 reviews
The Air Canada Alexa skill enables you to ask about your flight status, your baggage carousel, get a fare quote, and even answer frequently asked questions.
Random review: I noticed that Alexa only supports Canadian and US English.It would be great to support all English languages given folks in the UK and India will use this app.Also given the high population of Indian and British folk in Canada, they may not be using EN-US or EN-CA. (4 out of 5)
AskRedRoof by Red Roof Inn – 5 out of 5, 3 ratings, 2 reviews
Ask Red Roof questions about Red Roof and the travel experience.
Random review: I travel with my pet frequently and it was great to be able to ask about the pet policy! (5 out of 5)
