Cruising along with the windows open, the pleasant sun beaming down, and a warm breeze is great, but sometimes you get stuck with sudden torrential downpours and unruly winds. Road Trip Weather ($0.99, Universal) prepares you for the best or the worst, by providing a predicted forecast and current weather conditions for each stretch of your travel route.

Nobody likes getting stuck on the road in an unfamiliar area when the fuel needle is dipping past empty and there’s no gas station in sight. YP Local Search and Gas Prices (Free, Universal) lets you locate the nearest gas stations and compare prices to get the best deal. This diverse app also lets you locate nearby grocery stores, auto shops, bars, and more.

For those moments when you desperately need tunes to pass the time during a dull stretch of road, Pandora (Free, Universal) is a great solution. Punch in the name of a favorite band, and Pandora creates a customized radio station that cycles through a random playlist of similar artists. It’s a rad way to discover new music and keep your playlist fresh.

It’s not always easy to find a decent place to check your e-mail or hop on the net when you’re away from home, but Wi-Fi Finder (Free, Universal) takes a lot of the guesswork and hunting out of the equation. Locating Wi-Fi in your immediate area or beyond is a breeze, and being able to download the entire database for offline searching makes this app a must-have.

When you run out of road munchies and require more substantive snacks, FastFood ($0.99, Universal) puts a vast menu of stomach appeasing opportunities at your fingertips. Whether you're hankering for pizza, Chinese take-out, fancier restaurant fare, or fresh-brewed local coffee, this app hooks you up with the best nearby eateries in a hot minute.

Nothing puts a stop to the travel fun like bumper to bumper traffic. With INRIX Traffic (Free, Universal), you can sniff out the bottlenecks along your planned route as they unfold and adjust your travel plans accordingly to keep things flowing smoothly. Even when there's no easy route around the mess, it's good to know what's coming down the pike.

For those who like to stay in-the-know while on-the-go, the NPR app (Free, iPad) lets you create audio playlists of the latest news and your favorite shows, which you can string together into seamless broadcasts custom-tailored to suit your tastes. From Car Talk and Morning Edition to Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, there's lots of quality programming on tap.

Getting lost stinks, but with City Maps 2Go ($0.99, Universal) you can cut down on the confusion and carve out a solid map route on the fly. The awesome thing about this mapping app is that it works offline. You can download maps on a city-by-city basis for tons of different countries. It's perfect for when you find yourself in the middle of nowhere without Internet access.