First the disclaimer. The authors of both of these apps are friends of mine and colleagues. What's more, the apps are published by Sutro Media the same company which published my app, Sydney Café Culture.

However, I see that as a plus as it means I personally know the diligence with which both apps were researched and prepared, and I value the expertise of Sutro.

That said, I believe each app has a huge amount to offer the traveller in Australia.

Travel journalist and guide book author Lee Atkinson is no stranger to getting on the road and then sharing her findings with readers. After having published several comprehensive guides in book form, the next obvious step was an iPhone and iPad application.

 Australian Road Trips includes 25 long distance drive holiday routes around the country, plus dozens of shorter weekend and day drives. Users can also select themed itineraries to national parks, iconic coastal routes, outback journeys, gourmet trails, spectacular mountain drives and beautiful country roads. Australian Road Trips also includes more than 265 entries and 2300 photos, plus recommendations on what to see and do, where to eat, accommodation options - even where you can camp.

Routes include the three famous trans-continental journeys (across the Nullarbor, Adelaide to Darwin and the Savannah Way from Cairns to Broome), as well as signature journeys such as the Mereenie Loop Road from Alice Springs to Uluru, Great Ocean Road and the Waterfall Way. It also has plenty of short weekend getaways and day drives from capital cities and favourite road trip routes such as Sydney-Brisbane and Sydney-Melbourne.

At $4.49 including free updates, it's an easy and inexpensive way to have your own personal driving guide to take with you around the country. Available for download now from the iTunes App Store or from www.ozyroadtripper.com.au An android version is currently in development.

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Sue Gough Henly's app, Australia Where to Go ($5.49) is equally valuable. Released late last year it explores the best travel destinations downunder, exploring beach, outback and city destinations, and much more.

Australia is a big country and this is a large task which she has accomplished by offering her own insider tips "on how to engage with Australia's remarkable landscapes, its idiosyncratic locals and its utterly bizarre wildlife".

What's more she promises an opinionated journey around Australia, jam-packed with pragmatic advice you won't find elsewhere. Rather than becoming boringly encyclopaedic (something which is not suited to the app format, anyway) Henly does things differently. She packs 'mini-apps' into larger ones, bullet-pointing the unmissable things to do, see, eat at and stay in. 

What's more, in both these super apps, you are not served up the tourist-track rehashing sometimes found in articles and brochures. Australia: Where to Go and Australian Road Trips take you to places you'd only find with local knowledge like theirs.

Download both, or either app, from the iTunes App Store onto your iPad or iPhone (or soon, your Android) and you can now head off confidently for the parts of Australia you may not have ever realised existed, and probably didn't believe were as accessible and so much fun!

- Sally Hammond