Lonely Planet has released a new iPhone app called Wenzani (meaning ‘What are you doing?’ in Zulu) that lets users access real time reviews and recommendations from friends and prominent travel publishers.

Location, location

Wenzani is sorted into categories such as restaurants, retail and entertainment venues that are displayed on a map or list. Users then access reviews of nearby attractions from travel publishers including Lonely Planet, Time Out and BBC Travel.

Users can also ask for real time recommendations for other users, as well as their friends on Facebook and Twitter. For example, users may ask “Where’s the best cocktail in the CBD?”

Down the track Wenzari will be able to filter recommendations based around weather reports and time of day.

Mobile making inroads

Wenzani is the latest in a series of location-based apps that reflects the increasing demand for information on the go.

Foursquare recently updated their website and app to better reflect user location, while Yelp, the US-based user review site, launched in Australia last week.

Wenzari is free and available for download via Apple’s iTune’s store.