Download: AA Pub Guide 2012 app

A common problem when you're in a new town or city on holiday is finding good places to eat and drink. The AA Pub Guide 2012 offers a way to find new places with a quick search using the phone's GPS.

Installation is through the Google Play store and the permissions the app asks for are fairly reasonable. It wants to modify the SD card, read phone state and identity, full internet access, GPS location and view network state.

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The download is 5.34MB, so it's fairly small.

On running the app for the first time you are asked to enter some personal details including name, mobile number, email and address. Mobile and email are required information.

It also asks for a selection of interests. The text at the bottom says this information will be used by the AA and its Acromas parent group of companies to contact you by all these methods. There is a skip button, though, so you don't have to provide this information.

You can search for pubs near your current location based on network or GPS information or by town name. Postcodes won't work.

Searches can be filtered by some useful terms: pets welcome, children welcome, food available.

Sadly the selection of pubs on offer was not that great. A search for Haywards Heath produced no results, nor did nearby Lindfield, which has several good pubs.

If you do manage to find a pub there is a good summary of the attractions on offer and the beers on tap. The app includes buttons to call the pub, get directions and view its location on a map.

This is a well-designed app with useful information but the list of pubs on offer is just too small.

The AA Pub Guide 2012 is also available for iPad and iPhone.