With apologies to Bob Marley and one of his classics, one might say, "No Wi-Fi No Cry."
Although Wi-Fi hotspots in airports and cafes may seem ubiquitous, sometimes when you are traveling it's just tough to find a place to get online.
And, if you are far away from the domicile, those cellular roaming charges can really put a dent into your vacation budget.
All is not lost, however, because you can get some functionality out of numerous mobile travel apps in offline mode.
You generally won't find all the bells and whistles of being online, of course, but you can still get value out of the following selection of mobile travel apps.
Ask a Nomad: This free iPad app enables you to ask travel and destination questions and receive answers from locals and veteran travelers who may be knowledgeable about the destination you are visiting. You can access your questions and answers for reference when you are offline. And, you can craft new questions while offline, and the next time you get Wi-Fi access they will automatically be transmitted. And, answers to your questions that were posted while you were offline will pop in.
Jibbigo: This speech translation app, available for iPhone, iPad and, Android devices at $4.99 per download, takes your spoken words and speaks them back to you in the language of your choice. The language pairs, featuring 40,000-word vocabularies, are currently available in English to Spanish, German, French, Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Tagalog (i.e. Filipino). No roaming fees come into play and no Wi-Fi connection is needed.
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Spotted by Locals: A series of 38 city guides ($4.99 each) to European destinations, the Spotted by Locals iPhone apps provide tips from local bloggers to find the hidden, artsy spots or bistros that often go missing in tourism brochures. The apps require no Internet access (once downloaded, of course). In offline mode you can view maps of the city, highlighting must-see destinations; recommendations from locals; information about their backgrounds; and what's nearby (with GPS).
XE Currency: This free app for iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7 enables you to calculate prices with a currency converter and contains more than 30,000 currency charts displaying historical rates. In offline mode, the XE Currency apps offer the most recent rate updates before you went offline and enable you to calculate price conversions.
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Zagat: Available for iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, and webOS at $9.99 per download, foodies can access Zagat's ratings and reviews for more than 30,000 restaurants around the world in offline mode. Reviews can be sorted by type of cuisine, décor, service and cost etc.
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Find it in the BlackBerry App World
Find it for Windows Phone 7
JiWire: If your suppressed Wi-Fi cravings are spoiling your trip, you can always download the free Wi-Fi Finder app for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices from JiWire.
Conveniently, the Wi-Fi Finder can work offline without a Wi-Fi connection and you can find the locations of some 545,000 public hotspots around the world. GPS functionality can show you the closest free or fee-based location to get online.
Find it on iTunes
Find it in the Android Marketplace
Dennis Schaal covers travel tech as North America Editor of Tnooz (www.tnooz.com), and co-authors USA Today's Digital Traveler column.
