If you’ve ever traveled abroad without a data plan or a portable hotspot, you know how difficult it is to find free Wi-Fi. Many travelers plan their entire trips on their phones and computers, so it’s only natural that most people still rely on the Internet while traveling. Going online for directions and restaurant recommendations is second nature, but finding free Wi-Fi can take valuable time out of a vacation, and using unsecured connections can put your information in danger. For this reason, it’s important to keep an arsenal of travel apps on your phone that don’t need Wi-Fi.
Travel Apps You Can Use Without Wi-Fi
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With this offline calculator, there's no need to memorize currency exchanges. The XE Currency Converter app is not only useful for downloading live exchange rates, it also lets you look at multiple currency exchanges at the same time, so you'll always have a good idea of how much money you are spending.
With this offline calculator, there's no need to memorize currency exchanges. The XE Currency Converter app is not only useful for downloading live exchange rates, it also lets you look at multiple currency exchanges at the same time, so you'll always have a good idea of how much money you are spending.
When you've got a busy travel day in a big city that involves public transportation or confusing street names, you'll need precise directions on hand. Sure you could grab a paper map of the city, but it won't let you know when you've made a wrong turn or have passed by something worth seeing. With CityMaps, however, you can download an offline map of your destination in advance, then access it when your phone is not connected to get directions and recommendations on where to go. The app even allows you to add and prioritize the spots you're most interested in.
Nothing gets me more excited for an upcoming trip than purchasing a guide book, but actually lugging that guide book around while exploring a new city can be a hassle. This is why I've recently started downloading the apps of my favorite guidebook brands. Check out the apps from Lonely Planet and Travel + Leisure, which let you pre-download destination guides to keep on your phone. Many tourism boards also offer apps for their specific city—for instance, Visit London's London Official City Guide app—so it doesn't hurt to do a quick advance search on the city you’re visiting.
Forget walking around a foreign country with a pocket dictionary—with the Google Translate app, you can save multiple languages to your phone and access them even without Wi-Fi. Download the language of any country you're traveling to before you leave and familiarize yourself with the basics. The coolest part of this app is the word lens feature, which allows you to take a picture of any foreign text and have it instantly translated into English. It's a lifesaver when it comes time to order food at restaurants or decipher foreign street signs.
If you love using TripAdvisor (our parent company) to figure out where to go and what to avoid on your trip, then it's time to take advantage of the little-known offline mode of the app. By using the "Downloaded Cities" feature, you can actually download all the top restaurants, museums, hotels, and other things to do for the city you're visiting. You'll be able to browse reviews, photos, and even locate everything on the map. The app will also tell you how much memory each download will take up in your phone, so you'll know how to budget space. Look for the "Downloaded Cities" button in the sidebar of the app to uncover this essential feature.
If you're planning on taking advantage of public transportation, you'll need a transportation-specific app that will work offline, one like HereWeGo. Like using other offline navigation apps, you just need to download the map of your specific city and you'll be able to access it and look up directions without an Internet connection. However, the handiest feature of this app is the "Go Home" shortcut, which lets you set your home address and pulls up directions based on your location in one touch. The app also includes valuable information about your route including distance times, ticket prices, and even 3D maps of indoor locations like shopping malls and sports arenas.
If you're like me, you probably rely on Google apps for pretty much everything, which is why Google Trips is the perfect app to keep all your travel plans in order. This app aggregates flight reservations, hotels, Airbnb bookings, and locations you favorite on Google Maps. While this app does not traditionally work offline, you can pre-download all the information you need by opening up the folders of the information you'll need before heading into a no Wi-Fi zone. Just be sure not to close out of the app.
Even if with all these great apps, you're still reliant on information you can only get from the Internet, let me introduce you to Offline Browser. This app, which is currently only available for Android, lets you download any link from the Internet and save it to your phone to read later. You no longer have to worry about taking a million screenshots or accidentally closing out of a page if you pre-download it ahead of time. Plus, the app also downloads any links on the page so you can access those as well. With this app, anything you need—from articles to reference pages—will be right at your fingertips, no matter where in the world you end up.
This app is available for free for Android.
More from SmarterTravel:
- 12 Travel Apps You Need on Your Phone
- 10 Apps to Help You Take the Best Vacation Photos Ever
- 7 Travel Apps That Might Save Your Relationship
Jamie Ditaranto is a writer and photographer who is always looking for her next adventure and trustworthy Wi-Fi connections. Follow her on Twitter @jamieditaranto.
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