From: Hobobo Guide to Travel Guides
- Compete Wikitravel offline
First you need to download the wikitravel data dump here. It is just a text archive with all the text from the website. The archive format .bz2 file keeps the size small at only 40MB. You have several options for reading this file type.
The easiest if you are traveling with a laptop is to download wikitaxi or BZ reader. These readers will work for any wiki dump which means if you want the entire Wikipedia resource available offline (~6GB) you can access it without having to extract it. If you have the space this is also a fantastic thing to have while you travel. You never know what you’ll want to look up.
- On mobile devices
For increased portability there are also options for smart phones and ipods. Depending on your device it can loaded with varying degrees of ease. The best interface by far is the wiki2travel app for the jail broken ipod or iphone. The Oxygen guide is the best for the Android OS, though is far inferior to wiki2travel for the iphone.
There is support for other devices as well, but I haven’t tried any of them. There are also a few apps that let you download and store the wiki travel pages and maps a la carte. One good example is itravelfree. The paid version lets you download and store everything offline. It is only $3 which is a bargain to have all the travel information you could want at your fingertips. Compare that to $30 for a single country Lonely Planet guide book.
If wikitravel doesn’t have a lot of detail on the destination you’re looking at Lonely Planet has offered an attractive answer to buying a paperback guide book. They now offer downloadable .pdf versions of most of their guides as well as the option to buy single chapters at a reduced price. Introductory planning chapters are always free which can help with your first-cut travel planning.
- Compete Wikitravel offline
First you need to download the wikitravel data dump here. It is just a text archive with all the text from the website. The archive format .bz2 file keeps the size small at only 40MB. You have several options for reading this file type.
The easiest if you are traveling with a laptop is to download wikitaxi or BZ reader. These readers will work for any wiki dump which means if you want the entire Wikipedia resource available offline (~6GB) you can access it without having to extract it. If you have the space this is also a fantastic thing to have while you travel. You never know what you’ll want to look up.
- On mobile devices
For increased portability there are also options for smart phones and ipods. Depending on your device it can loaded with varying degrees of ease. The best interface by far is the wiki2travel app for the jail broken ipod or iphone. The Oxygen guide is the best for the Android OS, though is far inferior to wiki2travel for the iphone.
There is support for other devices as well, but I haven’t tried any of them. There are also a few apps that let you download and store the wiki travel pages and maps a la carte. One good example is itravelfree. The paid version lets you download and store everything offline. It is only $3 which is a bargain to have all the travel information you could want at your fingertips. Compare that to $30 for a single country Lonely Planet guide book.
If wikitravel doesn’t have a lot of detail on the destination you’re looking at Lonely Planet has offered an attractive answer to buying a paperback guide book. They now offer downloadable .pdf versions of most of their guides as well as the option to buy single chapters at a reduced price. Introductory planning chapters are always free which can help with your first-cut travel planning.
