Nokia once again beats the curve. By offering the traveller one of their favourite travel tools on their telephone and reducing the need to carry a heavy map and reference book throughout your travels.

The downloads cost EUR 7.99, and can be found in the Guides section in the Extras menu. Nokia Maps 2.0 uses vector maps provided by Navteq and TeleAtlas. Nokia Maps now has maps covering over 200 countries, with over 70 of them navigable. Maps can be downloaded over the air directly to selected devices or by using the Nokia Map Loader on a PC. Nokia Maps 2.0 and the Map Loader is freely* available for selected devices. For download and more information, please visit http://www.maps.nokia.com.

*Subject to terms and conditions. Data transfer costs may apply. In other words, it will cost you and cost you about the same as the book itself in the long run but if you happen to be in Thailand and are given the opportunity to hop on over to Nepal you can then download the new information without having to attempt to find another backpacker with a tattered used copy (with annotation) of the Nepal Lonely Planet.

We would remind you that you might want to bring a solar panel with for your travels if you plan to use this as your battery life will drop with the additional data intensive use. Enjoy your travels with a lighter bag. X