I recently went on a trip where I knew I’d be lucky to have an Internet connection, especially away from my hotel. If you travel abroad, for work or for fun, or live in a place where data plans are astronomically high, there is a way for you to avoid some of these costs.

Did you know that you can access your notes without an Internet connection in a number of places, including your desktop? All of your notes are available to you anytime on all desktop versions of Evernote, so if you have installed Evernote for Mac or Windows on your laptop, you can access existing notes and create new ones without a connection. You’ll see new notes everywhere the next time sync with the Evernote service.

Creating offline notebooks on your mobile devices

If you use Evernote like I do, you might defer to using a mobile device when you’re on the move. You might have hundreds, if not thousands of notes, but on the road, you likely only need access to a handful. Any new note you create on your iPhone, iPad, Android, or Windows Phone 7 will automatically be available to you when you’re offline. Premium subscribers can take advantage of Offline Notebooks, a feature that allows you to make any existing notebook and its contents available to you without an Internet connection. Offline notebooks are available on the following mobile versions: iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android, and Windows Phone 7.

When offline notebooks come in handy

There are a myriad of different reasons why you may want to or need to access your notes when you don’t have an Internet connection, but here are a few ideas:

• When you’re abroad: Planning a trip abroad often involves gathering a lot of information like flight and hotel itineraries, articles, emails, passport copies, vaccination copies, etc. Make sure you can access all of this valuable information, even if you don’t have Wi-Fi.
• When you’re on an airplane: Want to enjoy a productive flight? Be sure to add articles, newsletters you’ve been collecting, web clips, and PDF documents in an offline Evernote notebook that you can browse on your tablet.
• When you’re at a conference, festival, or in the outdoors: These places are notorious for having bad to non-existent network connections. Having access to information like phone numbers, conference rooms, itineraries, hiking trail maps, and schedules is invaluable.
• When you live abroad: If you find yourself visiting Internet cafes where you might have to pay for an Internet connection, or have a data plan at home, you can reduce the costs associated with getting your work done.

How to create an offline notebook

Creating an offline notebook is simple. First, decide if you want to convert an existing notebook to an offline notebook, or create a new one. If you have created a new notebook, you can select and paste notes from other notebooks you’d like to save and drop them into this new notebook. Make sure that you save everything you’d like to have access to on your trip into this notebook.

On iPhone/iPod Touch
Select Offline Notebooks from your phone Settings. If you’re a Free user and you Favorite a note on your iPhone, you’ll be able to view that note without a connection. Premium users can select whole notebooks to be available offline.

On an Android
From the menu, tap ‘Select Offline Notebooks.’ Back in the Settings, be sure to select ‘WiFi Sync Only’ to bypass any potential roaming charges from your data plan provider. Notes that you create using Evernote for Android can still be viewed, even if they are not in a selected offline notebook.

On an iPad
Hit the satellite button in the lower right-hand corner of your iPad. Next, click on ‘Offline Notebooks.’ Move the slider from ‘Off’ to ‘On’ next to the notebook (s) you’d like to make offline. To make sure you don’t get charged for roaming, be sure to select ‘Sync on WiFi only’ in the Settings.

On a Windows Phone 7
Tap on the application bar dots and choose Settings from the menu. Next, swipe to the Offline Notebooks panel and check off the notebook(s) you want offline.

When you’re preparing for a trip or would like to avoid syncing notes for a whole, select the notebooks you want to take offline and allow them to sync over Wi-Fi. Since you’re potentially downloading a lot of content, being connected throughout the process will ensure that your notes with sync quickly.

Offline access to shared notebooks

Shared notebooks (notebooks that others have shared with you) are also stored locally on your computer. When you open a shared notebook, you’ll automatically save that notebook’s content to your computer, where it will be accessible to you even if you don’t have an Internet connection. This feature is available on desktop versions and Android.

When you open a PDF in Evernote, you’ll also be able to view it from any device you’ve opened it on, even without a connection (devices that support this feature include Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7).

When have offline notebooks come in handy for you? Has an offline notebook saved you in a pinch? Let us know in the comments.