TripSketch Mobile Apps Fill Green Travel Gap

If you want to pack your green consciousness and take it with you when you travel, then the TripSketch Green Book app makes a lot of sustainable sense.

There are a plenty of green travel apps on the market for mobile-device-wielding travelers, but most focus on carbon offsets or travel to a single city or region.

So one differentiation of the TripSketch Green Book app is that it covers more than 85 cities in North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania, detailing information about eco-friendly hotels, attractions, dining options, tours and transport.

Although the app displays information about what it classifies as green hotels, such as the Ottawa Marriott Hotel, with its eco-pillows and biodegradable laundry bags, it doesn't allow you to make a reservation right in the app. Instead, if you have an Internet connection, you can tap "Web site" and navigate to the hotel site for pricing and booking, or merely tap to call if you have cellular coverage.

One cool feature is the calendar that comes into play when you search for an attraction in a given city. Just tap "add to calendar" and you can easily schedule the event in a digital calendar.

TripSketch publishes both free and paid apps, and the paid apps just recently became available in iTunes and the Android Market. The fee-based TripSketch Green Book apps (iPhone and Nokia $4.99, and Android $4 per download) make the most sense to use when traveling because all of the in-app features work without Wi-Fi or cellphone coverage, so you're not subject to roaming charges.

If you want to do your research before you depart, TripSketch offers the free Green Traveler app, which you can use via Wi-Fi or your normal cellphone provider, when roaming charges near home likely won't be an issue.

Roaming charges aside, the information provided in the free and...