I'm off to Texas in less than a week, for South by Southwest 2012. No, this post isn't just idle boasting, but hopefully a tip for anyone who needs access to Google Maps when outside of the UK (or wherever you live).
If you've ever needed directions while abroad you'll know how expensive 3G data is. I think I spent way over £60 last SX on map data alone, and that was only to get me from the convention centre to a hotel and back.
But CityMaps2Go, an iPhone app available at a poultry 69p is almost perfect. You can download a map of a city (as a comparison, Birmingham's map was over 20mb whereas Austin's is less than 3mb), then switch your phone to Airplane mode or disengage roaming, and search, pinch, zoom and even locate yourself. It even hooks in to the phone's compass and gives you correct bearings. The only thing it doesn't seem to do is draw a line between you and your destination (ala Google's Directions feature). Other than that, it's a dream.
I won't know what it's really like until I use it in the wild, but it looks promising, and a definite money saver. It doesn't seem to be available for Android, but I'm sure there are options, as it's a much more open platform.