When you are engaged on a hiking trip, you do not need any kind of wifi connectivity. All maps are pre-installed to your device, so you don’t need to connect to wifi or use cellular data to keep track of where you are heading. Many handheld GPS devices can connect to the internet, for functions such as map updates, but this is not essential. Some GPS devices can also connect to smartphones for added functionality, but this is done via a Bluetooth connection and requires no wifi or cellular connectivity.