Maps that are already on the phone
Offline maps solve three problems at once: roaming charges, dead zones and battery life. A phone that is not fetching map tiles while navigating uses dramatically less power, which is the difference between arriving with a usable phone and arriving without one.
The three kinds of offline map
| Kind | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Vector maps from open data | Whole countries in a few hundred megabytes | Walking, cycling, rural driving |
| Commercial offline navigation | Polished turn by turn with voice | Driving abroad |
| Cached areas in an online map | One city, expires quietly | A short trip, if you remember |
The apps
The most detailed offline map there is, built on open data, with contour lines, footpaths and routing profiles for walking and cycling. Dense interface, unmatched substance.
The paid build of the same, with unlimited downloads. Worth it the moment you use it for a second country.
Far friendlier than the previous one, same open data underneath, and fast search on a downloaded map. The best first choice for most people.
Proper offline turn by turn with lane guidance, downloaded per country. The strongest free option for driving abroad.
Commercial navigation with the best offline voice guidance of the set. Paid features, but the core navigation works offline.
Download the area before you fly. Routing and search still work in the cached region, though transit and traffic do not.
Online only and worth saying so plainly. Excellent in traffic, useless in a valley.
Compass, altitude, sun and moon times, and a backtrack trail, using only the phone sensors. The companion to an offline map when there is no road at all.
Download the place articles for the region. Offline context about what you are looking at, with no connection.
Save the places you care about before you travel. The saved list is available offline even though the app is not really designed for it.
Keep the confirmation and the address available offline. Arriving at an airport with no signal and no address is a specific and avoidable misery.
The same reasoning in the regions where it is the stronger service.
Trip organisation with offline access to the plan, which is more useful than the maps in it.
Online only, but worth having the app installed and signed in before you land rather than at the taxi rank.
The same advice for South East Asia, where it is the one that works.
The twenty minutes before you leave
- Download the whole country, not the city Vector maps are small. The road that leaves the city is the one you will need.
- Download the routing data as well as the map Several apps separate them, and a map with no routing data shows where you are and will not tell you how to leave.
- Save your accommodation as a favourite Searching for an address offline is less reliable than a pin you placed while you had a connection.
- Test one route in aeroplane mode Two minutes, at home. It is the only way to know the download actually completed.
- Download an offline translation model too The same principle and the same failure mode, and it lives in a different app.
Download the country, download the routing data, save the address, then test one route in aeroplane mode before you go.
Frequently asked questions
How much storage do offline maps need?
Open data maps run from tens of megabytes for a small country to a few hundred for a large one. Commercial navigation maps are larger, often a gigabyte or more per region.
Does GPS work with no signal?
Yes. Satellite positioning is entirely separate from the mobile network. What needs a connection is the map, which is exactly what downloading it solves.
Will offline navigation drain the battery?
Much less than online navigation, because the radio is not fetching tiles. The screen remains the largest drain, so dim it and mount the phone rather than holding it.
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