Offline Travel Mapping - Maps Me App

.
Thanks John, we also may need that this year.
Bon Voyage.

Have a look at here.com similar to Google but you can download maps or country's that you want to visit.
It will give you voice guidance works on Windows, Android and Apple and its free...

Hi John
I have recently used this app in France, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
I think they are great. Accurate, with street numbers and names and not needed to be connected to cellular or wifi, just gps.
In Dublin I needed a replacement camera card, I found the camera shop address in the hotel phone book and punched it in a 2k walk using the routing and arrived spot on.

Looks great, I could have used it on my recent Japan trip, I rented a pre paid SIM for $50 so I could use Google maps, so there you go. Its business case was valid for me and I'll get it thanks.

A word of caution though. It uses Open Street Maps as the map source ( which is free to use). This is like a map version of Wikipedia. Great for well used areas, but very inaccurate to the point of being dangerous in remote areas. It is user contribution, so not many travelers who are prepared to log gps tracks and update it means not many corrections or entries. As one of many examples, I recall recently there were about 50 serious errors in about 50 square kms of the High country, even missing main roads. Someone using it when the Licola fires were on recently, would have concluded that the only exit from Licola and North Licola was through the fires, when there are 3 other main road or track alternatives that have been there for at least 40 years.

It is the same map data that Mud Map used in their "the map" project. They gave up on that in version 3 for the reasons above according to their support page. ( though note the Android version still uses it and its abot $150 to go to version 3 when they bring it out)

I would say it looks great for the use you are anticipating, but it isn't a viable alternative for Australian off road mapping in remote areas. It would be folly to use it that way.

We have Maps Me on both our smartphones, but my personal preference is CityMaps2Go. Don't know if it is still a freebie, but it was when we installed it. Same deal, GPS-only based, D/L the maps for your state/region of interest. Mobile data based map-apps suck (data).

Although we travel with a couple of Garmin Nuvis (we always have a backup in remote areas) a smartphone mapping app is so handy to "look ahead" to your destination without having to disrupt the Nuvi from its normal mode.

Have had this a year or so, along with Mapout, they generally use the OSM (Open Street Maps) format, which is good for general use, even combined with other maps like Hema, they sometimes show tracks not on Hema.
I like the search and route functions on maps.me . . .

Another option is Navigator, which also uses OSM but also does voice navigation as well. Used it in the UK and worked well, especially for the price (free).

Cheers

Hello John

Yes a good app - used it last year in Chile, Singapore and Melbourne - worked a treat. I did mention it in a exploroz thread mid last year but cant find it. Standalone navigators (Tom Toms, Nuvis etc) for average punters travelling around cities are redundant in my opinion.

Have a good trip.

Cheers
Greg

Hi all.

Thanks for the responses. Some new stuff to me there.

Cheers.