started off a a small startup based in Zurich and won a startup competition in 2012 to propel them forward.

I could've probably created this guide by listing out ALL of the other possible mapping apps that are out there but I wanted to keep it simple and just focus on the flat out best one that travellers use. Over the years, I've learned to hack it by making sure I pull up my map while I have wifi/data and just keep Google Maps open the whole time so it doesn't have to reload.Įven then, need to find a point of interest on the fly without data or want to zoom in the map to see detailed places, forget about it! Enter When I'm at home, it's great but when I don't have data, you pull up the app and while you can see the topography of the map, those pins disappear. It's super convenient because I can plan on the computer and it'll show up on my phone or vice versa. I loved being able to pin places or more specifically, add “Save” places in Google Maps as either “Favorites”, “Starred places”, “Want to go”, or even your own custom list. Today, they've made it a bit more obvious with the “Offline” part of the menu where you can see all of your saved maps but it largely works the same and you can still “Ok Maps” as you please.

You had to use “Ok Maps” in the search bar and based on what you have in the app's field of view, it'll save that offline. I'm here to share with you an alternative to Google Maps that offers the best offline maps app solution – and from there, I'll also show you how I migrate maps that I plan with Google's My Maps and import them via KML files.įor years, the offline feature was a bit of a secret. That may be because I'm sometimes too cheap to pay for roaming or maybe I'm in a blackout area but I've learned that I should always be “offline ready”. I hope I'm not the only one but offline functionality is incredibly important to me.

The thing is, as much as Google Maps has become synonymous with mapping, it isn't the only game in town. It's one of the single reasons I don't get as lost as I do before (I still do) and why I think we're all more comfortable with travelling off the cuff. We use it to find read reviews of nearby restaurants, find pins on a pre-planned route, browse custom maps, and maybe even the best closest emergency bathroom. When it comes to travel, map apps are an indispensable part of our toolkit that sits loaded on our smartphone. For more details, read the disclosure page. This article may contain affiliate links where we make a small commission for purchases you make from links that you click from this article.

Best kml editor freeware