May 01, 2010 Canada Topo Maps are available for Android! Canadian topographic maps for Canada can be viewed and used as offline maps for Android using the BackCountry Navigator GPS software. BackCountry Navigator gives you a choice of topo maps, also known as topographical maps, for use in outdoor recreation such as hiking, backpacking, and snowshoeing. Download topo maps for an offline outdoor navigator! Use your phone or tablet as an offroad topo mapping handheld GPS with the bestselling outdoor navigation app for Android! Explore beyond cell coverage for hiking and other recreation. Download topo maps for the US and many other countries in advance, so you won't need cell coverage for navigation. Jul 14, 2014 Here Are the 4 Best Offline Maps Apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. The offline maps download sizes in Galileo are about 60% of Maps With Me. Saving almost half of download costs.
The use of smartphones out in the wilderness is controversial, but there’s no question the technology has real utility. Even if you personally eschew the regular use of a smartphone on your backpacking or paddling or hunting adventures, it’s not a bad idea to have one stowed away in the pack: If nothing else, it’s another emergency tool in case you run into trouble.
But there’s much else to take advantage of, outdoors-wise, with today’s immensely powerful mobile devices. (And, incidentally, a 2013 report by the Outdoor Foundation suggested close to 40 percent of all Americans do take advantage of them while engaged in outdoor recreation.) Smartphone apps can deliver you instant trailside flower guides, birdsong identifiers, celestial charts—and, most notable of all of course, maps and other navigational references for both staying oriented and recording your own movements through the backcountry.
Here we’re going to round up some of the best hiking apps for offline navigation on the market: programs that serve up topographic charts, satellite images, trail guides, and other resources even when you’re outside the realm of cellular or data coverage. And if you’ve got the bug for wild places—and we imagine that describes an awful lot of our readership here at the Mountain House blog—you’re going to find yourself outside of that realm more than once.
A Quick (but Important) Caveat Off the Bat
Don’t rely on your smartphone alone for backcountry navigation (or emergency signaling, or anything else for that matter). These gadgets—and the apps below—aren’t replacements for hard-copy topographic maps and a compass. Digital technology (and batteries) can and will malfunction, so you’re going to want some good old-fashioned backup at the ready in the event the screen goes screwy or altogether blank. And learning to use both compass and GPS hiking app—they’re complementary resources, after all—will deepen your navigational prowess, not to mention your appreciation for the ground you’ve covered and the terrain around you.
So, without further ado, here are some of our absolute fave outdoor navigation apps!
The result of the above procedure will be a list of offline maps in the Maps/Offline dialog. Choose a map to display — on choosing a map, the program will display it. Map Theme Configuration. Now we'll configure a map theme, so such features as elevation lines can be shown. Choose the Locus Map menu icon at the upper left. Choose 'Maps'. Download topo maps for an offline outdoor navigator! Use your phone or tablet as an offroad topo mapping handheld GPS with the bestselling outdoor navigation app for Android! Explore beyond cell coverage for hiking and other recreation.
1. ViewRanger Skyline (for ios, android)
ViewRanger Skyline uses your smartphone camera to conjure up an annotated real-time view of your surroundings. The app labels the peaks, passes, rivers, lakes, and other topographic features you’re looking at through the viewfinder: an easy and awesome way to center yourself on the landscape. Skyline also overlays your waypoints as well as navigational arrows right onto the image, revealing direction and distance to destinations and key landmarks.
As long as you download maps for your area ahead of time, you can navigate (and I.D. the terrain) with ViewRanger Skyline when you’re away from coverage.
2. Backcountry Navigator (for Android)
Among the best hiking apps Android offers, Backcountry Navigator operates on both smartphones and tablets. With pre-downloaded maps, it works offline as an alternative to a traditional GPS: displaying topo charts, logging waypoints and routes, and much more.
3. Gaia GPS (for ios, android)
For both iOS and Android, Gaia GPS makes another fantastic app with among the best offline navigation capabilities. Cross-reference between USGS/USFS maps, National Geographic Trails Illustrated maps, road maps, and satellite views; define pre-planned routes and chart your on-the-ground travels and waypoints; and link up geologged photos to document your journey.
4. Motion X GPS (for ios)
Another premier GPS hiking app, Motion X GPS gives iOS users a full suite of navigational tools when they’re out trekking without the benefit (and burden) of data or cell coverage. You can pull up the app’s terrain and roadmaps as well as NOAA marine charts offline by downloading ahead of your trip.
Meanwhile, the app allows you to track your route, log statistics such as distance covered and elevation gained, and record waypoints and geologged pics.
5. Chimaini National Parks (for ios, android)
Some of the finest outdoor experiences to be had in the United States await, of course, in the country’s stellar network of national parks. With Chimaini (compatible with both iOS and Android systems), you get a GPS hiking app with onboard maps for each and every one of America’s 59 national parks—plus trail descriptions, points of interest, recommended destinations, overviews of services, and other handy-dandy information.
6. Outdoor Navigation (for Windows)
This ranks among the best offline navigation apps for Windows users, meanwhile. Download maps in advance and you can reference them out in the wilds—plus plan out routes, monitor your progress, tag points of interest with photos, and otherwise stay well oriented (and well documented) on the trail.
7. AllTrails (for ios, android)
With AllTrails, you have better than 50,000 trail maps at your fingertips (whether you’re using the iPhone or the Android): an excellent resource for dreaming up treks and then carrying them out with loads of navigational and informational support at your disposal. You can also customize maps to chronicle and share your own personal adventure.
So there you have it: some of the best hiking apps for Android, iOS, and Windows smartphone technology. Feel free to share your favorites with us, too!
Thanks to Google Maps and countless other apps, we take maps and location services for granted. While these apps are extremely powerful and helpful when you’re navigating around your homeland, things can get complicated when you’re away form your home turf. Roaming charge in foreign countries are astonishingly high and your bill can run into hundreds of dollars even for some light surfing.
In times like these it is better to have offline maps to guide you through. Download the map for the country you’re heading to, and when you have stable Wi-Fi you can forget about the expensive data plans.
Most of the apps listed here have offline search function so you can use them just like normal maps app and by turning on GPS (and not data) you can identify your current location and navigate easily. It won’t be as good as turn by turn navigation but it’s a lot better than being utterly lost.
1. Google Maps
The updated Google Maps app for Android and iOS has an offline feature but it’s really limited. You can only make the current area map offline. To do that just tap the search bar, scroll to the bottom and select Make this map area available offline. On iOS 7 it says Save map to use offline. To get the most out of the features of the updated maps app check out our detailed guide.
What is it good for? Convenience. You already have Google Maps on your phone and all if you need is an offline map of the area you’re already in, there’s no need to go looking for a whole new app.
2. Maps With Me Lite For Lots Of Platforms
Maps With Me Lite is a free no nonsense offline app for a lot of platforms (including BlackBerry). You can download offline maps for any country you like, but make sure you do so on Wi-Fi before heading out into the wild because they are pretty big downloads.
India’s map was about 100 MB (and the entire USA, which you can cherry pick by states, will cost you around 1 GB). Once downloaded though, you can pinch to zoom and pan around any area you like and relevant information will keep popping up as you get deeper into a region.
Topo Maps For Android Phones
When it comes to details, Maps With Me has the basics covered. You’ll find the names for major streets easily but anything deeper than that is just physical map with no contextual data. The pro app lets you search and bookmark locations within the app.
What is it good for? Maps With Me is one of those just so you have it kind of apps. Better to download it, you never know when you might need it.
3. Here Maps For Windows Phone
If you own a Nokia Lumia phone, Here Maps come preinstalled. You can also install the app on a variety of Windows Phone devices. Here Maps is to Windows Phone what Google Maps is to the rest of the world. That doesn’t mean they’re bad. Quite the contrary. If you live in Europe or India where Windows Phone market is quite good, Here Maps offer you localized features like traffic reports and free turn by turn navigation that’s sometimes better than Google’s offering. But this depends solely on your location.
You can use Google Maps on your Windows Phone if you like but for most people Here Maps is a better alternative. When you first start app, it will ask you to download maps for offline use. If you missed it, don’t worry. From the three dotted menu, select Download Maps and select Download New Maps and download the localized map for offline use.
What is it good for? If you’re on Windows Phone, this is your best (and the only good) bet.
4. Galileo Offline Maps For iOS
Download Offline Topo Maps For Android Windows 10
Galileo is like Maps With Me but better. The offline maps download sizes in Galileo are about 60% of Maps With Me. Saving almost half of download costs and storage space is no small feat. Galileo also allows you to search through the offline maps for free, a feature that’s locked behind the pay wall for Maps With Me.
Galileo is also a well rounded maps app. The paid upgrade gets you features like driving mode, GPS tracks recording, bookmarks and a lot more. But it’s only available on iOS so Android users should still stick with Maps With Me.
Download Offline Topo Maps For Android Pc
What is it good for? If you’re using an iPhone, Galileo is what you should go for. It’s free and has offline search support.
How Do You Travel?
What apps/maps do you use to make your travel easier? Let us know in the comments below.
Also See#google maps #Lists
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Offline Maps For Android
Most of the Google Maps aerial and satellite images are updated every two weeks.
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