Using Google Maps offline in the Southwest?

[Acer]

Heading to Vegas soon, mainly to see things not in Vegas, like Death Valley, Valley of Fire and a jaunt up to Zion. We won't be offroading, but we will be driving in some remote areas because there is a lot of remote out there even if we're going from tourist spot to tourist spot.

The problem I have had with map apps in the past that without wifi or cell, it won't calculate routes for you, and even position tracking would get sketchy or stop. It's been a while since I've had occasion to really need offline routing. I have download the maps for offline use in Google Maps. What can I expect?

[gadje]

I think Google Maps works fine without internet, if you download the appropriate area before you go out.

Why don't you download the map around your hometown, turn off WiFi and Cell Data and give it a try?

[mattkime]

You'll have offline maps - make sure you've downloaded them - but it won't provide routes for you.

[Speedy]

You don’t need it to calculate routes, do it before you leave home. Always keep the blue dot on the blue line.

[cbelt3]

paper maps are always good. USGS Topo maps are helpful as well.

[btfc]

I got Pocket Earth PRO after hearing about it on this forum.

It works as expected.


https://pocketearth.com/

https://justuseapp.com/en/app/481679745/...-earth-pro

[graylocks]

Acer wrote:
Heading to Vegas soon, mainly to see things not in Vegas, like Death Valley, Valley of Fire and a jaunt up to Zion. We won't be offroading, but we will be driving in some remote areas because there is a lot of remote out there even if we're going from tourist spot to tourist spot.

The problem I have had with map apps in the past that without wifi or cell, it won't calculate routes for you, and even position tracking would get sketchy or stop. It's been a while since I've had occasion to really need offline routing. I have download the maps for offline use in Google Maps. What can I expect?

Any chance you have an old garmin in your tech graveyard. I have a couple and would be dusting them off in this instance. maybe you could even rent one for the trip. Or buy on Amazon and return...

[Z]

Just download the offline maps at sufficient resolution for getting around as recommended above.

[Mr Downtown]

Have a look at the various offerings on the Avenza Map Store. Nearly all the National Park, National Forest, and USGS maps can be downloaded there, and your phone's GPS will show you where you are on them.

I really liked maps.me (using OpenStreetMap info) for offline maps, especially for international travel, but they've changed hands and one of my mappy friends is now grumpy about them. I haven't looked to see what changed. But I navigated Yellowstone quite happily with those in 2020, when the rest of the family was bemoaning not having service. When I did have service, I used CalTopo.com to look at the old USGS paper topos (scanned and tiled).

Here.com, which I think is better on navigation and roadnames than Google in the US, also gives you the option to download areas to use offline.