The Best Offline Map Apps for Travel (and How to Set Them Up)

The moment you need a map most is usually the moment you have no signal: stepping off a train in a country where your plan charges $10 a day for roaming, hiking into a canyon, or driving a rural highway where the bars drop to zero. An offline map fixes that, but only if you set it up before you leave the hotel WiFi.

This guide covers the six offline map apps worth your phone’s storage in 2026, what each one does well, where each one falls short, and a step-by-step setup you can finish the night before a trip. They cover different kinds of trips, from city breaks to back roads, and keeping two of them on your phone is the safest setup.

Short version: Google Maps and Apple Maps are fine for most city travel if you download the area first. For hiking, long road trips, or countries where Google’s offline coverage is thin, add Organic Maps or OsmAnd as a backup.

What an offline map can and can’t do

Your phone’s GPS chip works without any data connection. It talks to satellites, not cell towers. What you lose offline is the map itself (the streets, labels and place names) and anything live. So an offline map app stores the map on your phone, and the GPS dot moves across it as usual.

What you give up varies by app, but expect these gaps in every one of them:

• No live traffic, so arrival times are estimates based on speed limits.
• No real-time transit. Google Maps, for example, says public transit and walking directions need a connection, while offline driving directions work.
• Search is limited to what was downloaded. A brand-new restaurant may not show up.
• Photos, reviews and street-level imagery usually stay online-only.

One more thing people forget: offline maps take real space. A large US state or a mid-size European country can run from a few hundred megabytes to over a gigabyte. If your phone is tight, clear room first with our guide on how to clear your phone memory in a few steps.

The best offline map apps in 2026

Google Maps

Google Maps is the app most people already have, and its offline mode is better than many travelers realize. You draw a rectangle on the map, download it, and get offline search for places plus turn-by-turn driving directions inside that area.

It’s best for city trips and road trips where you mostly drive. The big limitation is expiry: Google’s help page says it tries to refresh offline areas over WiFi when they’re 15 days or less from expiring, and an expired area stops working offline. If you download a map three weeks before a trip and never connect to WiFi, you can land with a dead map. Walking and transit directions also need data, which hurts in cities like Tokyo or Paris where you’d mostly walk and ride the metro. It’s free.

Tip: download your areas two or three days before departure, and turn on auto-update (profile picture > Offline maps > gear icon > Auto-update offline maps). Name each area (“Lisbon center”, “Sintra day trip”) so you can find and delete them later.

Apple Maps

Since iOS 17, Apple Maps can download areas for offline use, with turn-by-turn directions, arrival estimates and place details like opening hours. It comes built into every iPhone, so there’s nothing extra to get. Apple’s offline guide also lets you choose to download only over WiFi, which saves your data plan.

It’s best for iPhone owners traveling in the US, Canada, Western Europe and other places where Apple’s map data is strong. The limitations: offline maps are only available in select areas, there’s no live traffic offline, and the downloads don’t sync, so your iPad needs its own copy. Android users can’t use it at all. Free.

Tip: search for your destination city, tap Download (or More > Download Map), then drag the corners of the box to include the airport. People constantly crop out the airport and end up with no map for the ride into town.

Organic Maps

Organic Maps is built on OpenStreetMap data and works fully offline by design. You download a country or region once and get search, driving, walking and cycling directions with no connection at all. It has no ads and doesn’t ask for an account. Hiking trails, footpaths and small village streets often show up here when Google Maps shows only a blank field.

It’s best for hikers, cyclists, backpackers and anyone who wants a backup that never expires. The downsides: business listings are thinner than Google’s, there are no reviews or photos, and the interface is plain. In 2025 a group of former contributors split off and started a separate project called CoMaps over disagreements about how Organic Maps is run. For a traveler, the practical effect is small: Organic Maps still gets regular updates in both stores. Free, with optional donations.

Tip: before a hike, download the region and then save your trailhead and the parking lot as bookmarks. You can also import a GPX or KML track that a hiking site gives you.

OsmAnd

OsmAnd also uses OpenStreetMap, but it’s aimed at people who want every setting. You get contour lines, hillshading, trip recording, route planning with elevation profiles, and map styles for skiing, boating and off-road driving.

It’s best for serious hikers, overlanders and anyone planning multi-day routes away from roads. The catch is the learning curve: the menus are dense and the first hour is confusing. The free version also caps how many full map downloads you get, and some features (contour lines on some platforms, unlimited downloads, hourly map updates) sit behind the paid OsmAnd+ or Maps+ plans. Check the current price on the upgrade screen, since it differs between Android and iPhone.

Tip: use the Plan a route tool at home, save it as a track, then follow it offline. Seeing the elevation graph before you start is the best reason to put up with OsmAnd’s menus.

Vamos lá!

HERE WeGo comes from HERE Technologies, whose map data sits behind many car navigation systems. You can download whole countries, regions or continents, and offline driving directions work well. Recent versions let you pause and resume map updates, which helps on slow hotel WiFi.

It’s best for road trips, especially in Europe, when you want car-style navigation without Google. The limitations: walking and transit features are weaker than Google’s, points of interest are less complete, and the app can feel slow on older phones. Free.

Tip: download the whole country rather than a city. HERE’s country files are reasonably compact, and you won’t get caught at the edge of a city box on a day trip.

MAPS.ME

MAPS.ME was the go-to backpacker app for years, and Organic Maps actually started as a fork of it. It still offers offline country downloads, routing and a big library of user-made travel guides.

It’s best for people who already know it and like its guides. Today, though, it shows ads and sponsored places in search results, and it pushes extra features that have nothing to do with maps. If you’re starting fresh, Organic Maps gives you the same core experience without the clutter. Free with ads.

Tip: if you keep it, turn off the sponsored layers in settings and check what the app is allowed to track in your phone’s privacy settings.

Quick comparison

How to set up offline maps before a trip

Do this at home on WiFi, two or three days before you fly. Menu names shift a little between app versions, but the paths below are current.

Google Maps (Android and iPhone)

1. Open Google Maps and make sure you’re signed in to your Google account.
2. Tap your profile picture or initial in the top right, then tap Offline maps.
3. Tap Select your own map, pinch and drag so the blue box covers everything you need, and tap Download.
4. Repeat for each region. A big country often needs several boxes.
5. Put the phone in airplane mode and search for your hotel to confirm the area works.

Google’s official instructions are on its offline maps help page.

Apple Maps (iPhone, iOS 17 or later)

1. Open Maps and search for your destination city.
2. On the place card, tap Download. If you don’t see it, tap More (the three dots) and then Download Map.
3. Resize the box. Maps shows the file size before you confirm.
4. To manage downloads later, tap your picture next to the search field, then Offline Maps.

Apple’s steps are on its offline maps support page.

Organic Maps or OsmAnd

Open the app, go to the download menu (Download maps in Organic Maps, Menu > Maps & Resources in OsmAnd), pick the country, then the state or region. In the US both apps split maps by state, so a California trip means one download, not the whole country.

Habits that save you on the road

Star your key places before you go: hotel, airport terminal, the nearest pharmacy, your embassy if you’re abroad. In Google Maps, saved places show up offline as long as they sit inside a downloaded area. In Organic Maps and OsmAnd, bookmarks live on the phone itself.

Navigation burns battery fast because the screen and GPS run together. Bring a small power bank and lower screen brightness; our guide to making your phone battery last longer has the settings that matter most. Airplane mode with location still on is a good trick in remote areas: the phone stops hunting for a signal, which is one of the biggest drains on battery.

Keep paper copies, or at least photos, of your passport and bookings. A phone scan stored offline is even better, and our roundup of the best document scanner apps shows how to make a clean PDF in a minute. If you do find yourself needing data, check our list of apps that find free WiFi wherever you go before paying roaming fees.

Perguntas frequentes

Does GPS work without a SIM card or data?

Yes. GPS reads satellite signals and needs no SIM or data. The first location fix can take longer without data (sometimes a minute or two outdoors), so open the map app in an open area before you need it.

Why can’t Google Maps download my area?

Some countries restrict offline downloads in Google Maps because of local rules or licensing, and the Download button simply doesn’t appear. That’s the main reason to keep Organic Maps or HERE WeGo as a backup.

How much storage do offline maps need?

A city area is often under 200 MB. A whole country can pass 1 GB. Every app shows the size before downloading, so check that number against your free space.

What I’d put on my phone before a trip

For a typical city trip, one main app is enough: Google Maps on Android, Apple Maps or Google Maps on iPhone. Download the city plus the airport two days before you fly and test it in airplane mode.

For anything involving trails, rural roads or a country where Google’s downloads are blocked, add Organic Maps and grab that region too. It costs nothing, the maps don’t expire, and it’s the app I open when the main one shows a blank gray square. If you plan multi-day hikes with elevation, swap Organic Maps for OsmAnd and spend an evening learning it at home, not at the trailhead.

Then delete the downloads when you get home. They add up quietly, and the next trip deserves a fresh copy anyway.