Good Offline Street Maps for Boating

[Seevee]

Hi,

Looking for a good map for boating, that shows towns, cities, rivers so I can locate things when boating.... offline. Unlike boating apps that dont show any details off the water.

Google maps would be great, but can't figure out how to download it... they say there's a way but can't figure it out.

Also MapsMe looks ok, but the downloading process is painful only a city at a time, and haven't been able to get rural areas.

There's a lot out there, some free, some with a price (which doesn't matter if they work). I'd like to find someone using one and not go thru the searching process. Thanks.

Thoughts?

 

[wkearney99]

Google it. First result.

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6291838?co=GENIE.Platform=Android&hl=en

You basically draw a rectangle around the area you want downloaded. You can download several. Bear in mind the device you're using will need to have enough storage capacity to hold the downloaded data. Thus it may be useful to download only specific areas instead of a huge block.

 

[O C Diver]

On my tablet, I can Google map an area with whatever detail I need and then take a screen shot of it. Seems that any software that isn't online would become dated information wise.

Ted

 

[wkearney99]

On my tablet, I can Google map an area with whatever detail I need and then take a screen shot of it. Seems that any software that isn't online would become dated information wise.

The maps app manages downloads by date. Older ones can either be re-downloaded or deleted. There's not THAT much that's going to change for street mapping in the month or so default window it uses.

A screenshot is sort of worthless compared to the easy way you can just download all the mapping data for an area. I mean, it's better than nothing but not by much...

 

[caltexflanc]

We found a good old paper atlas and a few paper maps to be the best. Large format, sunlight viewable, portable, never need plugging in.

 

[High Wire]

We found a good old paper atlas and a few paper maps to be the best. Large format, sunlight viewable, portable, never need plugging in.

X2 Analog GPS.

 

[Larry M]

I’ve not tried it but i know RVers who use Galileo Offline Maps and like it.

 

[O C Diver]

The maps app manages downloads by date. Older ones can either be re-downloaded or deleted. There's not THAT much that's going to change for street mapping in the month or so default window it uses.

A screenshot is sort of worthless compared to the easy way you can just download all the mapping data for an area. I mean, it's better than nothing but not by much...

Agreed, but so far I haven't been anywhere Google maps on my smartphone didn't work.

Ted

 

[Shrew]

Is the challenge reducing data usage? Or concern for being out of network range?

 

[wkearney99]

In my travels I've definitely run into situations where network coverage is spotty. Both on land and water. When you have the maps downloaded you're not at the mercy of a missing connection or (almost worse) one that's slowed down to fall back to a different network speed. 4G LTE is great, but falling back to CDMA or GSM can be painfully slow for modern apps with a lot of graphics.

I don't know if having downloaded maps helps with bandwidth when you still have a connection. I don't know if it smart enough to use what's already loaded or if everything still comes from the network. I have all my devices sharing a 15gb/mo plan so I haven't really needed to care too much.

 

[Portage_Bay]

If you are using an Android device OsmAnd will work well offline. You will need to download the maps while you have a connection. It won't have the wealth of data on restaurants, services etc that Google Maps has but it's solid off the water navigation. I used it last year in the areas of Scotland not served by cell service.

Here's a review of OsmAnd OsmAnd Maps & Navigation Review

The learning curve is a bit steep.

 

[ssobol]

The problem with offline Google map selections is that they expire after awhile. You can't just download once and forget about it till you need it. IME, whenever I need a Google map download, it has already expired.

For Android I use Maps.Me (also available for Apple). This allows you to download maps covering most of the world (or any parts thereof). You can preload the areas you want, and they don't expire.

https://maps.me/download/

P.S. There are parts of the world where access to all things Google are blocked, and having an alternative can be useful.