Provides driving routes + voice navigation instructions on road trips (a lifesaver, trust us). It still gives some walking and hiking routes. You can still search for streets, landmarks, and addresses. The GPS location (blue dot) works as normal. It allows you to save locations and sights for your itinerary. If your data plan doesn't work abroad, you don't purchase a local SIM card, the connection isn't reliable, or you simply prefer to remain more disconnected overall when you travel, then downloading and using a Google Maps offline is an absolute game-changer. The modern day explorer has become dependent on the smartphone to plan an adventure and explore a new place. It provides means of getting your bearings in a new place, a digital map of all the places you plan to visit and a safety net if you get completely lost. You never know, you may have a better travel experience without the option of using your phone every few minutes!

Or better still, switch the phone into full ‘aeroplane’ mode for the duration of your stay to avoid accidentally answering a call (yep, they’ll charge you for those too), and rely instead on wifi in your accommodation and perhaps the odd bar, restaurant or coffee shop. With the EU now allowing free roaming between member states, and a number of mobile phone companies offering great data deals for travellers across continents, cheap international mobile data has become increasingly easy to access.īut what if you plan on travelling out of the EU or don’t use one of the mobile companies that offers cheap roaming deals? You’ll need to turn off your mobile data in order to avoid being stung by eye-wateringly expensive roaming fees.

Why An Offline Google Map Is Great For Travel Our short guide will tell you exactly how to download and save a Google Map for offline use when you travel anywhere, and explain what you can and cannot do with the offline map. However, it's surprisingly little known amongst the wider travel community.

One of the best travel hacks - that we use for city breaks, road trips, and backpacking adventures - is incredibly simple.

Download googlemymaps