Saved offline Google maps

Although we depended on the TomTom voice navigation system for driving instructions, it was a great help on our UK trip to call up the Google maps I had saved beforehand for the trip. I was able to view them on my iPad Air 2 (with cellular and a GPS chip), which helped us double check the TomTom directions and also proved very useful while walking in Edinburgh.

To save an offline map, you’ll need to use the Google Maps app for your tablet or phone. Search for a location—in my case Edinburgh—and then swipe up from the bottom.

 

offline-map-swipe-up
These instructions work for the iOS Google Maps app

When you swipe up, you’ll see a screen that shows the Royal Scottish Academy off Princes Street next to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. (The picture may change by the time of your search.)  In the top right corner, there are three vertical dots. Clicking those dots will reveal a menu where you save the map you find to your device. You’ll be able to access the map even when offline.

offline-map

Those maps remain viewable on your device for 30 days (they can be updated while connected to the Internet for a further 30 days) and are limited to a maximum size of 50km x 50km. You can’t search for other locations or click on a label and the satellite images are limited, but you can switch between street and satellite view. If your device has a GPS chip or is at least able to ping Wifi hotspots (but not necessarily log into them), Google Maps can give you a current location marker.

Using the app, you can update and delete saved maps.

your-places
Click the three horizontal bars in the search field to display this menu

Plan ahead and save maps for each of your destinations. It proved quite handy when trying to find the bed and breakfast in Haltwhistle. It was impossible to program that address into the navigation system because the address consisted entirely of a postal code, but my saved map showed a marker because I had specifically searched for Kellah Farm B&B. We used the navigation system to get close and then relied on my iPad to navigate the one-lane scary roads.

Written by

Jennifer Petkus divides her time between writing Jane Austen-themed mysteries, creating websites for the dead, woodworking, aikido and building model starships. She has few credentials, having failed to graduate from the University of Texas with a journalism degree, but did manage to find employment at the Colorado Springs Sun newspaper as a cop reporter, copy editor and night city editor before the paper died in 1986. She has done little since. Her husband is the night editor at The Denver Post. Her best friend is a cop. She watched Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon live. She is the author of, Good Cop, Dead Cop: A Novel about the AfterNet. She’s writing the sequel, The Background Noise of Souls, and another AfterNet related story, Jane Austen’s Book Tour.

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