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Travel Hacking – Caching Your Google Maps For When You Have No Data

Last Updated February 20, 2023 William Tang

You are here: Home » Travel Gear & Tech » Travel Hacking – Caching Your Google Maps For When You Have No Data

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This is a familiar problem right?  You're in a new country for a few weeks but you don't have a data plan.  So there are a few things you can do.  You can use Google Maps when you have Wifi and take a bunch of screenshots and hope for the best or you revert back to old school paper maps.  Lucky for you there's a better way.

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Here's what we're covering:

  • How to make Google Maps offline ready
    • Search for a specific place
    • Save a general area
  • Viewing saved maps
  • Limitations

How to make Google Maps offline ready

This travel hack has actually been around for over a year now and inconveniently tucked away as a hidden feature on the Google Maps app.  That being said, the latest version of Google Maps on both Android and iOS make the feature a bit more accessible.   Keep in mind that I have an iPhone 5S with iOS6 so the screenshots and steps are going to be biased that way.

Search for a specific place

Google Offline Maps Step 1
Google Offline Maps Save Specific Place Step 2
Google Offline Maps Save Specific Place Step 3
Google Offline Maps Save Specific Place Step 3b
2014-07-30_22.02.39_annotated
Google Offline Maps Save Specific Place Step 5
Google Offline Maps Save Specific Place Step 6

Step 1:  Search for the place of interest like “Toronto” and zoom into the level of detail that you want.   Step 2:  Pull up the place information sheet that shows up at the bottom of the screen.  Tap “Save map to use offline”. Step 3:  Sometimes the area is too large and will say “Area too large, zoom in”.  All you have to do is pinch and zoom to the area of interest. Step 4:  Tap “Save”. Step 5:  Give the map a name and tap “Save”. Step 6:  You'll see a saving progress bar at the top and when it's done, it'll go away and then you're all set!

Save a general area

Google Offline Maps Save General Area Step 1
Google Offline Maps Save Specific Place Step 2a
Google Offline Maps Save Specific Place Step 2b
Google Offline Maps Save Specific Place Step 3
Google Offline Maps Save Specific Place Step Ok Maps
Google Offline Maps Save Specific Place Step Other 1
Google Offline Maps Save Specific Place Step Other 2
Google Offline Maps Save Specific Place Step Other 3

This is similar to the above but what if you're not wanting to search something specific like “Toronto” but just move the map around to a general area you're interested in Step 1:  Move the map to the area of interest. Step 2:  Tap the search box at the top and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Step 3:  Tap “Save map to use offline” Shortcut:  Instead of scrolling to the bottom, you can always just type “Ok maps” (kind of like their “Ok glass” thing for Google Glass) and it'll go into map saving mode. Step 4:  Adjust the zoom, name it and save it.

Viewing saved maps

So how do you manage all these offline maps that you just saved.  What if you want to delete some?  What if you want to rename them or update them?  Well you just need to go into this not-so-secret area in the app.

Step 1:  Tap the small user icon on the top right hand side. 2014-07-31 00.01.36_usericon

Google Offline Maps View Saved Map Step 1

Step 2:  Scroll down to “Offline maps”

Google Offline Maps View Saved Map Step 2b

To View

  • Simply tap on any of the saved maps and it'll take you directly to that map

To Manage

  • Tap “View all and manage”
  • Tap on the 3 dots on the right hand side of any of the saved offline maps and you'll get a prompt that asks you whether you want to Rename, Update or Delete.
Google Offline Maps View Saved Map Step 3
Google Offline Maps View Saved Map Step 3b
Google Offline Maps View Saved Map Step 3c
  • Note:  For updating, I've noticed that it doesn't give you a lot of time to make changes to the map.  Once you're in update mode, you have a few seconds before it starts to save the updated view.  This part isn't particularly user friendly.

Limitations

  1. By default, all maps are set to expire after 30 days.  That's good since the cached maps won't take up space on your phone forever.
  2. Won't be able to use search or navigation when offline.  That makes sense.
  3. Some geographic areas can't be saved.  I looked at their list of available countries and it's honestly quite extensive so I don't think you'll run into this problem unless you go somewhere really remote.

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Filed Under: Travel Gear & Tech 8 Comments

About William Tang

William is the Chief of Awesome at Going Awesome Places which is focused on off-the-beaten-path, outdoor adventure, and experiential travel. His true passion lies in telling stories, inspiring others to travel, writing detailed trip itineraries to help others plan their own trips, and providing helpful tips and tricks to guide readers to travel better. He is based in Toronto, Canada but you'll find him on the road more often than not. Make sure to learn more about William to find out his story and how Going Awesome Places started.

author will tang going awesome places profile photoHey, my name is Will and I'm here to help you travel to some awesome places around the world and my home country of Canada by providing insanely detailed itineraries, travel guides, and packing lists.

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