Best offline maps for Android – MAPS.ME vs Google Maps

best offline maps for androidWould you like to find out what are the best offline maps for Android? What are the best offline travel apps? Or maybe you would like to learn how to download Google maps for offline use? If answer to either of these questions is yes, then you are in the right place. I’m a traveler and people often ask me, what are the best offline maps for Android in my opinion. All travelers have this problem, cause when we travel we usually don’t have any data package to download maps in a new place. I’ve been traveling around the world since 2014 and I’ve tested many offline maps for Android. After using most of available offline maps I have to admit, that there are only two offline maps that matter and both are among the top travel apps, however winner can be only one. More about it in a second.

Best offline maps for Android

So two contestants are MAPS.ME and Google Maps. That’s right, Google Maps, cause you can use them offline as well if you know how to. Lets start from MAPS.ME, the app which is among the best offline travel apps for Android.

best offline maps androidMAPS.ME is a small app that allows you to download any map to your phone to use offline. It’s easy to use and intuitive. You just have to go to Options -> Download Maps and you can easily download any map or region you want. You can download maps of the whole countries or smaller maps of provinces or cities. This way you will get exactly what you want and these maps are extremely detailed. All maps can be saved on external SD card, so you don’t have to worry about space on your internal card.

Another great option is that you can bookmark places you’ve visited. It is extremely helpful when you are traveling and you can easily bookmark your hotel location to be able to get back there without any problems. Naturally MAPS.ME has also great navigation system, so you can use it to navigate you to any destination you wish. Built in search engine allows to search via type of object. We can easily locate and see on map nearby restaurants, points of interest, hospitals, Wi-Fi hotspots, gas stations, sights and more. Moreover MAPS.ME is FREE to use and has no ads!

Features of MAPS.ME:

  • extremely detailed maps
  • allows to download country, province and city maps for offline use
  • option to search via category and locate nearby points of interests like restaurants, sights, gas stations and more
  • maps can be saved on external SD card
  • precise and fast GPS localization
  • great navigation system
  • bookmarking favorite places
  • adding new places
  • FREE to use without ads

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How to download Google maps for offline use?

download google maps for offline useAs I’ve mentioned before, you can download Google maps for offline use, let me explain how to do it in few easy steps. First of all you need to open Google maps app on your phone or tablet. When you do that make sure that you are signed in to your account and you have internet connection – it is crucial to make it work. Now simply search for a place, for example New York, wait for it to load. Now type on the name of the place you’ve searched for, then press More -> Download. It should start downloading.

Unfortunately there are also some limitations when it comes to downloading Google maps. There is an area limitation, that means, you cannot download maps of areas larger than 120.000 square kilometers. If you try to download area larger than that, you will get an alert to zoom in and try to download smaller area.

Even though it’s quite easy to download Google maps for offline use, I find using MAPS.ME way easier, faster and more intuitive than Google Maps. So for me the winner is only one and it’s called MAPS.ME. Its one of the top travel apps you should have if you’re going abroad. I’d say that it’s no.1 among the best offline travel apps available for free. And what offline maps do you use?