Ok I like paper maps best, but next year its off to Europe and I really don't want to travel with a bundle of paper.
I don't like the idea of a smartphone with map, and don't have a GPS.
What I really want is a google style system without actually having to go online. Is that actually possible.
Has anyone had any experiences or preferences?
Am just starting to look into it and its all a bit confusing
1) Openstreet map
2) Velomap
3) Maps4mac
OsmAnd maps were recommended to me as an offline alternative to Google. Free on android.
You may find this thread useful. http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=80232
I too was a smartphone holdout, but last spring at the beginning of a cycle tour of Italy I bought a smartphone in Naples for Euro70 and found the gps with Google maps to be extremely helpful. It is so easy to pull out the phone and see where you are. Also you can zoom in as needed to figure out the way through a confusing network of medieval lanes. Highway signs in Europe may only point the way to expressways closed to cyclists. A Google map will show cyclist options.
In Aug we rode Baku to Erzurum (1600km) with only google maps on a MacbookAir. Each night I drew a small diagram of the day's route. Then we flew to Friedrichshafen on Bodensea and rode to Warsaw, again with no paper map and no GPS. It was quite successful. On a few occasions we pulled over and looked at a tourist map on the roadside.
This works if you can get regular internet.
We bought a 2nd hand Sport tour from a guy in the UK.
Its waiting at a friends place and we'll be picking it up next year
Thanks to Australian customs cracking down on imports its better for us to go and get it. Post and taxes would kill the price.
Unless someone wants to bring it to oz for us.
I use Google Earth to display maps downloaded with MOBAC. Download the map in the Google Earth KMZ format and then load it into a Google Earth layer, works a treat.
It hasn't been specifically mentioned here, so: Google maps only work if you are on-line. This limits were and when you can use them.
My tablet doesn't have a sim, so I couldn't use it to navigate on Google maps. Shame, because I really like them.
My smartphone uses Nokia maps and these work offline.
Edited by: SimonHill
Try [http://openmtbmap.org]. You can download maps of entire countries or continents then open them with Garmin Basecamp.
These maps are suited to cyclists, the South America one I'm using has campsites and hostels etc, represented on it.