CityMaps2Go – Offline Maps Reviews

I’ve used City Maps for over five years. These are the pros and cons I’ve found with CityMaps2Go. PROS: you can mark and save restaurants, subway stations, historical attractions to navigate to when offline. It provides detailed maps that are very useful if you have no cellular or WiFi access.
CONS: There have been two times that all of my stored locations and folders have been completely purged thus losing a lot of obscure places I planned to revisit. The map is often jerky when you try to zoom in/out or scroll around. Sometimes this causes CityMaps2Go to abruptly crash. Recently I keep having an issue with the entire map disappearing so that you’re left with your blue (GPS position) on a completely blank screen. I tried deleting and downloading CityMaps2Go again but sometimes this occurs often when I am miles away from my hotel and necessitating me to find WiFi to use conventional methods to find my way back. I am a premium member and I sent an inquiry to their customer service about this and never heard back. Finally, although there are thousands of restaurants and popular locations in the database, more often than not, I find that restaurants I want to find aren’t recognized and I’m talking about too-rated restaurants recognized by Trip Advisor or Foursquare. I hate to say it, but you’re better off paying for an international cellular plan than to rely on CityMaps2Go as a stand alone navigation source for off grid traveling based on my experiences.

I use this app a lot when in places where I either have poor cellular data access OR was concerned about security using local WiFi and or cellular data providers. The downloaded versions of CM2G maps are really quite accurate and more than sufficiently detailed.

Examples (1) in very remote northern USA. I have family who live on the edge of a Natl Forest and cellular coverage is awful. I have maps downloaded for these states and never have an issue. (2) I do business occasionally in Middle East - Saudi and UAE. Cellular coverage is spotty, expensive and not always secure - again I have maps for these countries downloaded and can turn phone to ‘airplane mode’ and still find my way around. Then only go live with internet when confident I have safe reliable access (say at reputable hotel).

It is really a good option for people who are on the go and not always tethered to safe speedy internet.

I have spent a day trying to figure out where my data disappeared to when I upgraded CityMaps2Go . The technician was polite and tried to be helpful as he explained that even though I had used it for about three years I had not ‘logged on’ in years and thus there was no synced data. When I deleted my old icon and app in order not to confuse them with the new, I deleted the only file of the data points, sites, pins etc. Like a gift from above, I still had my old iPad, still charging and syncing though not being used. It had all the data. Now I am back in business. The sync between the iPads is still not complete but there are work around such as simply naming the pins that are not syncing to a new list and then they appear. Three cheers to really professional technician S.

Update 1 mo later: Ulmon’s web site support form hasn’t functioned for at least a month. I’ve emailed support, and contacted them via Facebook, with no response. These problems may be connected to recent security issues Ulmon reported to users. New users should beware investing in this abandoned app.

Original review: this app was once one of my most-used apps, and I happily paid for the premium version. A recent update required re-downloading all maps. After doing so, I’ve repeatedly found the once-reliable offline map use feature, which I relied on, to be totally unreliable. Even when I have already downloaded the map for my current area, CityMaps2Go will show a blank map when I’m offline. It seems to need to “call home” at arbitrary and unpredictable times in order to work, crippling it for offline use. If Ulmon reads this: Please restore the earlier simple and completely reliable offline performance. Without that, CityMaps2Go is essentially useless to me, and I regret paying for the premium version.

I have used this app since 2011. I download maps before any travel. The maps are precise and current to the minute with all transportations stops, points of interest, parks, food, hotels, nightlife...you think of it and it is noted on the maps. You can use it without WiFi on an iPod or phone and the device’s gps will show your location on the map all day (as long as you opened CityMaps2Go with WiFi in the morning). CM2G has always proved more accurate than other phone maps that my traveling companions have used. I have used it while hiking...the level of detail on the maps is so fantastic. You can create lists and save all your spots on lists. It has been a must have tool so far while traveling in North America, Europe...bravo to the this app team!!!!

I’ve used this map app on several trips including Sydney and Berlin recently. And it seems to be regularly update for new locations. I’m based in Los Angeles and I often use it for local adventures, too. I find it very helpful that it allows offline use + you can add notes/photos and have use of the GPS compass (knowing the cardinal points is very helpful). For traveling, these features saves data usage. I initially used CityMaps2Go on my iPhone 5S. Now I’m on iPhone SE....and using the newer version of CityMaps2Go . Also, though CityMaps2Go provides train stations, I generally use a separate app for trains/buses in the city I’m in to assist (just to get timetables) .The combination seems to work well for me.

I’ve used CityMaps2Go in the US, Ireland, and Paris and find it incredibly helpful navigated city streets on foot and country back roads by car. Download the maps for offline use, add pins for your destinations, turn off cellular data and it uses your phone’s GPS to locate you. You can then track to see if you are going in the right direction toward your destinations while on foot in a city.

We had a GPS system in our rental car in Ireland, but some of the places we wanted to get to were off the beaten path - like the ruin of an abbey - we could get to the general area via the car GPS and then we used CityMaps2Go to get to the actual location.

Highly recommend!

Great app if you want mapping/location info but don’t want to use data out of your regular phone service area. Used by many airline crewmembers for international trips. I am one.

Download maps you need onto your phone when you have Wi-Fi then you can turn off your cellular data and CityMaps2Go will still show your location on the map. Does not provide driving/walking directions (as does Google Maps when connected to Internet) but does show your location. Maps are detailed and allow you to search for many attractions, restaurants, etc without using data. Wide range of maps for cities and larger geographic areas.

Not easy or obvious to use, spend more time frustrated by trying to figure out how to use rather than using it. Map seems okay but searches are hard to use. For example, I knew there was a restaurant near me the started with an R. Went to search, food, local in the search options it listed hundreds of restaurants in a random order. We finally found the restaurant in google then searched in CityMaps2Go to find it 900 feet away. Would have liked to search local by alphabetical, distance food types or dollars as an options to help narrow down choices. Another example, cannot figure out how to use app to create an interesting list of place to visit. Would like to build a day planner list of places to visit on foot or by car. Cannot find a way to do this unless I know the places before hand?

This is a great application... I use it extensively and recommend it to all my colleagues... I am an airline pilot for a major airline and travel extensively overseas. The strong points on CityMaps2Go is it requires no wifi connection (although it enhances CityMaps2Go ) or data interface... in other words I can walk around the cities I previously downloaded in airplane mode and it uses the internal GPS for guidance. I also like the colored stars as I use a color for restaurants, a color for points of interest, a color for my hotels... etc. I also love that every place I pin I can put personal notes so I can review them before walking in and treat the employees like old lost friends...

I like knowing where I am and also where I am going and whenever I'm in a place with limited or no wifi Ulmon Maps is my go to resource. I use an iPad, have no smartphone, but I would use CityMaps2Go even if the reverse was true. The iPad blue dot shows up on Ulmon and it is useful in following a route to anywhere and seeing possible places of interest nearby. Maps are updated periodically. Also you have options of downloading whole countries or states if you need that or just a major city if that is all you need. Of course CityMaps2Go gives a much wider area than Google maps which limits the area of any saved map.

I traveled to Paris last year and used an offline map for navigation. It worked great on my iPhone. Walked all over the city and the maps were spot on. You could follow the location block by block and make sure you were headed to the right area. Also marked the points of interest before the trip and could immediately map out an agenda for the days travel to hit these sites most efficiently. I would have been lost without this map service. I plan on being in Australia in the next couple of weeks and have already down loaded my map and am ready to go when I arrive. Wonderful service.

This is one of my favorite Apps when I travel for business or pleasure. I like that it works offline when I’m in areas that don’t have great internet but depend on that to function. CityMaps2Go uses just your phone’s GPS capability to locate and show where you are. The detail is excellent, down to the level of established hiking trails out in the mountains :-) or which way the traffic flows if you’re in cities with a lot of one way streets. I down load country and detailed city maps including scenic/commercial places ahead of time so I have them ready in advance. Great success in London, Paris, Ireland, Western Australia and all over the USA.

Notice that all the good reviews are from over a year ago and all the bad reviews are RECENT. This is not a good sign. Click on the Developer Support link and it takes you to a page with a REVIEW of CityMaps2Go !?! Click on the link to the Developer web page (Kulemba) and it goes to a ONE PAGE WordPress site with no links or menus. Nothing.

At some point their user data was hacked and/or sold, where’s the explanation of that??

CityMaps2Go was sold, support appears to be non-existent, they updated it a couple months ago so it would use Apple login, but it clearly doesn’t work any more as it is supposed to, and used to. The new owners are keeping it on life-support to keep collecting money for the work done in the past when it was a good product and got great reviews. DON’T BUY IT until there is a major update and you can get real support!!

I just returned from a three week trip to Greece. Prior to the trip the relevant maps were downloaded and annotated with the places I planned to visit. It worked perfectly as my stand alone guide especially in Athens which is a challenging city.
RLD

It is a year later than my trip to Greece and tomorrow I return to the US after a trip to Switzerland, Austria, and Italy. As before the obvious maps were downloaded prior to departure and additional useful maps were downloaded during the trip. Again the maps worked perfectly and you picked up two new customers during the trip who asked about what I was using.
RLD

We used CityMaps2Go in Istanbul, throughout Turkey, New Zealand, & even hiking the trails in AZ. It's been very dependable. Now we are using it as we hike in Spain and it's been AMAZING! We highlight the spot we wish to travel to, click on the lower part of the window that describes the location and a new widow asks to show on the map, scroll down from that, click on the prompt to"Get Directions" and choose Google Maps and VOILÀ. The time in hrs & min.& miles or kilometers shows and talks you thru the route. FABULOSO! CityMaps2Go has been invaluable! So great that it interacts w Google maps this way.

Great that one can use it offline ... So one does not have to pay roaming fees. Works really good, but does not seem to have a locate me feature ... So I had to keep searching for a street name to find my location within the City (still an issue) ... Otherwise, a good app and map.

I paid for the premium version now ... I like that I can mark locations ... I wish I could use different colors for different places (maybe in the future) ... and possibly put a name on the Marker without having to click on it, but at least I can labeled them! I LOVE that if I add a marker pin on my iPad it shows up on my iPhone ... well done!

The maps are very detailed- which is great.

I’ve relied on CityMaps2Go for my travel for 5 years now, and for saving locations of important architecture, museums, and sites. That being said it can be very frustrating to search for churches, castles, museums. If you misspell or do not know the name of the location in the native language it can be a challenge to find. I used to be able to add locations on the maps just by tapping on them, now it is not the case. It can be frustrating. That being said, it is far better than Google maps in that you can create different lists to separate your saves.

As others have stated, after the big update that required you to re-download all of your maps, CityMaps2Go just doesn’t work while offline (the main reason for having it) and while online, is not smooth in scaling. The map hangs, jerks, or freezes. The website is the typical crappy “look how cool our site is” with absolutely zero actual information or support.
Many of us supported CityMaps2Go by paying for the premium version and told everyone to get it. I feel like someone has cheated me. I don’t know if the company has been sold or a new team has come in to make it more of a booking agency instead of what everyone uses it for: Maps that are offline with our personal spots marked with notes.

Ulman has dropped the ball. Please fix this.

I previously wrote a critical review, which I’m replacing after extensive use. I’ve used this app Premium in the US, Cuba, and numerous cities in Europe. I use an iPad Mini with no cellular potential, hardly state of the art.

CityMaps2Go will search for streets, train stations, restaurants, etc. while offline. Its data base and accuracy are awesome! Even offline, it pinpoints your location. You can store many locations on each map you download. It’s impossible to get lost. It has bailed me out so many times, I can’t count.

Recently I compared apps with a skeptical friend who had three well-known map apps. None of them had CityMaps’ offline power, not even close.

My previous peeve was that whole-country maps of Spain and Portugal didn’t work. I haven’t checked that recently. I just found my way home in a rainstorm in Marseille, on the shortest route through a maze of staircases and narrow streets. If you travel, you want CityMaps2Go.

I planned an entire trip to Europe using CityMaps2Go. This was 2 years ago and I’m just now writing the review so the details aren’t fresh on my mind but I remember the downloaded maps were a huge help because I didn’t have cell service in most spots there, but the downloaded maps work anywhere. Also the user reviews on all the sights/ restaurants and whatnot helped tremendously. The only thing that prompted me to even write this review is i just went back to CityMaps2Go to use yet again for another trip to Europe and it asked for a rating. I highly recommend CityMaps2Go!