MAPS.ME: Offline Maps, GPS Nav Reviews

by JeroldR

I wish there were a way to go back to the prior version. While the new version (11.0.0) may have "pretty" maps, it has removed the ability to navigate with north up, so now the map spins around crazily while driving. Also seems to be 3D navigation only, not flat map, so you can no longer judge distances by looking. It no longer downloads maps if the screen locks, so you have to babysit while downloading, constantly tapping the screen to avoid auto lock. Downloads take forever - I am at a location with high speed fibre optic internet, and each map takes 15-20 minutes to download. Prepping for a road trip across South Africa where many routes have no cell coverage and MAPSME does not let me download three of the nine provinces. MAPSME no longer tells the download sizes, so I cannot make an informed decision about downloading over data vs wifi. The developers seem to be living in some sort of wonderful bubble with lots of wifi and complete cell coverage, unlike much of the real world. Disappointed.

by Kyle00428

I love the idea of MAPSME - especially as a NYC dweller who always finds myself needing to look up destinations on the subway with no internet connection. I downloaded the NYC map and then tried searching for a destination. Even though I had internet connection, it couldn’t find ANY locations for names of businesses I typed in... frequent destinations that show up #1 on a simple Google search. So I tried to type in the address, which is extremely annoying in an age where no one memorizes addresses or phone numbers anymore, but it literally couldn’t find ANY address. Not a single one. Finally, your nail in the coffin was that there’s zero support for subway directions, which is the only way I get around. A LOT of people in NYC could seriously benefit from MAPSME (since lack of internet on the subway drives us all nuts) but not without transit directions, and DEFINITELY not if you can’t find anything. I’ll revise this rating if you get functionality, because I want MAPSME so badly and would even pay for it, but honestly it’s not ready so I’m deleting it.

by Mackie Cheese

This is an awesome app. I would give it 5 stars if they change one thing. The navigation is terrible in one aspect. It tells you to turn at every curve. Where there’s no alternative option. Which is really annoying and potentially confusing. Especially when it tells you to go around a curve that’s just a few feet away from a possible turn. Everyone knows you keep following the road you’re on until you need to turn. They need to avoid extra directions that aren’t needed and focus on giving clear turns when you actually turn. I end up not paying attention especially on curvy roads and then miss a turn because it always says to turn to go around a curve. Also a direct 90 degree turn is NOT a slight right/left.

by Bad Apple?

Darn, thought I had found the map I need, ... guess not, ... this is missing things that a number of other maps already have, ... but is “supposed” to have stuff for hikers, outdoorsmen, (kayak fishing), ... like the location of “all” boat ramps, put in/take out points, marina repair, etcetera, ... for canoeing, kayaking, or float tube drifting, ... And I also need a marine version, that would include specific features, like area weather reports, current flow, depth charts, & user feedback notations for waypoints, ... in addition to including time of day moon/sun rise charts, ...Sure! Having hiking trail info would be great, I guess, but being able to also camp, fish, clean, & cook, plus places to rest overnite, including temporary shelters, would be a max enjoyable experience, ... maybe the developers could actually manage something of this magnitude? But then maybe not, I’ll have to stick to my Google maps for now I s’pose, .., great, but not detailed enough for me, ...

by Pmenconi

This is a wonderful app for travelers! Download the maps for the areas you need, and forget about a data connection, all the info needed is stored on your device. Update, download, and delete maps as you need. Set waypoints / pins at your location and never get lost agin (hopefully!). I like it particularly for walking.

I would give it 5 stars if not for one little problem. Once a route is started an arrow appears that points in the direction to head. Driven by the compass this feature works even when you are not moving. If it worked properly this would be a 5 star app, no question about it. Even without this feature I’d give it 4 stars. But the arrow ALWAYS points in the WRONG DIRECTION. it did that years ago on my iPhone 5; it did it with my SE, and now it’s the same on my 7 Plus. It’s not a feature, it’s a bug that has persisted across many updates and several hardware changes. So, 3 stars.

It’s still a great mapping app, though.

by Kampcachefis

I like MAPSME. The ability to download offline maps is really great. The only problem is that you can’t search for street addresses, only for attractions, recreational areas, etc. You can add a custom pin on a map in which it will navigate to you, but if you don’t know where it is, you can’t. Also the ETA to certain destinations can be off, especially offline. Unlike Google Maps, biking and walking directions are available offline. The navigation system is not the best but works. Unless you walk or bike a lot, or want to download a very large area (like an entire country), I would recommend downloading an offline map with Google Maps, but in any other situation I would recommend MAPSME.

by Lanc Local

I've had this on my phone for a long time. However, recently I was in an area with no service. I decided to use it to find my way since it doesn't require service to work. But, unless it already has the local detail map downloaded, it will always pop up a notification box asking you to download the local map. Thus making it absolutely useless. If you zoom out far enough it doesn't ask, only if you zoom in does it require the map to be downloaded. I recommend that if there's no data at least allow you to say not now or select no service available and continue on instead of having to give up and use the sun as a reference point.

by Arnando's Review

The Maps app that comes with every Apple phone is a pretty normal navigation app, you have your different views of the map, walking, driving, and more forms of transport. But, that’s it, it’s just a normal maps app with not much added to it, which is disappointing. It will definitely get you where you need to go with a very ordinary display, that isn’t too bad and with pretty good recommended routes. Now, there are some unique features to the Apple maps, you can do a flyover tour, which will show you a view of your desire from a view that resembles that of one you would see from a plane. The Apple maps app is useful and good enough for everyday travel, despite it’s very ordinary features, I recommend you use it if you have no time to download anything else.

by Pgmark1

MAPSME is wonderful for traveling! With it, I was able to find everything I needed and get where I wanted to go. The ability to put pins on the map was invaluable and well worth the cost. It also told me how far it was to certain places, which was nice. It also helped me find restaurants and gas stations, which was really helpful when traveling in an unfamiliar area. The ability to access maps offline was extremely useful. In sure I'll be using this again in my future travels.

Unfortunately it does have some problems. While using the navigation function, it misled us while driving. Also, navigation using public transportation doesn't work at all.

by Skwaustin

Update: Most recent update seems to have fixed all of the issues including switching back to OpenStreetMap for data instead of MapBox. Not sure what happened with the previous release, but the devs seemed to have had a mea culpa.

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Version 2.0 is frustratingly buggy. Search seems to be broken. Searches for addresses never find any results. More embarrassingly, searching for cities and towns is hit or miss, even major centers. If a city shows up on the map, why doesn’t search find it?

Switching between layers inevitably results in a blank map that may or may not resolve itself without restarting MAPSME .

The ability to download offline maps for entire states or countries appears to be gone. You have to select every map individually.

New design is fine, but is overshadowed by functional problems. A shame since this was my go to app for offline maps.

by Bwmoore22

I originally got this for overseas travel when I would have my phone in airplane mode most of the time due to data costs. MAPSME got me back to the hotel in Albacete, Spain when I got lost. I now live in a rural area that does not have full cell coverage, and I’ve come to love it even more.

The search functions are not great for common vernacular place names, but are getting progressively much better. It works pretty well for standardized, formal place names.

The routing is not traffic-aware, but when you can’t get a cell connection, traffic is probably not a problem.

by Deb.4444

I read about MAPSME on trip advisor regarding traveling. I was going to Cuba where there is no phone service or internet for travelers. I downloaded the map of Cuba prior to my trip and saved all the points of interest. I used it every day it was my GPS. One time we were walking the wrong way and since it shows us walking we were able to right away turn around and head the right way. This offline map showed us everything where the hotels were, the restaurants and places of interest. Going to Europe next month and taking MAPSME with me!! It is amazing and free wow!!!!

by Abby And Sydney

I just got back from a two week road trip in Norway. I live in the US and was not wanting to buy an international plan for data. I downloaded MAPSME after I read that it doesn’t use WiFi or data. The minute that we got into our rental car and we’re trying to find out how to get to our hotel I turned on MAPSME. I put in the town name and a bunch of option popped up, including hotels, restaurants and sightseeing opportunities. Still being new to MAPSME I was waiting for an error message to pop saying I needed to connect to a server. Fast forward to the last day of vacation. We traveled over 3,500 miles in Norway, Finland and Sweden and every time MAPSME took us to the place we wanted to be. This entire vacation was stress free and we didn’t have to worry about using the gigantic paper maps when we got lost. If your planning on traveling to a country or location that you know you won’t have service or your like me and does not want to pay extra charges for an international plan download MAPSME.

by Casey In LA

This free app is already at the top of the heap simply because it has no ads and in-app purchases. But moreover, it's actually useful! You can use this without an internet connection. This means if you're a cheapskate like me and don't have a data plan, you can still use this. After downloading MAPSME at home, just download the maps you need. The maps are detailed with many POI's included. It'll also create a route from your current location to a destination on the map. It's better than CityMaps2Go which I used before until it started charging a fee.

There are a few things I wish they change. First, the name. It doesn't conform with other app names. Second, the icon color. Green is usually for chatting apps like Message and FaceTime. And third, either the arrow color or route color need to change when trying to follow a route on the map. Both the arrow color and route color are the same color blue and it's difficult to see where you are along the route. Other than these things, MAPSME is perfect.

by Vietxshorty

I live in New England. My husband and I traveled to Vietnam for two weeks. We didn’t have a phone plan and we were able to connect to WiFi everywhere we went. But for the times we didn’t have WiFi MAPSME was a life saver! It didn’t use any of our data and it gave us such great directions. We actually had more fun and seen more things because of it. With MAPSME we purposely got lost because we knew that we can use it to get back to our hotel. It allowed us a more carefree travel experience. I recommend MAPSME to so many other tourists while we were away and my own friends before they went on their trip. Love love love it!

by AGS1440

As someone who does lots of traveling to different countries, and as someone who has even moved to several different countries, I can really say that MAPSME is a lifesaver. The fact that you can navigate without phone service is truly needed when you’re somewhere with limited WiFi, your phone plan doesn’t reach to that country/place, etc. This is also really good for solo travelers. I feel a lot more comfortable knowing I can use MAPSME to navigate, rather than relying on written directions with the risk of making a wrong turn and getting lost. It’s way better than any other offline maps you’ll download. Easier, faster, and smarter.

by Jjjjjjjjjjjj3568536

Used this in a recent trip to Italy, including several smaller cities. Downloaded “the entire country”. Worked great at navigating around the city/village including the smaller ones. Also has a pretty good database of hotels, restaurants, destinations, etc.

Some points for improvement (though this is still by far the best offline map app I’ve seen):

GPS struggles a bit when “between cities” ie it thinks you are still in the previous city. We were using trains, boat, etc so not really an issue but it might be a problem if you are driving yourself.

The search engine for the database of restaurants could use some improvement. It’s very specific on spelling and word order ie “ristorante simbiosi” vs just “simbiosi”.

It doesn’t like navigating to a “street address” or “point on the map” which was sometimes a problem in smaller cities where the database didn’t include a restaurant that a guide recommended.

Still overall the best offline map app that I’ve used, especially as it includes maps/data for an entire country not just the biggest cities.

by SFC44E

Was recently on two trips where I’d lost WiFi and cellular data. I’ve downloaded many state maps and all of those I was traveling through. But when I tried to use MAPSME with CarPlay, all I could get was a blank screen. Thankfully, I had a route designated through Waze and Google Maps.

Received a response from MAPSME developer stating to open MAPSME on my iPhone before opening it on CarPlay. I did this and it worked. I’d become so accustomed to not having to do that with other map apps that it didn’t occur to me to try it. MAPSME developer said this issue will be resolved in later update. So, I’m changing my review from 3 to 5 stars.

by Soquilily

This is by far the best map app I have ever used. I’ve used it frequently for international travel (South America, Europe, and North America) and in remote places where I don’t always have a cell phone signal. You can download the map of the area ahead of time and use it in airplane mode. It even navigates in airplane mode! The maps are really detailed and you can zoom in to see anything, even things like small hiking paths, monuments, historic ruins, waterfalls, in addition to the usual street names and building names, etc. It’s easy to add pins of various colors so I use it both as a planning tool, and I also mark the places I’ve been and liked and may want to come back to, such as restaurants, shops, natural parks, etc. The interface is easy to use as well. Highly recommend.

by Giantmike13

Do you like saving money on international trips? If so, MAPSME is a must. I found it before our 2 week trip to Chile. On that trip, we rented a car and drove 2100 kilometers. In all of that driving, we encountered one waypoint the map didn’t have, and another that was off by two blocks. Because of the completely offline nature of maps and waypoints and directions, we only had to enable cellular once in that two weeks to find that waypoint that was off by two blocks. So just $10 to Verizon for travel pass, instead of the $140 we likely would have paid.

One complaint is the turn by turn directions. They could use some tweaking. As is, they sometimes cause you to blow past turns and take a U-turn. Not because of the diver, but because the route did that. It was weird. Also, the voice wasn’t too good at announcing the turns, but luckily my wife was.

by Turge

In all honesty i havent really used this a lot, i tend to use waze, but this is my backup for when the grid goes down, its stored entirely on my phone, no internet required at all, it does take up a good deal of space as i have the U.S. Canada and mexico, i think around 8gb's, i didn't bother with the routing package because i didn't wanna use the extra space, but i can do that myself. One of my favorite parts is they constantly update all the maps so they are as current as possible, im guessin they put out a complete refresh of the map data around every 6 weeks, thats spectacular!!! The only thing i dont care for is the option of having the location options as never or always, i strongly prefer to use"while using",for this reason i set it to never, despite that i still give 5 stars for the constant updates. Ok, i lied a lil, the updates are nice, but every week im sittin here downloading an entire maps update, like 8 gigs for some stupid football update, stop tryna be cool, it’s tiresome, and no i dont want an 8gb soccer update or a final four or nfl update either, these take a long time to download:/

by PoodleMac

Saved me so many times when not able to access wireless and use maps. I stored destination maps onto my phone before heading out each day and was able to track location and progress as I wandered around small villages in Provence. It is possible to drop a pin to find your way back to a location (think rental car) which is a major relief. After the trip I had pins saved in all the villages to correspond to my photos...that helped.
It was fun to watch the little arrow navigate along the road and spin in confusion around the traffic circles in France.
Best travel app ever!

by Sfads

I just got back from a 3 week cycle trip to Iceland and nothing was more helpful in that time than MAPSME. We found out about it from a couple after we bumbled through our first few days using other downloaded maps. The fact that you can download an area and use it to give directions offline is amazing. Things are labeled on these maps so well. If you’re going to travel I would highly recommend this. Even for around town it’s replaced google maps for me. If you’re on the fence just take the jump and try this out, you’ll love it.

by Eugenemirman

I used MAPSME for Southeast Asia last November for 7 weeks, it made my life much easier I never once needed cell service I was able to download areas over WiFi easily and then I was set. I highly recommend MAPSME for the traveler. I also used it on a couple occasions as a tracker, while kayaking In Hua long bay I left the tracker on and was able to navigate many miles and still find the boat in the middle of a hundred islands ( probably would have never found it) and made me feel very confident I could find my way back many times throughout my travels. Thanks maps me.