Best Offline Maps for Europe

Did you try using the Search field in the upper right of this page and search for 'offline maps app'? This has come up recently in a few threads. I love MapsWithMe, but I use it mostly for GPS-guided walking in cities, less for driving.

I also love MapsWithMe and the fact that it zooms in pretty closely to show the littlest streets. It works offline and with GPS to pinpoint your location. It's a free app so can't go wrong.

Looks like you agree mapswithme is a good, free one, and I can look at it first. Does it eat up a lot of memory or can I control that by only downloading specific areas?
Thanks

Areas for some countries, sometimes just countries. You'll be able to tell. You can keep them all on the computer and just switch around depending on the trip. Spend a couple bucks and get the Pro. The Lite sucks, but I can't remember why since I only had it for a couple of days.

I have MapsWithMe on my Android tablet and I like it a lot. You can download whole countries, if you have enough memory available to store them, or in some cases just specific regions - France for example is available by region but Italy is a single download of 348MB and England is also a single download of 257MB. The key point to note is that the maps come from a project called OpenStreetMap, which is a free public mapping project. Anyone can add details to the map, and in fact they rely on people with local knowledge to do that. Big cities tend to have lots of detail, although perhaps not quite to Google Maps standard, but for example the only reason there is much information about the rural village where I live is that I added it myself, drawing building outlines and adding names of shops and tea rooms. A lot of places therefore look empty, but that is just because no one local has added anything to the map. Of course, this means you can look at an area on openstreetmap.org and decide whether it is suitable for your purposes, before downloading it to MapsWithMe.

Particularly if you are walking in the Cotswolds you might like the UK NavFree. I find it very useful and it is both free and completely off-line. BUT - I strongly suggest you consider using a paper map in London. Why, I hear you ask. Everybody in London has a phone and a great many of them have iPads or iPad minis ir Galaxy 7s or Nexus 7s. BUT, there have been a number of stories in the British press, primary example the London Evening Standard, and with many police advertising campaigns, highlighting a big rise in London of the spur-of-the-moment thefts of electronic devices right out of the hands of the users. At the moment, I would suggest that a tourist relying on a device for directions while strolling and discovering is even more of a target. You'd hate to lose your lovely (expensive) zippy toy just when you need it most. I know I would. Paris - dunno.

Yes that would certainly take the wind out of my sails. I guess what we ideally need is a transport schedule app. I've been using paper maps for years and actually minored cartography in college. Don't mind'em. TA has some offline maps. I should look at what is displays about my region and see if it is accurate.
Thanks

I haven't tried it yet, but Google maps now lets you download a map for offline use.

I like City Maps - I can load just the ones I want and delete them when I am finished.

Google Maps downloads for offline use are apparently only available for Android devices. No surprise there.

which ecosystem are you, Dawn?

Not all apps are on all ecosystems - the different systems like Blackberry, Blackberry 10, Windows Phone, Android, iOS, etc., - and the implementations vary between systems.

MapsWithMe also allows you to download only what you need, and delete when you're done with that country or region. I agree that it's worth it to get the Pro version.

Nigel, Not sure what you mean.
Dawn

I like the idea of Citymaps if you can delete and just load what you need. Is it offline? Thanks,
Dawn

ecosystem = Android or Apple iPhone/iPad Citymaps uses the same maps from OpenStreetMap as MapsWithMe, and both of them allow you to download specific areas. I've just installed Citymaps to compare it with MapsWithMe and I found that Citymaps is actually better in that respect because you can download specific cities, while MapsWithMe restricts you to regions or in some cases to whole countries. However, Citymaps is much, much slower at zooming in and out and to scroll around the map. That is on a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 with a 1.4GHz quad core processor, so it's a bit disappointing. The free version of Citymaps limits you to 5 map downloads, but the Pro version has no limit and it's very cheap.

I downloaded citymaps2go one day for my ipad mini. It was a free app of the day a while back (generally a paid one...if you haven't discovered app gratis, app of the day, and apps gone free...look them up). I haven't physically used it yet on a trip (I downloaded California city maps for this coming Sept). It is offline. I like that you can pinpoint places on the map (say, a restaurant you heard about, or a tourist spot - I had read about this place in SF that according to a list is one of the top 10 places for ice cream - so I pinned it on the map). Maybe you can do this with other apps as well. It may not have smaller villages tho. I will still probably carry paper maps for the large cities as I don't want to be flashing my electronics around...but to easily find -as stated above- restaurants, your hotel, places of interest...great to lay that all out in advance.

Lots of interesting info, very helpful.Thanks. Nigel, I have an iPhone 4s. Another question are all map apps deletable?
I think using it while in the car and not on the streets of London is a great tip. Paris too.