The Best Offline Mapping Apps for Cycle Touring (Updated 2019)

(Updated: April 2019. After completing our South America tour and touring in the PNW of the USA and moving to Spain, we felt it was important to update this post with new apps. We often get questions about specific apps and our intention is to cover applications that are useful for offline mapping tools for cycle touring, not tracking distances, or social features. 

For 2019, we’ve got a new #1 app!

Note: we have also included user recommended offline apps at the bottom that come highly preferred.)

As we’ve traversed Europe, South America, and the USA during our cycle tours, we have become quite familiar with the various offline navigation mapping apps. Given that we have used an Apple iPhone, an Android tablet, Samsung Galaxy phone, Dell and a Mac laptop, we are no strangers to the variety of tools available.

While some old school riders prefer paper maps, we’re all digital. 

Below, we provide a review of some of the best offline mapping tools for cycle touring.

Need a way to view your map apps while riding? Here’s some gear to get you started ⟶

Bicycle Bike Phone Mount Holder

Topeak Smartphone Dry Bag for iPhone

Rokform Pro Series Bike Mount Kit

MaxMiles Bike Phone Holder Universal

Phone and Tablet

1. Komoot – New #1 for 2019

Android and iOS | $3.99 – $19.99 | https://www.komoot.com

Pros:  For a while, I’ve heard, “you have to check out Komoot” and it wasn’t until Dakota and Chelsea Gale of TraipsingAbout.com paid us a visit in Granada, Spain that I was able to get my hands on the application.

They’re touring the Iberian peninsula and have been using the app for their planning and riding.

I’m so blown away by this app that I immediately went to my computer and updated it as #1 on the list.

Offline maps? Check. Hiking, mountain biking, road riding, and bike touring maps? Check. Elevation profile? Yup.

The very first question I have when using an app for cycling touring is can it be used offline. Unequivocally, yes, you can save routes offline easily and without headache.

Who wants to burn and pay for data while touring?

Next up, how’s the route planning? Oh man, this is where Komoot excels. You get an overview of the route surfaces by distance with a map overlay and by type of road.

You can scroll across your route inch by inch and compare the surface, way path, and elevation profiles.  This is unparalleled for a mapping app to give you so much information on a single screen.

You can also choose Cycle Touring vs Road Riding and get different routes. This the first time I’ve seen a mapping app do this. The cycle touring option will also give you dirt and non-pavement paths. Also, there turn by turn voice navigation built into the application.

The Difficulty section is a welcomed addition of information, especially when planning routes for riders of various skills. When planning a route from Granada to Sevilla, I can easily see that there isn’t any experience needed, but that the fitness level is the highest.

Why do I need fitness? Oh, Spain is a giant country of hills and steep climbs. No joke, there is serious climbing here. The Elevation Profile gives me direct access to how much uphill and downhill we are facing. Plus, an estimated average speed.

Obviously this is dependent on skill and load, but still helpful information.

Cons: My only complaint about Komoot is that the Bike Touring option includes dirt routes and depending on the weather, these can be a bear. Biking with a loaded rig over heavy wet clay does not make for a fun day. I’d like to be able to turn off certain way path types.

Keep in mind, Komoot is fantastic at route planning, but is not a repository for points of interest. You’ll want to partner the app with another that taps into openstreetmap data.

Cost: Free region to download.  $3.99 for a single region. $8.99 for a regional bundle. $19.99 for the wold world up unlimited updates.

Bottom line: This is the app I’ve been waiting for when cycling and hiking. It has it everything for touring and getting from point A to point B. Couple this app with Maps.Me for finding POIs, hotels, and places you need to go, and you’ll be all set for adventure.

2. OsmAnd 

Android and iOS | $6.99 | www.osmand.net

Pros: It has several must have features for cycle touring like cycle route overlays, turn-by-turn directions, contour lines and hill shading, GPS navigation coordinate mapping, and point-of-interest searching for things like camp sites and grocery stores.

We are huge fans of the offline Wikipedia articles based on geo-location. When you cycle into a town and see an interesting monument, you have the ability to immediately and easily pull-up the article without an Internet connection.

We also love the “more details” and “road quality” features. This has been useful when touring in Albania where the roads can be suspect and can easily ruin your day. No other app offers this amount of detail and information with such ease.

Another feature that has been invaluable is the contour lines package. We often encounter multiple route options when planning. The contour lines feature gives us the ability to compare the hills and climbs on different routes.

This has saved our legs and quads many times.

Cons: The user interface takes a little getting used to and you have to manually enable the cycle maps overlay. It can be slow to load when you add several map overlays like contour lines, hill-shades, and cycling routes. It’s initially free, though, you’re limited to only a few offline downloads.

If you’re cycle touring, it’s easy to burn through a few free maps.

The iOS version is not nearly as powerful as the Android version. This app has to be considered one of if not the best navigation apps for android. When we tested the iOS version it lacked turn-by-turn directions and was incredibly slow on our older iPhone 4.

With an updated iPhone 6s, the app ran much faster and without issue. On our Samsung S8, the app ran smooth and seems the Android version is vastly improved.

Cost: Free for a few map downloads. $6.99 for unlimited map downloading. $1.99 for contour lines.

Bottom line: From our experience, this is an excellent offline-mapping tool, especially in Europe or well-developed countries.  It’s worth the money to get the contour lines if you want to size up a hill while being offline.

The interface takes a little getting used to, however, anyone can pick it up after a little experimenting. As of 2018, they’ve added elevation profiles and I suspect in our upcoming new review the app map take the cake as our favorite.

(2018 update) In South America we found ourselves not using OsmAnd, as it wasn’t very accurate with road qualities and didn’t have nearly the same amount of Points of Interest as other applications. We actually stopped using it all together and saved the download space on our phones.

Back in Europe in 2018, we’ve started using OsmAnd again. Why? We love the built in Wiki by geo-location. As mentioned as a Pro, this feature is alone the reason to use the app.

Sure, there are better apps for one size fits all approach, hint hint, it ends in .Me, however, having access to information offline makes our touring experience that much more enjoyable.

3. Galileo

Android and iOS | $3.99 | www.galileo-app.com

Pros: We first heard about Galileo from our friend Pablo of Bike Canine. He suggested we give it a try as it has an easy to use interface and it includes bike maps. In Europe, we used Galileo daily and couldn’t agree more! The interface is simple, elegant, and downloading maps is very simple.

The different types of maps available including the cycle routes via www.opencyclemap.org are helpful when cycle touring, especially finding a bike shop, which are automatically labeled in the cycle route map. It was our go to tool in Europe when needing to quickly check our directions.

We’d simply whip out our phone, enable GPS, and know exactly where we were located.

Galileo also has a very basic search tool for points-of-interest. Not as powerful as OsmAnd POI locater, but good enough depending on where you’re traveling.

It’s also not a resource drag on our iPhones. It loads fast and rarely crashes.

Cons: Bike maps or terrain maps need to be manually downloaded offline. This encompasses scrolling over the area you want to view while the tile downloads. The tile pieces are then cached in memory. Each night we’d review the planned route and scroll over the bike map tiles to make sure we got what we wanted, if WiFi is available.

This included the various zoom levels that require individual tile downloads. We’ve been stuck on a number occasions where we don’t have the tile downloaded at the zoom level needed.

Cost: Free for a trial. $3.99 for unlimited downloading.

Bottom line: Galileo was our go to offline mapping tool in Europe, especially mid-ride for quickly checking our location and confirming we are on the right path. It’s not the de facto planning tool for us and lacks turn-by-turn directions, but it can get you from point A to point B.

We found that Galileo can be a useful addition to a more detailed route planning offline navigation tool.

(2018 update) We have continued to use Galileo on a regular basis, though our usage dropped considerably in South America. The manual need to download tiles while being connected to the Internet proved to a pain, as WiFi access can be sparse in Patagonia and throughout South America.

Plus, we found the routes to be so straight forward and the lack of Points of Interest data meant that Galileo was more helpful when finding off-road hiking trails than actually planning a cycling route.

In more populated areas of Europe, we’ve found Galileo to be more helpful as the maps are more accurate. Ultimately, it’s a solid plus 1 app in that it shouldn’t be the sole provider of navigation and data, but an additional source.

4. Maps.Me (aka Maps Me)

Android and iOS | Free | www.maps.me

Pros: We heard so many good things about Maps.Me and for good reason. It’s as solid of an app out there. It’s open source, has a ton of data including cycle routes, integrated Uber options, walking, and cycling.

We like the turn-by-turn directions and user-friendly search functions that make it easy to find locations for accommodations or restaurants.

The user interface is well-designed and a quick study for the non-techies.

A recent release includes real time traffic for when you’re connected to the Internet. Plus, cycle directions from point A to point B include a visual elevation profile.

This is HUGE when planning and comparing cycle routes. You can save Points of Interest, and even add new places you’ve found that will be synced with the master database for the whole application when you get back online.

Another fantastic feature is the integration of hotels with Booking.com. You can book directly from the app if online, however, if you’re offline you can only see the rating (1-10) and cost estimate ($- $$$).

This proved to be incredibly valuable for us when rolling into a town late at night and wanting to see if the nearby accommodations fit our budget and had a decent rating.

Lastly, you can import KML files downloaded from other sources. This lets you follow a route that someone else has created and tracked. 

Cons: The turn by turn navigation from point A to point B are laughable at best. The directions are so bad that it became a joke between us. Why would I want to climb over a 1,000M mountain than ride the flat road?

I cannot stress enough poor how the point A to point B route directions for cycling are. Further, there is no option to drag the route to a preferred one. This poor functionality occurs for driving a faster vehicle as well.

Jen mapped a biking route in Portland, OR and discovered to her shock that the suggested route took her down one of the busiest roads in the city, which has no bike infrastructure, despite having Greenways on two sides of where we are staying.

Cost: Free. Maps.Me was bought in 2014 and made all content free of charge.

Bottom line: We love Maps.Me and there is a reason it has won a bunch of awards. The interface is modest and anyone can pick it up and use it immediately. The integration with Uber and Booking.com is a complete bonus and something that separates itself from other apps.

The main drawback is the route directions for cycling are horrible and generally unsafe. The 2018 update included the ability to add a review of a business.

While this feature doesn’t seem to be used much yet, it has the potential to save people a lot of bad decisions.

(2018 update) In South America, everyone is using Maps.Me for backpacking, hiking, and cycle touring. And with good reason, in the last two years, the application has undergone extensive updates. So, we updated the content below provide a new overview.

Back in Europe, we use it everywhere in Spain. It’s our jack of all trades application and we use the turn by turn directions when driving a car as well.

(2019 update) We use this app so much that we wrote our own detailed review of Maps Me. 

5. Google Maps

Android and iOS | Free | www.google.com/maps

Pros: Everyone uses Google Maps and the interface is about as simple as it gets. We love the directions, real time traffic, turn by turn navigation, integration with other Google features, and street views.

The Terrain view is super helpful when wanting to gauge how difficult a potential route will be with respect to hills and mountains.

There is offline functionality as of recent releases, though still limited by region. I do appreciate the steps with Google Street Views of the turn by turn directions.

Cons: Believe it or not, Google has not mapped the entire world. We ran into many occasions, like Italy, where Google has no cycling option in that country. Likewise, most of South America outside of big cities is little mapped.

Open source mapping data is much more consistent when outside of the highly-developed world.  

We’ve also discovered that offline caching of maps can be clumsy at best. We have had maps disappear, or no longer work once offline, despite using the Save feature. Google Maps also lacks a road quality feature.

Cost: Free.

Bottom Line: Google Maps makes sense when you’re online and in countries with well-developed roads and infrastructure. It also helps when Google has mapped the country with their vehicles, as the catalogue of information is going to be accurate.

With so many other apps specifically designed for offline navigation that include more features, Google Maps is a dinosaur.

(2018 update) Despite being one of the largest tech companies in the world, Google simply has not mapped large swaths of South America.

We rarely used it outside of cities as it wouldn’t even show the road we were currently on. It also struggles with using addresses outside of Europe and the US. It sent us to so many wrong locations that we stopped using it outside the US.

6. RideWithGPS.com

Android and iOS | Free – online. $-$$ offline | https://ridewithgps.com

Pros: RideWithGPS.com

Ride with GPS gets a lot of fanfare online and has so many features that it packs a punch. You can find routes that others have completed and really dial in to what you’re going to be expecting when riding. It also offers a nice route planning tool on their website. You can also share rides with friends, and track all your stats.

Cons: RideWithGPS.com is first and foremost a tracking app. It’s primary function is follow your route, give you speed, distance, climbs, and all the data you want to know.

This comes at a price though, as a) you have to have GPS enabled on your device which is a no-no when doing long tour cycle touring as electricity can be sparse, and b) it’s expensive at $6/month for the basic upgrade or $10/month for the premium package.

You can’t download routes offline without paying. For us, this is a deal breaker. Why pay nearly 12x more with a reoccurring expense to get offline elevation charts?

Cost: Free for online. $6/month and $10/month for upgraded versions that allow offline usage.

Bottom Line: I can imagine RideWithGPS.com being the go-to app for road riders out for the weekend jaunt. However, for long distance tourers, the app really only offers elevation profiles offline, and at a premium price.

If elevation profiles are important and all you care about, there are plenty of other apps that are significantly cheaper and offer more information about upcoming climbs.

(2018 update) We used RideWithGPS.com during our ride through Ecuador. The application was helpful in planning distances and climbs, but the price point coupled with battery drainage meant usage was short-lived. After that, we deleted the app and decided it wasn’t worth the cost.

If were just doing day trips and being roadies, I could see the potential, otherwise, save the money.

User Suggested Apps

Naviki 

Android and iOS | Free – $ | https://www.naviki.org

Quick Review: Tailored towards cyclists. Includes height profile, turn by turn navigation, POIs, and routes based on the type of cycling you’re doing like mountain, leisure, racing, etc.

HERE WeGo

Android and iOS | Free | https://www.here.com/en/products-services/here-wego-app

Quick Review: Features include public transportation, voice navigation, bike routes, and offline downloads. As one of our followers John pointed out, the collections feature that will sync across all devices is a bonus when cycling with multiple devices and/or riders.

Locus

Android and iOS | Free – $7.49 | https://vector.city/how-to/

Quick Review: Offline app that allows you download individual maps of specific regions. Allows you import and export KML, KMZ, GPX and other files. Reviews via Google Play store says the app has loads of features, but the paid version is a must as the free version only allows 3 maps and runs slow.

Desktop – Online Planning

1. Komoot

Link: https://www.komoot.com

Pros: Like the app for your phone, the desktop version of Komoot gives you full access to point A to point B details including time, distance, elevation change (including uphill and downhill). Including the way-types like cycleways vs road and surfaces like unpaved and paved is very helpful.

The desktop version also gives you a great overview of the elevation profile and which surface and way-type you’ll be riding. There is so much information. Plus, you can search for POIs like swimming holes and add them to your route. Finally, the Send the Tour to my Phone feature for each reference for later is a nice bonus.

One nice feature I discovered is you can change the recommended route by modifying your Fitness level. The range is Couch Potato to Pro and depending on what you select, your suggested route will change.

When finding a hotel, the site will display links to TripAdvisor Traveler Rating and Yelp Reviews. While Yelp isn’t really used in Europe, TripAdvisor certainly is with tourists.

Cons: Not integrated with Open Street Map data so there isn’t the abundance of crowd sourced data available.

Cost: Free.

Bottom Line: This will be a our new favorite for planning routes going forward. It’s just got so much information that you can’t go wrong.

2. OpenStreetMap

Link: www.openstreetmap.org

Pros: OpenStreetMap is like Google Maps but way better. It includes several map overlays like the cycling maps from www.opencyclemap.org or transportation map (in case you want to see the route trucks might travel). It has turn-by-turn directions for cycling in places like Italy, which Google Maps does not have.

Its user interface makes for a quick learn and the minimalist approach offers just enough features to make it worth your time.

All of the data on the site is crowdsourced, which yields far better information than what Google can offer. We’ve found roads in Bosnia only labeled on OpenStreetMap.

Cons: The lack of a terrain view makes it challenging to gauge the level of difficulty of a proposed route. The auto-locate feature doesn’t work 100% of the time, and the lack of map details can be a bit annoying.

Cost: Free.

Bottom Line: We used OpenStreetMap.org on a daily basis for route planning in Europe. The cycle map overlay is a fantastic feature and can add value when planning longer routes that span over multiple countries and cities.

The lack of terrain still makes use rely on Google Maps; however, 90% of our planning was done in OpenStreetMaps.org

(2018 update) There is very little cycle infrastructure in South America, so we didn’t use OpenStreetMaps. We instead used the same open source data through Maps.Me on our phones and offline. In Europe and areas were there is plenty of route choices, it’s incredibly helpful.

3. Mapmyride

Link: www.mapmyride.com

Pros: Elevation charts with a grading scale. That’s it. We only use mapmyride.com for this feature. It’s great (and often daunting) to see how steep those hills are going to be and how many kilometers of pain awaits you. Plus, you can save those routes to review later.

Cons: Owned by Under Armor this site is really dedicated to the gamification of active lifestyles. It’s filled with so many additional features it can be overwhelming and a bit of a turn off. The user interface is way too crowded and be challenging to grasp.

Cost: Free.

Bottom Line: We wish other sites, like OpenStreetMaps.org included elevation charts and grading scales, but they don’t, so we use Mapmyride.com. On the positive side, it does have a nice visual of the elevation gains.

(2018 update) When planning big climbs or really needing to compare different routes, we still used MapMyRide. We’re not big fans of Under Armor due to their political lobbying, however, their site is super helpful for seeing elevation profiles.

Unfortunately, you can only create and plan routes on your phone with the paid version. This is a major bummer and kept us from using the tool all the time.

4. BikeRoll

Link: https://bikeroll.net/

Pros: Elevation charts with a grading scale and forecasted weather and winds! The tool works in many languages and you can save your routes. I also appreciate seeing total ascent, descent, and length of the route.

Cons: It’s a bit cumbersome to use the elevation feature to see the exact grade changes. If you zoom in enough, you can see a colored elevation profile for your specific route. Appears to not pick up local cycle paths in Spain when testing the tool. 

Cost: Free.

Bottom Line: A solid tool that we will use in our arsenal for planning in the future. Especially the weather feature.

(2018 update) Added while we are in Spain and will be used for summer 2018 route planning.

5. Cycle.Travel

Link: http://cycle.travel/map

Pros: Elevation charts that are 3D! Holy smokes this is amazing for visualizing a route. Route guides for the UK and some of Europe as well as City Guides. You can save your routes to PDF and find local accommodations.

Cons: Tailored to the UK and an outdated user interface. Didn’t accurately find local bike paths in Spain that are on other apps. 

Cost: Free.

Bottom Line: The 3D mapping of the elevation profile is enough reason to use this tool.

(2018 update) We are using this as a regular route planning app. Whether day trips, bikepacking, or cycle touring.

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If you like this article, you may enjoy our 10 Items You MUST Bring on Cycle Tour that includes some gear pro tips and our favorite items to bring with us when touring. 

What are your favorite offline mapping tools for cycle touring? Which countries did you use them in?

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