Losing signal in an unfamiliar city, a rural stretch of highway, or on a flight is exactly when navigation matters most and is least available — downloading maps in advance solves this for a fraction of the hassle of buying international data or hunting for Wi-Fi to reload a map mid-trip. Both major map apps support this, though the details of what still works offline differ enough to be worth knowing before you depart, not after you've lost signal.
Downloading Offline Maps on Google Maps
- Open Google Maps and search for the area you want to save, or navigate to it manually.
- Tap your profile icon, then "Offline maps," then "Select your own map."
- Drag the selection box to cover the area you need — this can be resized to include just a neighborhood or a much wider region, though a larger area means a larger download.
- Tap Download. Do this over Wi-Fi before you travel, since offline map downloads can be sizable and you don't want to burn cellular data downloading the very thing meant to save you from needing data.
Downloaded maps expire automatically after roughly a month unless updated, so if you're planning a trip more than a few weeks out, redownload the area shortly before you actually leave rather than assuming an earlier download is still current.
Downloading Offline Maps on Apple Maps
Offline map support on Apple Maps arrived more recently than on Google Maps and works similarly: search for or navigate to the area, then look for the download option in the location's details panel to save it for offline use. Coverage and feature parity with the online version have historically lagged a bit behind Google's implementation, so it's worth testing a downloaded area at home — in airplane mode — before depending on it while actually traveling.
What Still Works Offline (and What Doesn't)
- Works offline: viewing the map, searching for saved or downloaded points of interest within the downloaded area, and turn-by-turn driving directions within that area.
- Doesn't work offline: live traffic conditions, real-time transit schedules, and search results for anything outside the downloaded region — the app can't fetch data it hasn't already saved locally.
- Walking and cycling directions generally work offline similarly to driving directions, but transit directions typically require a live connection since they depend on real-time or frequently updated schedule data.
Storage Space Considerations
Offline map regions can use a meaningful chunk of storage depending on how large an area you download, particularly for a whole country or multiple cities on a longer trip. If your phone's storage is already tight, checking available space beforehand and deleting offline regions you no longer need after a trip keeps this from quietly accumulating — a quick look at freeing up phone storage covers how to check what's using space if downloads are failing due to low storage.
A Backup Worth Having Beyond the Map App Itself
For trips to areas with genuinely unreliable connectivity, having addresses, confirmation numbers, and key directions saved as plain text or a screenshot — not solely relying on the map app being able to look them up — is a reasonable extra layer, since an offline map covers navigation but not necessarily every piece of trip information you might need to reference without a connection.
Downloading maps before a trip takes a few minutes on home Wi-Fi and removes one of the more stressful parts of traveling somewhere unfamiliar — arriving to find your phone can't tell you where to go the moment you actually need it most.