On holiday you also want to know where you are and how best to get from A to B. In this article you can read everything about offline navigation at home and abroad.
Tip 01: Google Maps
An article about navigation can of course not do without Google Maps, the maps app par excellence. You probably already have this app installed on your smartphone and, in addition to navigation, it also provides a lot of other useful information about restaurants, shops and places of interest. Because Google Maps uses your internet connection and does not store maps offline on your smartphone by default, it is important to keep a close eye on costs abroad, even with the new lower roaming rates. If you leave the app on during your entire trip to France, this will cost quite a bit of data. Your own location is determined via GPS and you do not need an internet connection for this. Google Maps only downloads the maps it actually needs, but if you zoom in and out on the map during your ride, it will download new maps, so watch out! If you want to see how busy the traffic is, tap the three lines and choose Traffic.
Tip 02: Google Maps Offline
Fortunately, the app allows you to easily save maps for offline use. To do this, go to the menu by tapping the three lines. Tap on Offline areas and choose Custom Area. The area within the blue lines is downloaded, you can make the area larger or smaller by pinching. You save an area by pressing To download to tap. Keep in mind that a larger area means more megabytes. Downloading the whole of Belgium amounts to approximately two gigabytes. It is more convenient to download smaller areas, for example only the Provence and Côte d'Azur if this is your holiday destination. In this entire area you can use all functions of Google Maps offline during your holiday, including the step-by-step navigation. An offline area is automatically removed after 30 days. You can find all your offline areas by going back to . in the menu Offline areas to go. Tap an area and choose remove to free up space on your smartphone.
Download smaller areas, for example only Provence and Côte d'Azur if this is your destination Tip 03: Navigation with Google
Navigating in Google Maps is very easy. You type in your destination and tap the blue icon for a route to it. Make sure you have the car icon selected and tap one of the indicated routes. If you have an active internet connection, Google will take the current traffic situation into account. The best route is indicated in blue, alternative routes state how many minutes longer you are on the road. If you have to pay toll on the way, there is an icon with coins behind the route. Accidents or traffic jams on your route are indicated with a red pin. To start navigation, tap the blue button. As soon as you start driving, the step-by-step navigation starts automatically and you also receive a spoken route description. By default, the traffic situation is indicated with the colors green, orange and red, where red stands for a traffic jam. If you don't want to show this, tap the three dots and press All traffic. You can also choose an alternative view here such as Satellite and Terrain. Keep in mind that mainly Satellite causes a lot of extra data consumption.
En route
If you want to know where you can drink a nice cup of coffee during your route, tap on the magnifying glass and choose for example gas stations, Restaurants, Supermarkets or cafes. You can now see all the cafes that are nearby and somewhat on your route on the map. You immediately see the number of stars that Google users have given the cafe and how long the detour may take. Tap the name of the cafe and the route to the cafe will be calculated. However, you will also continue to see your original route, the cafe is marked on the map with the letter A and a red pin.
Tip 04: Apple Maps
Apple users have Apple Maps installed on their iPhone by default. This app is also useful in some cases, but it does not come close to the functionality of Google Maps. For example, you cannot save maps for offline use and there are not nearly as many cafes, shops and restaurants. If you really want to use Apple Maps, know that this app also only downloads the maps it needs to calculate your route. There's a neat trick to pretending you have offline maps. If you have a Wi-Fi connection, swipe and pinch over the area you want offline. Make sure you zoom in and out on each area, the app will now load these maps into the iOS device's temporary memory. Once you lose internet connection, these maps are still stored on your iPhone. Keep in mind that these cards are automatically removed again, for example when you restart your smartphone.
Waze is an app that uses crowdsourcing to report traffic jams, work and accidents Tip 05: Waze
Waze is an app that uses crowdsourcing to report traffic jams, road works and accidents. Unlike Google Maps, for example, you not only see a red line on the map in Waze, but you can see exactly how long a route takes, what is going on and whether the notification is still active. Anyone who is registered with the service can easily report an obstruction en route and you will see it appear on the map. You don't have to sign in to see notifications. If you want to contribute yourself, this is necessary. You see the average speed that other Waze users are doing over a given route. If there are road works somewhere, you will see a construction helmet on the map and a flash is indicated by a police officer - very truthful including mustache. Waze also allows you to use your route offline. If you have a Wi-Fi connection, enter your route. Waze will now download the entire map and you can use the route to your holiday destination. Of course you will not receive current reports about accidents and speed cameras.
