Offline maps for road trips: download the route, not the country

Navigation apps assume you have a signal. The roads worth driving often do not. A mountain pass, a coast road and a desert highway all have the same problem: the map goes grey exactly when you need it.

Download the route, not the country

Downloading a whole region sounds safe and is mostly wasted. It takes a long time, fills your phone and covers places you will never see. In MotoRidez you save a planned route for offline use and the app downloads the corridor around that route, which is smaller and quicker and is the part you will actually use.

What to have offline

• The map and the route for the whole trip, not just the first day.
• Your turn-by-turn directions, so the voice guidance keeps working with no signal.
• Fuel stops you have chosen, because you cannot search for a petrol station you cannot reach.

Test it before you leave

Do this at home, with a signal, so you find problems where they are easy to fix. Download the route, switch your phone to airplane mode and open the route. Start navigation. If the map draws and the instructions appear, it works.

Other things that go wrong

• Updating on the road. An app that wants to refresh on the first day will do it on the worst road. Open and download everything before you leave.
• Battery. GPS and a bright screen drain a phone quickly. Bring a charger and a mount you trust.
• Storage. Free up space beforehand. A route download that fails halfway tells you nothing until you are out of range.

For a longer trip, plan the route around the roads you want, then download it as the last step before you leave.