CityMaps2Go – Offline Maps

I’ve used City Maps for over five years. These are the pros and cons I’ve found with this App. PROS: you can mark and save restaurants, subway stations, historical attractions to navigate to when offline. It provides detailed maps that are very useful if you have no cellular or WiFi access. CONS: There have been two times that all of my stored locations and folders have been completely purged thus losing a lot of obscure places I planned to revisit. The map is often jerky when you try to zoom in/out or scroll around. Sometimes this causes the app to abruptly crash. Recently I keep having an issue with the entire map disappearing so that you’re left with your blue (GPS position) on a completely blank screen. I tried deleting and downloading the app again but sometimes this occurs often when I am miles away from my hotel and necessitating me to find WiFi to use conventional methods to find my way back. I am a premium member and I sent an inquiry to their customer service about this and never heard back. Finally, although there are thousands of restaurants and popular locations in the database, more often than not, I find that restaurants I want to find aren’t recognized and I’m talking about too-rated restaurants recognized by Trip Advisor or Foursquare. I hate to say it, but you’re better off paying for an international cellular plan than to rely on this app as a stand alone navigation source for off grid traveling based on my experiences.

I visited Costa Rica and downloaded this app. We also purchased a paper map as well but I was unconvinced that she would be able to navigate quickly and within small towns on a paper map. This app totally saved us! We were birdwatching for two weeks all across the country and added stars to all of the locations we wanted to visit. We also had stars pinpointing all of the places we would be sleeping. That way, we could keep track of where we were driving and if there were any sites we wanted to stop at. The worst part of this app was that some roads were not named.... but it turns out that was NOT the apps fault but simply unnamed roads in Costa Rica. Another cool thing is you keep your phone of airplane mode but you are still tracked via GPS so you always know where you are at. It does not give you turn by turn directions but it was super easy to navigate and really accurate. Super happy with this app and would highly recommend it for an upcoming trip. The only thing I wish they offered was a desktop platform for you to put in your starred locations before the trip rather than on the phone. It would have saved a small amount of time but overall not a huge problem.

I use CityMaps2Go a lot when in places where I either have poor cellular data access OR was concerned about security using local WiFi and or cellular data providers. The downloaded versions of CM2G maps are really quite accurate and more than sufficiently detailed. Examples (1) in very remote northern USA. I have family who live on the edge of a Natl Forest and cellular coverage is awful. I have maps downloaded for these states and never have an issue. (2) I do business occasionally in Middle East - Saudi and UAE. Cellular coverage is spotty, expensive and not always secure - again I have maps for these countries downloaded and can turn phone to ‘airplane mode’ and still find my way around. Then only go live with internet when confident I have safe reliable access (say at reputable hotel). It is really a good option for people who are on the go and not always tethered to safe speedy internet.