Make Maps Available Offline While Abroad (Update)

Thanks to GPS, the days of fighting that unwieldy map that screams "I'm a tourist!" or arguing with your travel companion over who got lost are over... until you go abroad, right? Wrong! With this handy trick you can make GPS enabled maps available on your smartphone. Offline. No internet access required while you're there.

Here's what you'll need: 

1) A smartphone with Google Maps and GPS (which are most modern smartphones)
2) Knowing what cities or specific areas you're going to visit
3) Internet to initially download your map (cellular or Wi-Fi)
 
Once you've got that covered, it's time to load up your maps! 

iPhone and Android

1. Open Google Maps
2. Zoom in to the area you want to cache/pre-load
3. In the search bar, type in "ok maps" and tap search on your onscreen keyboard. (Yes, an easter egg reference to Google Glass which is activated by saying "Ok, Glass.")

The map is then downloaded to your phone. You can now set your cellular data to 'off' (or simply not have data roaming enabled) and use the "My Location" button in the lower right hand corner to find yourself. You can use this feature (along with your compass) to find landmarks such as museums, parks, and subways, which are downloaded with the saved map.   

There are a few limitations, though. 

• As of this writing, you can only have 6 maps downloaded at once. If you want to add more, you have to delete the cache of the Google Maps app and then add your new maps.
• From trial and error, not all locations in Google Maps support this feature...but most do.
• You can't download the world. You have to choose specific areas that tend to be the size of a city.
• You won't be able to search for directions, find restaurants, use turn-by-turn, or anything else that requires data. (Stay tuned for a post that details the best ways to get internet while you're abroad!)  
• This method is obviously a hidden feature at the moment - I can imagine that this will be updated in future versions of the app so it may not follow every rule.

Here's why this works:

Get any smartphone these days and it's bound to have built a built in GPS system. That GPS system is powered by satellites so it doesn't require your cellular data to pinpoint your location. You might ask "why does Google Maps not load when I search for a location when I have no internet?" Because it needs to download the map data first – which does require internet. 

Enjoy the tip and safe travels! 

Update:

Google just release version 3.0 of their app which allows you to save your maps for offline use without the steps lists above. It was a nice easter egg while it lasted!