Free iPad Maps For Your Next Trip
An iPad can be a perfect companion for your travels. Load it up with books and photos. Use it to keep copies of your travel documents and itineraries. And now you can also keep copies of maps of the areas you plan to visit. The newest version of Google Maps gives you the ability to down load maps for later use offline. This feature is perfect for those trips which take you to places where you might not have wi fi access or to locations where you don’t want to use you data plan. (Think foreign travel for example.) That’s right – free iPad maps for your next trip – straight from Google Maps.
The map caching feature is not well publicized. In fact, it’s really hard to find much documentation on the process. But it works great (although there are a few funky quirks.) Here’s how –
Download the Google Maps app from iTunes or click here. Once it is installed (and it’s FREE!) open Google Maps on your iPad. Navigate to the area where you will be traveling. Let’s say for example that your journey will take you to Italy in the Florence region. Just enter Florence Italy in the Google Map search box and hit enter. A map view of Florence Italy will appear in the monitor similar to that below.
Next enter “OK maps” in the search field. (Be sure you enter “OK maps” – if you mistakenly enter “Maps OK” you will be taken to a map view of Oklahoma City!) If you enter “OK maps” correctly you will see a screen like the one below which indicates that the map is being downloaded and saved to cache. (It’s possible that the map you try to save/download will contain too much information.Then you might get a message saying the area is too big to cache. If so, just zoom in a bit on your map and try to save again as above – you can cache larger areas by simply downloading adjacent areas as separate caches).
Unfortunately, there is no way to bookmark or tag your cached maps for easy access. That’s the funky feature. But not to worry. Your map is nicely cached and saved for future use off line. All you have to do is once again, navigate to the location (in this example – Florence Italy) and your saved map will appear. You can scroll around and zoom in and out – within the limits of the map you originally saved. If you try to move beyond the saved area you will notice that detailed information is not available.
That’s all there is to it. Try it out. Enjoy it. And it’s FREE! (As you know – my favorite word!)
Map Your Journey ………….. And Enjoy The Adventure!
Dr.B, The Photo Trekker
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