MapOut – which is by far the best smartphone mapping app I’ve ever used – has received an update recently with some new features. If you are not in the know, I have a very comprehensive article about the MapOut app HERE.
Sorry Android users, this is just a quick public service announcement to iPhone users…
Here’s Why MapOut Is King For Navigation 👑
1. The maps are offline – you just download the tiles you need (only a few megabytes each) and you can roam anywhere. 2. Contour lines and hiking trails are shown. 3. You can choose A and B locations, and MapOut will create a route based on walking, cycling, road size and elevation gain. 4. You can draw routes with your finger and see the distance, elevation profile and vertical metres gained in real-time. 5. You can adjust routes with your finger too, just trace from your existing route to the roads you want to use. 6. Analyse specific sections of your route by adjusting the A and B points. 7. 3D tilt allows you to see what the terrain looks like! 8. Instant point-to-point elevation profiles by holding two fingers on the screen. 9. Easily import GPX routes that you’ve created or downloaded from elsewhere. 10. Easily export GPX routes that you’ve created or modified in the app.
What Are The New Features?
When you click on a segment of your route:
– It will tell you the elevation gain and loss for the section between your A and B points (you can adjust them).
– It shows the maximum gradient up and down.
– It gives both estimated walking and riding times (riding time is without much luggage).
You Can Get MapOut In The App Store For $4.99, No Subscription And Free Map Tiles For The Entire World!
To download the route to your device, click “More” > “Export as File” > “GPX Track”.
1. Ushuaia to El Chalten (Argentina) – Download HERE
2. Carretera Austral Highway (Chile) – Download HERE
3. Carretera Austral to Bariloche (Argentina) – Download HERE
4. Crossing La Pampa (Argentina) – Download HERE
5. The Far East (Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina) – Download HERE
6. The Altiplano (Argentina, Chile, Bolivia) – Download HERE
7. The Salt Flats & Yungas Mountains (Bolivia) – Download HERE 8. Off-road from La Paz to Cusco (Bolivia, Peru) – Download HERE 8a. Based on Ruta de Las Tres Cordilleras, by Cass Gilbert – More info HERE
9. Following the Peru Divide (Peru) – Download HERE 9a. Based on the Peru Great Divide, by The Pikes – More info HERE
10. Huaraz to Trujillo (Peru) – Download HERE
11. Trans Ecuador Mountain Bike Route Singletrack P1 – Download HERE
12. Trans Ecuador Mountain Bike Route Singletrack P2 – Download HERE 13. Trans Ecuador Mountain Bike Route Singletrack P3 – Download HERE 13a. Based on a route combination of the TEMBR dirt road and singletrack, by Cass Gilbert – More info HERE & HERE 14. Forbidden Roads (Colombia) – Download HERE 15. The Backroads of Panama – Download HERE
16. The Nicoya Peninsula (Costa Rica) – Download HERE 16a. Based on the Nicoya Peninsula Dirt Road Odyssey, by Logan Watts – More info HERE
17. Volcano Hunting in Central America (Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala) – Download HERE 18. Off-road in Mexico with Eesh – Download HERE 18a. Based on the Trans-Mexico Sur & Norte bikepacking routes, by Mark Watson – More info HERE 19. Trans-Mexico until self-isolation in Aguascalientes due to COVID-19 – Download HERE
19a. Based on the Trans-Mexico Norte bikepacking routes, by Mark Watson – More info HERE 20. The divide off-road route through Baja California – Download HERE 20a. Based on the Baja Divide bikepacking route, by Nicholas Carman – More info HERE
*** Please note*** These are my actual routes. I do not necessarily recommend following them precisely, so make sure to compare them against the “official” routes found on websites like BIKEPACKING.com or AndesByBike.com.
Only a few years ago I was travelling full time without a mobile phone or GPS device. I used a lot of paper maps and also saved screenshots from Google Maps to determine when I needed to make turns.
At the time there was an online bike route planner called Cycle Route that I used to calculate all my climbing, descending and average gradients along the way. Everything was shown on both a map and as an elevation profile. It was perfect for my needs and so simple that anyone could use it.
Unfortunately, Cycle Route no longer works, but I’ve just discovered an online mapping app called Bike Roll that does all the same stuff and more. BikeRoll seems to me to be the quickest, easiest bike routing software with usable elevation data.
Let’s take a closer look.
What Tasks Can BikeRoll Perform?
– Create a route between two points with elevation profile
– Check the length and amount of climbing on the route
– Choose between on-road and off-road routes
– Quickly gauge the difficulty of the ride
– Check the weather forecast for the ride
– Save the route
– PDF summary with key information, turn-by-turn cues, elevation profile
– Export the route as a GPX file
How To Create A Route Using BikeRoll
There are two ways to start making your route. You can either type an address, suburb or city in the ‘origin’ field OR you can right-click with your mouse on the map where you’d like to begin the route, and ‘Set Origin’. I’ve found that typing the location in can be a bit hit and miss, especially for places you’ve never been before.
You can modify/move the start point around by clicking on and dragging the ‘A’.
Next, you can set your destination by right-clicking ‘Set Destination’ with your mouse. You will now have generated a route from start to finish.
You will then have three different routing options: Google Bike, MTB and Road Bike. You can find these options in the middle of the upper menu. The mapping software can either use as much of the Google Bike network as possible, use all trails including off-road paths, or sticks to the fastest way on the road. I normally check all three options to see how the routes differ.
Modifying A Route With BikeRoll
Ok, so creating the route wasn’t too hard. But how can we modify it? That’s easy. It’s all about midpoints. Simply right click your mouse to add them at the locations you’d like to pass through. But take note: I hit a midpoint limit at 24. If you need to modify the route more than that, then you’ll need to look into software like RideWithGPS which allows you to modify your route almost infinitely.
Again, you can move the midpoint locations to ‘pull’ the route where you’d like it to go.
Made a mistake? Just right click and ‘undo’ or ‘redo’.
Understanding The Elevation Profile
You’ll have noticed that BikeRoll provides an elevation profile below the map. This gives you with the key information about the distance and elevation gained/lost over your route.
You’ll also see the gradient data is colour-coded. This has been designed in a way to determine how hard your route will be from a quick glance. If the whole route is blue for example, you will not encounter a climb over 5.9%, and therefore your ride will mostly be flat/undulating. Routes that show red are going to be really tough, so make sure you have the appropriate bike gearing!
Green: Greater than 20% gradient descent Blue: Between -20% and +6% gradients Yellow: Between +6% and +12% gradient ascent Red: Between +12% and +48% gradient ascent Black: Greater than 48% gradient ascent
You can hover your mouse over sections of the elevation profile to see the exact slope, distance and elevation data, along with where that climb/descent is located on the map.
Save and Export With BikeRoll
It’s easy to save your routes to view them later. You can either use Facebook or your Gmail account to do this. The saved routes appear in a list from the top-right menu for later.
If you’re happy with your route, you can export it as a GPX file. Just click the three horizontal lines on the left-top corner and hit ‘Download GPX Track’. It will automatically download from here. You can then use your file in many smartphone apps or on your dedicated GPS device.
There’s an option to get a PDF summary of your route. This includes printable turn-by-turn cues with distance intervals, as well as the elevation profile and total distance.
Other Things To Note
– You can use BikeRoll on your smartphone in your internet browser. There is full functionality and no app download required.
– The distance units can be changed between miles and kilometres in the settings.
– There’s a weather forecast in the elevation profile to pick a suitable day to ride your route.
– You can choose a suitable language in the top-right corner.
Click HERE For A Tutorial On RideWithGPS: The More Advanced Online Route Planner
I’ve recently downloaded a smartphone mapping app called MapOut, and I’m pretty blown away by its capabilities. I’ve always found it frustrating how difficult it can be to draw and amend GPX routes, especially once they’re imported into your smartphone app.
MapOut (US $4.99) saves the day by using a simple interface to draw routes and check out elevation profiles.
Unfortunately, this app is only available for Apple phones and tablets (iOS), but I hope some of this functionality is imitated across other navigation apps soon. I’d love to know if you use a similar app on Android which can draw and amend routes (bonus points for a simple and easy-to-use interface).
It’s worth noting that this mapping app isn’t a complete mapping solution. At the moment I’m using three apps when I travel. I can’t fault Maps.Me for navigating in cities, and Komoot for super-detailed routing capability.
Let’s take a closer look at the features of MapOut.
MapOut Offline Maps
MapOut uses the most recent version of OpenStreetMaps, which is also known as the “Wikipedia of maps”. This open-source data is continually improving as anyone can add streets and modify the maps as need be.
You only download the tiles you need, which work out to be a couple of megabytes each. Once you’ve got your maps, you will no longer be requiring a cellular network. The GPS chip in your phone will find the satellites all by itself.
Topographic Maps for Backcountry Cycling
The MapOut app is perfect for backcountry navigation because it shows both contour lines and hiking trails. At maximum zoom, the app shows 10-metre contour increments, but as you zoom out that lifts to 50-metres. In the settings menu, you can, of course, switch everything across to miles/feet.
You also have a raft of overlay options that you can turn on and off, including bicycle networks, hiking routes, MTB routes and public transport networks.
Route Drawing: Snap to Road Network
It’s very easy to draw a route. You’ll first need to select ‘draw new tour’. Double-tap to create a starting location ‘A’ and the app will provide the elevation of the site. Zoom out and find your end location. Single tap to create an end location ‘B’. You will now see an elevation profile and the straight line distance between A and B.
You can then ‘Snap to Road Network’. This will pick one of the more direct routes for you to follow. You’ll see an amended elevation profile with distance markers the whole way.
Route Drawing: Using Your Finger
You can manually draw routes too. This is probably the best part about the MapOut app – it’s so intuitive!
Once you’ve plotted the start of your route, drag your finger along the roads that you’d like to follow and it will automatically ‘snap to road network’. Don’t worry if you make a mistake – you can backtrack and then follow the correct road.
Route Drawing: Making Adjustments With Your Finger
You can amend both the ‘snap to road network’ and the finger-drawn routes.
The only clincher is that you will need to follow your amended route long enough to connect it back to the original route. I’ve found it’s sometimes easier to draw a rough route through a particular section and amend it in smaller, more precise sections.
New: Elevation Lost and Gained
You can see the elevation lost and gained just above the elevation profile, along with the distance, approximate travel times and maximum gradients both up and down.
Analyse Specific Sections Of Your Route
With your saved routes you can analyse specific sections both before you leave or while you’re cycling.
You can drag the ‘A’ and ‘B’ to the particular section and it will give you the elevation profile and distance markers. Alternatively, you can zoom into a particular route section and click on the route itself. The ‘A’ and ‘B’ will now be located within the bounds of your smartphone screen.
If you’re cycling on the route, you’ll see a blue dot on both the elevation profile and map with your exact position.
3D Tilt
One of the ‘wow’ features of MapOut is the 3D tilt. The tilt gives you an instant understanding of the terrain, almost like you’re viewing from an aeroplane. I regularly use this feature to make sure I get the flattest possible route.
Instant Elevation Profiles and Distance
A less known feature in MapOut is the ability to measure both point-to-point distances as well as create instant elevation profiles. These can be useful when determining how far it is to the next town, or how hilly a detour may be.
To see the instant profile, you just need to hold two fingers on the screen at once. An elevation profile will appear with moveable black dots on either end.
You’ll need to create a MapOut profile which sets up a personal MapOut email. Then it’s simply a case of emailing your MapOut account with the GPX file. It will automatically appear in your ‘Tours’ within minutes.
Alternatively, you can open the GPX file directly into the MapOut app which will save the route to your ‘Tours’ instantly.
Snap To Road Network – GPX Files
With GPX files that have been recorded with a GPS device, the route is never precisely on the roads. With MapOut you can use the ‘snap to road network’ feature to tidy up existing GPX files that you have. By tidying everything up it gives a more accurate distance and elevation profile.
Take a look at the images below. Once I had snapped the route to the road network, I added almost a full kilometre to my route within the first 44km.
Export GPX Routes
Not only can you import your RideWithGPS, Google Maps and Google Earth routes, but you can share the routes you create in the MapOut app too.
The process is simple. After saving the route you’ve drawn, head to the ‘Tours’ section. In the top-right corner, you’ll see a speech bubble which will give you the option to ‘share’ your file. You can then mail/message/open the route in any other software.
Click HERE to See The 20 Best Offline GPS Apps For Smartphone Navigation
So too do Joe and Devon from Life Ultralight who, having used clunky holders in the past – decided to design their own.
They’ve now announced a Kickstarter to run a production of plastic Bike Map Holders. These lightweight mounts attach to your handlebar via a rubber o-ring or two zip ties – and through their smart design, will hold your map firmly in place. The curved design prevents the map flapping about in the wind and you can even replace the map with one hand while you ride along.
You can pledge just US $11 to get yours. It may be $18-25 if you don’t get in quick. Happy mapping!
In this resource, we’ll take a look at the best offline GPS apps for navigation on a smartphone. I can almost guarantee the list here will have you covered for all your mapping needs. App features in 2018 include routing, tracking, elevation profiles, turn-by-turn voice prompting, GPX importing, map layering, route drawing, live tracking, Wikipedia entries, hotel booking and the ability to select different types of maps depending on where you’re riding. With functionality like that, it’s clear that smartphones make really powerful GPS systems.
The thing these apps all have in common is that you can download the mapping information and use it without internet access. That’s right, you won’t need wifi or a sim card. Just ride, map and navigate.
For more on navigating with a smartphone, check out:
This relatively new app seems to offer everything! To create a route, you can trace with your finger and snap it to the road network. There are interactive elevation profiles, downloadable map tiles, topo/terrain maps, GPX/KML importing and 3D tilt to see the topography of the region. For everything other than services (restaurant, hotel etc), this is as it gets for bicycle touring! Head HERE to read my usage guide.
One of the most powerful offline mapping apps for iOS has recently had a big update. There’s now millions of POIs, ability to record routes and navigate offline. With this app, you can also upload your own custom maps in a number of formats for easy navigation.
Locus is the highest-rated navigation app for Android users. It has access to huge quantities of different maps (inc. terrain, cycling, hiking, skiing), either while you use data, or as in-app purchases for offline use. You can import custom maps, enjoy turn-by-turn voice navigation or understand places with the incorporated Wikipedia information. This app is really powerful!
Orux is generally considered the best Android mapping app because it is free and has an incredible raft of features. It will take you some time to familiarise yourself with these features because the user interface isn’t exactly polished, but essentially you can upload all kinds of maps and tiles including GPX, routing, have different user profiles and even track your route (live tracking with an internet connection).
This backcountry app allows you to create, display and save an unlimited number of waypoints, routes, areas and tracks. You can set up multiple maps in layers, with per-map opacity control. You’ll also have access to many map formats including Nokia maps, Yahoo maps, local topo maps etc.
Easily the most elegant and up-to-date of all smartphone maps, however, they are best used with data. It’s possible to save the Google Maps in the cache (to view it offline). While you have an internet connection, zoom in on a part of a map that you want to save. Type “OK Maps” (minus the quotes) and hit Search and you can save highly detailed maps out at 15km if you need. Google Maps also allows you to view larger regions offline, by caching any areas you view; just remember to zoom into any areas you’ll need to view in more detail later. The turn-by-turn directions even work offline if you search for them while you’re connected to wifi and continue travelling without.
For a couple of dollars, you can download maps for all countries in the world which are stored on your device. The map data is provided by OpenStreetMap which is a collaborative open source database with information provided by hundreds and thousands of people. This app has inbuilt Wikipedia and WikiTravel information which can be found at landmarks on the maps.
Maps.Me isn’t as powerful as other apps, or as beautiful as Google Maps, but the user interface is great and it packs in a lot of searchable travel information on restaurants, hotels, campgrounds, hospitals, police stations etc. The map data is provided by OpenStreetMap (OSM) which is a collaborative open source database with information provided by hundreds and thousands of people. It’s easy to get maps, simply download the countries you need in the app (usually 5-500mb per country) when you have a good internet connection. Using the cycling navigation option, you will even find elevation profiles. Here’s a resource on how to import a custom KML route into the app.
Komoot uses one of the most impressive map data sets I’ve used for routing – I don’t think there is a better app for planning a route. You can choose various types of road surface to match the capabilities of your bike. The app will even show you the distance break-down of each surface. The turn-by-turn voice navigation is perfect. The biggest downside is that the offline maps take up a LOT of storage space. Even if you decide not to use this app, you can plan your routes on a computer and export them to other apps HERE.
This is another top iOS app for a backcountry use. Download the maps within the app and enjoy travelling on back roads and hiking trails with detailed topo maps. Super easy to plan, track and store your exploits.
This top-selling backcountry app has OpenStreetMap and OpenCycleMap information available for download, so it’s not just good off the beaten path. It’s also super easy to import GPX/KML information / GPS coordinate information – here’s a great guide to using it.
Sygic is the world’s most downloaded offline navigation app. It employs high-quality car based maps from TomTom and other providers which are stored on your smartphone allowing you to navigate without an internet connection. The navigation is voice-guided, provides alternative routes and drag and drop routing. The app is free, but you will have to purchase the maps (you can even download the world maps for 111 countries for $30).
This highly rated and powerful iOS app allows you to import and export GPX files, download maps (cities, regions, countries) for offline use, route, turn-by-turn navigate and track your trip. It incorporates 500,000 Wikipedia entries which are incredibly useful for finding points of interest while travelling.
This backcountry focused app is highly rated by bike tourers who spend time off the beaten track. With Gaia, you have access to a whole raft of worldwide mapping layers. These topographic, road or aerial ’tiles’ can be downloaded to different levels of detail, resulting in different file sizes. If you’re a ‘pro’ user you’ll be able to layer multiple maps at once. You can of course import/export your own GPX/KML files by web browser, DropBox and email. The app isn’t as cheap as other options (US $20) but once you’ve invested, all map downloads are free within the app.
These downloadable world topo maps (100k-500k) are former Soviet military (mostly from 1980’s), and for many countries in Africa and Asia are still the best topo maps available!
As the name suggests, this app has access to OpenStreetMap data which can be downloaded to your phone through the app for offline use. If you don’t want to store maps, you can also use mobile data to access maps. A great feature of this app is the cycling and walking routes. This app includes navigation features such as voice guidance and re-routing. You can also search for addresses and find GPS coordinates.
This app is free and has lots of offline maps available. For iOS users, this is one of the better apps for offline searching and routing. You’ll need to purchase features such as turn-by-turn and voice navigation for a modest amount.
Ride With GPS is more of a cycle computer that has inbuilt navigation and live tracking. It even supports Bluetooth accessories for adding heart rate, cadence and speed data. There is seamless GPX importing from the Ride With GPS website but you will have to pre-download the individual map tiles.
The HERE maps are going from strength to strength currently. The mapping interface is really simple, clean and easy to use. HERE features GPS turn-by-turn navigation with elevation profiling and the elevation gained/lost. There are lots of waypoints available from restaurants to Wikipedia entries. You can download entire continents if you have the storage, or alternatively download each country. The best bit? It’s free!
We collect paper maps where we can, but don't go to too much trouble to find them because we have found that some good preparation on our iPad maps is enough.
We use one paid app and four 100% FREE map apps to plan and assess our bike routes through the countries we travel. All of the apps offer something different, such as strengths in city navigation, altitude and gradients, attractions and hotels, and data plotting.
Maps with Me – We use Maps With Me for most of our city navigating around the world. These offline maps look pretty darn good and seem to be accurate. They show the location of parks, restaurants and tourist attractions – an added bonus. You purchase the base app (with no maps) for $5.49 AUD, but with this you get access to high quality maps which are FREE to be downloaded and deleted at any time. We normally only store a couple of countries worth of maps at a time which saves our storage for other things.
UDirect Maps– These are free maps available for the whole world. They are sizeable (sometimes over 1GB for one continent), however they are downloaded to our iPad and can be pulled out anywhere, anytime! We use these maps to work out altitudes and gradients in most cases, but rely on them for their offline content. We have found that the address function does not work and that the high level detail isn't necessarily accurate.
Google Maps– We use Google Maps when we have an internet connection to work out accurate distances and routes between locations. These maps have also proven to be the most up to date in cities (a good compliment to UDirect) – great for planning a way in or out of large cities.
My Maps– Before we left Australia we plotted lots of points of interest on the My Maps app. These give us a good idea for where the sites of interest are located spatially, allowing us to link this information into our travel route. More in our MyMaps post HERE.
TrackMyTour– We use an app called TrackMyTour to plot our location for every day we stop. You'll notice our map on the website sidebar with our checked locations – this can be used by your loved ones to see you're doing ok!
The MapOut app is perfect for backcountry navigation because it shows both contour lines and hiking trails. At maximum zoom, the app shows 10-metre contour increments, but as you zoom out that lifts to 50-metres. In the settings menu, you can, of course, switch everything across to miles/feet.
