We’d be lost these days without Google Maps, but there are plenty of other good mapping tools that offer features it lacks. Robert Irvine directs you to the best
Try the new and improved Bing Maps
Microsoft’s mapping service (www.bing.com/maps) has always been overshadowed by Google’s, but it recently relaunched with a much-improved design that makes it faster and easier to use. Bing Maps lets you switch instantly between road, aerial, birds-eye and street-level views; see real-time traffic information, including roadworks, closed lanes and accidents; save collections of your favourite places; and get accurate directions and journey times based on traffic and transport conditions. If you haven’t checked Bing Maps for a while, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Use Google Maps on a Windows Phone
Windows Phone’s Here Maps app (recently sold by Nokia to a consortium of German car manufacturers) has its fans, but if you’d prefer to use Google Maps you can install an unofficial version called gMaps (bit.ly/gmapsapp378). This offers many of the same features as the ‘real’ Google Maps, including turn-by-turn directions for driving, walking, cycling and public transport; nearby attractions and amenities; and traffic information. The basic version of gMaps is free, but if you want the full set of features – including, impressively, Street View – and to remove the ads, you can buy gMaps Pro for £1.89. (bit.ly/gmapspro378).
Install the ultimate free sat-nav app
Although Google Maps now offers spoken navigation that can turn your phone or tablet into a sat-nav, it can’t compare to Navmii (navmii.com) as the perfect driving companion. Available for Android, iOS and Windows Phone, this amazing free app is packed with useful features, including voiceguided navigation, automatic rerouting and the invaluable ability to use it offline. Your personal dashboard keeps track of where you’ve been, the mileage driven and overall driving performance, while data from other Navmii users helps you avoid congestion, accidents and other hazards. You can pay £1.49 to remove the ads from the app.
Discover the best walking and cycling trails
Get off the road and explore places on foot or by bike using the brilliant ViewRanger (www.viewranger.com). This provides outdoor trails for countries all over the world, which you can browse by distance, level of difficulty and whether you want to walk, hike, cycle, canoe, ride and more. Its GPS maps and routes are available offline, so you won’t get lost if you lose your mobile signal, and you can record and share your progress, and find nearby points of interest and accommodation. ViewRanger is free to use, both online and as an Android and iOS app, but the most detailed Ordnance Survey and topographic maps are a paid-for extra.
Explore maps of every country offline
Roaming costs in the EU are thankfully to be scrapped in 2017, but in the meantime using Google Maps when you’re abroad can cost you a fortune. Maps.me (maps.me) offers a much smarter way to find your way around a foreign country because it lets you browse complete area maps offline, without sacrificing detail. The free Android and iOS app covers every country in the world, “from the largest city to the smallest village”, so all you need to do is download the relevant map while you have an internet connection. Maps.me features millions of points of interest, including restaurants, petrol stations and cash machines, and provides directions from wherever you are to anywhere on the map. Cleverly, it compresses map data to keep file sizes small and lets you share a pin of your current location with friends via SMS and email.
Beat the traffic and save money on petrol
The ‘Live traffic’ overlay in Google Maps does little more than show you whether traffic is currently fast or slow in an area, which is useful but vague. For more accurate info on what’s happening on the roads, turn to the wonderful free app Waze (www.waze.com), available for Android, iOS and Windows Phone. This uses up-to-the-minute data from its community of drivers to inform you of accidents, hazards, jams, police, road closures and more, as well as letting you report them yourself. Users can also share their current speeds, which is a more precise method than Google Maps’, and maps are constantly updated to provide reliable navigation, including automatic rerouting. You can even find the cheapest petrol stations on your route, thanks to other drivers’ pump reports.
Also worth a look is BBC Travel (www.bbc.co.uk/travel), which relaunched last year as a constantly updated map showing traffic incidents, congestions and roadworks, which are handily colour-coded by severity.
Get directions from people who’ve tried them
Although Google Maps provides detailed directions to get you from A to B, they’re not always completely accurate and sometimes fail to take variables into account, such as how you’re likely to proceed more slowly up a hill than down one. A more reliable alternative is OpenStreetMap (www.openstreetmap.org), which recently added directions for driving, cycling and walking. Because the site sources data from real people, its directions are mostly tried and tested by registered users, so you won’t end up in a duck pond. Simply enter your starting point and destination, and click Go to view turn-byturn directions. You can then switch between car, bicycle and foot, although annoyingly distances are only given in kilometres and not miles.
FIND WI-FI HOTSPOTS AROUND THE UK
If you can’t get a mobile signal or you’re wary of using up your data allowance, there are several free apps that pinpoint the nearest Wi-Fi hotspots on a map. For Virgin Media Mobile customers, there’s Virgin Mobile WiFi Buddy (bit.ly/virgin378), which has just launched on iOS and covers more than 22,000 connections. BT has offered a free Wi-Fi app for years (www.bt.com/freewifi), which is available for Android, iOS and Windows Phone, and usefully provides you with precise directions to the nearest hotspots on a Google map.
If you don’t want to rely on a particular network, there’s WifiMapper (www.wifimapper.com), which maps a claimed 500 million hotspots all over the world and helpfully tells you what kind of venue the hotspot is located in, how reliable the connection is and even the quality of the coffee!