MAPS.ME – carte navigo, GPS 4+

This free app is already at the top of the heap simply because it has no ads and in-app purchases. But moreover, it's actually useful! You can use this without an internet connection. This means if you're a cheapskate like me and don't have a data plan, you can still use this. After downloading this app at home, just download the maps you need. The maps are detailed with many POI's included. It'll also create a route from your current location to a destination on the map. It's better than CityMaps2Go which I used before until it started charging a fee.

There are a few things I wish they change. First, the name. It doesn't conform with other app names. Second, the icon color. Green is usually for chatting apps like Message and FaceTime. And third, either the arrow color or route color need to change when trying to follow a route on the map. Both the arrow color and route color are the same color blue and it's difficult to see where you are along the route. Other than these things, this app is perfect.

This used to be my favorite map app, but now all of the added features have considerably slowed it down. You’ll notice that many of the 5 star reviews are several years old. When I open the map and it searches for my location, it often takes me to the middle of the ocean before it gets confused and freezes. Searching usually causes it to freeze and when you just want to do a quick search, there are too many hoops to jump through to see what you’re looking for. If you don’t type fast enough, the search will ignore the first letters you type and only search for the last letters which is completely useless. I used to be able to change the color of a pin with one click, but now you have to hit at least 4 clicks just to change a color. I have ignored all of this annoyance and the fact that many locations are missing making it inferior to other similar maps anyway, but now they want you to pay for a lower quality map seems like pure greed. With the unpaid version, you can only download 10 maps at a time, but the maps seem to be smaller so if you’re on a road trip, good luck being able to download all the maps you need without being asked to pay. Not to mention that I have deleted maps several times only for them to automatically redownload so that it appears I have reached my map capacity again. As a long time user I can say it used to be much better before they tried to turn it into a paid product.

I just got back from a two week road trip in Norway. I live in the US and was not wanting to buy an international plan for data. I downloaded this app after I read that it doesn’t use WiFi or data. The minute that we got into our rental car and we’re trying to find out how to get to our hotel I turned on this app. I put in the town name and a bunch of option popped up, including hotels, restaurants and sightseeing opportunities. Still being new to the app I was waiting for an error message to pop saying I needed to connect to a server. Fast forward to the last day of vacation. We traveled over 3,500 miles in Norway, Finland and Sweden and every time this app took us to the place we wanted to be. This entire vacation was stress free and we didn’t have to worry about using the gigantic paper maps when we got lost. If your planning on traveling to a country or location that you know you won’t have service or your like me and does not want to pay extra charges for an international plan download this app.