Using Organic Maps

I wrote last week about the free app "Organic Maps" and said there would be a follow-up. This is it.

Once you've downloaded the app onto your device you'll need maps. All you need to do is zoom in on the area you're interested in. It will bring up the following:

Once the map is downloaded you can search the area, or zoom in to browse where you might like to go. If you know what you're looking for you tap on the magnifying glass icon (search) and type it into the search box, then select the result, or choose a category. In the following picture the categories screen is shown on the left, the search screen on the right.

Select your result, and the map will mark the place, and may even bring up a brief Wikipedia entry about it. If you want to bookmark it click on the star icon, and that location is saved.

If you want to plan a route, click on a place and tap "route from"  (or current location) and a destination "route to", and voila. This is a walk from car parking to the towers in Bologna.

You will notice it misses some of the other places I wanted to see. No worries, just tap on them and "add stop".

You can see I have a lot of saved places: places I've been to, places I want to go, and places I need for planning tours. They're organised into folders, and you can turn the folders on and off.

Unfortunately there is no way to save a route (I believe it's on its way) but you can import routes as .kml files from other apps.

One of the really useful search categories is Toilets. We use it when we're out and about, for instance in March when we were on our way to Amsterdam. The little blue dot shows a toilet we would have taken ages to find otherwise.

If you're looking for maps to use when travelling try this. There's no ads, so no danger you'll accidentally buy anything when mistakenly clicking where you didn't mean to. The maps are also updated every month.