Best Tools for Maps and Navigation
The case this post made in 2010 has been won so thoroughly that it is worth restating what actually matters now. A phone is the map. The only real question is what happens when the signal goes.
Download the map before you leave. This is the whole game and most people skip it. Every tool below stores maps on the device; none of them can invent one for you at the trailhead.
- Gaia GPS for backcountry. Layered topo, satellite and slope-angle overlays, proper offline downloads, and route recording that survives a day without service. The free tier is usable; the paid one is where the good layers live.
- AllTrails for finding a walk rather than navigating one. Its strength is the enormous pile of user-recorded trails and recent trip reports, which tell you about the washed-out bridge no map shows.
- CalTopo if you plan on a desktop and print. The best free tool for drawing a route, checking slope angle and producing something waterproof to carry.
- Organic Maps for travel rather than hiking. Free, open source, built on OpenStreetMap, no account, no tracking, and entire countries fit offline on a phone. This is the one to install before a long overland trip.
- Komoot if you are moving under your own power between towns, on foot or by bike. Its routing understands surface and gradient in a way general map apps do not.
Carry a paper map anyway on anything serious. Not out of nostalgia. A phone is a single point of failure that gets cold, wet and flat, and a paper map plus a compass weighs almost nothing and fails in no interesting way.
Part of the guide to gadgets and power.