I have a fairly good travel routine down but one thing I haven't really perfected an easy way to have the places I going to be visiting (hotels, customers, places to eat, airports ,etc) easy to access via my iphone. What I do now is just punch it into my iphone as needed, not really a great method because I might be driving in a city I'm not familiar with or might not know the correct spelling etc.

For those that like to plan what is your pre-trip routine so that you have your destination readily available?

Have you tried Google Now? if you have a gmail account and use it as your primary travel email (reservation confirmations, etc) Google Now will know where you need to be and when you need to be there (and even when you need to leave from where you are to get there!) which is sometimes disconcerting, but almost always helpful.

It is available for iOS, but I'm not really sure if it's as helpful on iOS is is is on Android.

I build my trip plans into TripIt. I'll add meeting locations, and things I'd like to visit. Things with a street address have an option to display them on a map, and then you can use the directions function in the mapping application.

This is dependent on having internet access, but I use T-Mobile and have free global roaming in many countries, or buy a local SIM with data for locations that aren't covered by that plan.

I pre-populate the locations via Google Maps and TripIt. Major items like airports, hotels, appointments go in first. I usually add a few locations while at my hotel and not distracted by traffic.

Online Maps:
1) Log into Google Maps on desktop. Star my locations.
2) Log into Google Maps on iOS/Android. Stars appear

Offline Maps:
1) Create a Map in Google Maps.
2) Add locations and routing as needed
3) Export http://www.igismap.com/create-save-e...le-google-map/
4) Convert to whichever file format needed (usually kml2gpx http://kml2gpx.com/)
5) Import to offline map app like OSMAnd, MapsWithMe (Android) or Pocket Earth (iOS).

I use Google Maps and Kayak My Trips. Used to use TripIt but it declined in features.

New Google My Maps is inferior to the old My Maps but still works. However, I create custom My Maps with POIs mostly to print out (or could load a PDF into the phone too). Google Maps doesn't load My Maps in the iOS app.

I see that there is a separate Android app. which will load My Maps though.

Google Maps, the new version, and the "new My Maps" app (by Nelson Kwan, $2 I think) to view the custom maps on my iPhone.

I used Nelson's old My Maps app, which I think I got for free, with the old Google Maps and was very happy with it, so it was easy to pay $2 for the new version, since he keeps it maintained. (e.g. I think Google changed the login routine that he goes through and there was an update to the app the day after I noticed it was a problem.)

Hmm, it's actually $4.99 as far as I can see.

I need to try a Lite version before paying that much for an app.

Still hoping Google release the My Maps app for iOS.

Pre-trip and live updates, I use Tripit Pro, it's awesome, for maps, I recommend App called Citymap2go, very handy because it does offline maps for specific city, you can pre-download the detail maps and points of interests before your trip and use it without worrying about no-data coverage.

Maps, grrrr.

I have an Android phone and use GPS and Google Maps for in-car navigation to a particular destination. No problem with that.

But I am a long time user of Microsoft Streets and Trips on my computer and have a master Chicago-area map with hundreds of locations (mostly restaurants) push-pinned. There''s apparently no Android app that cane open an MS S&T map file, and I have on several occasions researched multi-step map file conversion strategies with no success. I've exported text files and Excel files and tried to convert them to some kml or other type of file that can be opened with Google Maps. So far, I can see no better alternative to typing hundreds of place names and addresses into Google Maps by hand, i.e., recreating my master map from scratch. If anyone has a solution to this problem, please let me know; I'd be very grateful!

The new Google My Maps does seem to allow import of POIs into layers it appears.

But that's on the desktop.

There seems to be no good mobile app that opens those My Maps. There is one for Android but it gets poor reviews.

THe My Maps app by Google will open your maps from the website/desktop. I created a 'My Map' of all the baseball parks I've been to as well as all of the vacations I've been on. Both maps have multiple layers, and the app works fine with them. Not as easy as the website to use, but plenty good for a phone.

It's not as full-featured as the Maps app, but it is useful as a reference to the maps that I have created.

But some of the reviews on the Google Play store seems to indicate that it doesn't work with navigation, that you have to switch back to the regular Googles Map app?

If that's the case, then the My Mapps app. would seem like more of a viewer, not a real maps app.

That seems to be essentially true. However, I can choose a point that I have designated in My Maps, and then select Navigation. It will then load the point into the Maps app and start navigation.

If you look at My Maps as a viewer, then you won't be disappointed. It kicks you back to the Maps app when needed. You can edit your maps within it though.

I wish both apps were one and the same. I don't see why we need two apps for this, but that is the way it is for now. They both have their place.

My understanding is that they were in an older version of Google Maps, where you could load the custom POIs from My Maps.

But they removed it in more recent versions of Google Maps app.

They have new engines for Google Maps and My Places now. There's probably some incompatibility now in the backends for both products.

It used to be that you could look up some place in Desktop Google Maps and then right-click it and save to a new or existing My Maps. You can't do that any more.

You have to first create a custom My Maps, search for a spot and then add it from within Mapsengine, which is different than Google Maps. This change makes adding POIs in My Maps much more work than it used to be before.

Why they wanted to change the underlying engines is a mystery. Maybe these new engines make it easier to data mine or advertise. Or maybe some new exec. wanted to give both products facelifts, so that he could burnish his resume.


You can now search in Desktop Google Maps and then star the POIs you want. Then you will be able to access those starred locations in the mobile apps for navigation. Only problem with that is there's no way to organize the starred POIs or separate them for different cities or countries. That means over time, you can have dozens of these and you'll have to scroll through them on your device. So you have no choicer but to un-star them, to keep your POIs list manageable.

That is essentially the same problem with OS X Maps and iOS Maps and their bookmarks. Again, you can search and bookmark a lot of POIs on the desktop and access them later on the mobile device but you can't really organize them easily.

Hmm, I guess he raised the price. I absolutely hate paying for apps, but I would still pay $5 for this. It does support layers. I am starting to convert my google maps to layers and it works great.