When planning a hike yourself, it is crucial to have some trail information. Knowing the route beforehand helps you plan your campsite, water source, and day-to-day breakdown. Most importantly, if the trail diverges or is washed up, it helps you navigate and find the route.

Whenever I write a trek guide, I ensure a GPX file is attached, so people can accurately access all of this information and plan accordingly. It allows us to share the knowledge we have gained on the trail with others who venture to the same places.

So here’s a basic guide to offline maps and GPX files.

Offline Maps

The idea behind offline maps is to download the map earlier so you don’t need access to the network when you’re isolated. Nowadays even Google maps has offline features, but it lacks all the crucial information that you need when hiking.

The most popularly used offline map is maps.me. It used to be an open source free platform, but has now kept many features behind a paywall. Also it is banned in India.

A good alternative is OrganicMaps. This is a fork of the maps.me code before it went private. It has an abundance of trail information and is completely free.

Another popular alternative is All trails, which arguably has a nicer UI. But the map download feature is behind a paywall.

At the moment there are many more apps in the market. I have been using OrganicMaps for years and have had no issues with it in the different countries I have visited.

GPX File

GPX files are used to store geographical information through GPS coordinates. You can share routes, places of interest, trail information, etc through these files.

It is a text based XML file, so if you simply open it, it looks more or less like gibberish. It only makes sense when it is uploaded to an app that knows how to utilise it.

How to Import GPX File to Offline Maps

For this example I will use OrganicMaps, but this feature exists on all offline map apps.

1. 1. Make sure you’re connected to the internet (duh)
   2. Download the GPX file
   3. Find the downloaded file on your device
   4. Click on the 3 dots > Open With > Organic Maps
   5. This will load the trail to your bookmarks. You can access it on this icon