Hi all,

My Googlefu is very weak and I am struggling to find a way to get free OS-type maps of places outside the UK.

I have followed the various links that pop up on Google but the sites either seem out of date, links have broken or downloads fail. Even the Openstreetmap site fails to download a map section I select on the Export tab.

Any foolproof ways to get a map good enough to MTB with without paying Garmin mega money?

Thanks!

DanW

I’ve used velomap.org for riding in Spain. Pretty sure they cover the whole of Europe

That is great, thank you. I am going to try the link to the sister site openmtbmap.org and see how I get on 🙂

I use follwoing apps on my phone, doesn’t answer your quesion directoy but fyi

ViewRanger (everywhere)
Swiss Mobility
geoportal.gouv.fr for France/IGN via web browser

ViewRanger (everywhere)

Is it correct to assume this works without a data connection? Should serve as a pretty decent backup if so, thanks

Do you want a solution that relies on having 3g / 4g data access, like some of the French mapping sites require, or something you can load onto your device? If it’s Garmin, I guess you’re after a map that you can load onto eg an Edge as a file?

Try https://talkytoaster.co.uk/maps/

..the UK coverage is good, and I’ve also used maps for Switzerland and Austria. You could also look for Open Source Mountain Bike maps.

The Garmin Edge 1000 I just bought came with Garmins bike map of Europe, which is OK but lacks contours. Not sure if you can get a copy of that from their site?

There are other ways of creating maps manually and loading them on to Garmins, some of which are pretty complex. Try Talkytoaster first maybe.

Good luck!

This site will give you the OSM data in a format for device usage offline.

http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl

They are flat with no contours and little rich data though so somewhere like Spain can have unpaved farm tracks that look like minor roads often in a confusin spaghetti like confusion.

Would love to find a TalkToaster service for other places or paid for option like the OS maps. Will be checking out the links from further up.

Is it correct to assume this works without a data connection? Should serve as a pretty decent backup if so, thanks

Yes. You need to load/cache the maps when you have a data connection, eg in the hotel.

I use Alpinequest on an Android phone and have found it to be fantastic over the years. For European use I have just downloaded data from the beta.map1.eu website (area stored at fine detail for offline use) for the Alps. Alongside this I have downloaded the Strava Heatmap overlay. This allows you to overlay a topographic map with tracks and roads on it with the heatmap data and thus pick out the best (most popular??) trails.

They are flat with no contours and little rich data though so somewhere like Spain can have unpaved farm tracks that look like minor roads often in a confusin spaghetti like confusion.

Had some weird routing going on in Spain and tbh was amazed how quickly the garmin edge 1000 chewed up battery power…

Definitely want a portable power ban thingy if your going off the beaten track..

I also think that the Spanish mapping is a bit er Spanish…..and you have to really go out an ride about and see the lay of the land, where I was there were plenty of service roads along the cyclable motorway but the mapping didn’t think that they were joined. Also found a fantastic disused road that wasn’t mapped too good.

Thanks all. With a better idea of the options and a bit more searching I went with the DC Rainmaker approach in the end. Worked really well and had a great ride this evening 😀