Nokia Maps, are all you need.
 

Not many people will be familiar with the Nokia range of smart phones these days, as they aren't that popular, I bought a Nokia Lumia 620 only for the Map application it comes with.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know it is the only phone that comes with an App where you can download maps for an entire country for free that comes pre loaded. By free I mean the app which is already on the phone and any map for any country you need also free.

So now before I travel, I get onto wifi, I choose the country or countries I wish to travel to and download the maps for those countries ( a typical map is about 80mb) Once these are downloaded they don't require any further internet connection.
Then when you leave the country you can delete that map, to free up space for the next country's map.

I have traveled around Europe, South America and Australia with these and have never had any problem, it will even show you accommodation, fuel etc. And it provides turn by turn voice guidance, which I connect to my bluetooth headset in my helmet, so I don't have to be looking at the map.
You can save locations to return to or share, such as camping spots, bars etc.

Apart from the amazing map app, it does everything your typical smart phone does, and they are usually a lot cheaper than your Iphones or Samsung galaxy's.

So for anyone who happens to need a new phone I suggest you look into their range, you won't be disappointed and if you travel a lot you will save a heap of money.

I know it probably sounds like I work for Nokia, but this small piece of equipment has helped me travel around about 20 countries by now and I would not travel without it.

Hope this helps!

Nope .. I am all ears for Nokia. Good phones.. but bought out by Microsoft recently. Will see what they do with it. You will find the name Nokia will slowly disappear.

I have a Nokia 560 and downloaded the maps for Thailand when I was there on holiday in March. They were good and even when I was lost I knew where I was LOL.
My only concern would be that if you decided to go over the mountains like I did on a 2 day Enduro in Chiang Mai, would you be able to use it as a proper GPS?

Yes!
It's the software ,, not the hardware.
Several APPs for off road GPS tracking,, for any country ,, Timbuktoo to Patagonia, on any smart phone. Even better if the phones are drop and water proof.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/path...404497081?mt=8

https://www.google.co.kr/search?q=ca...g+for+thailand

Hey Caps,
That's the beauty of the Nokia Maps, you have the maps actually downloaded onto your phone, so you don't need an internet connection, or mobile phone service.

Does anyone know if you can get maps for Laos and Cambodia for Nokia maps, done a search on my phone and can only see Thailand which i have already

Wayne

dont know, but I can confirm that Nokia has no Pakistan maps.

True that Microsoft have swallowed up the Nokia hardware brand for producing their own phones and, yes, the Nokia brand name is disappearing from the hardware right now.
But Nokia are one of the primary players in the production and marketing of digital mapping and have re-branded themselves as "HERE".

The regional nature of map production (and ownership, licensing etc) is something of an interest to me at present.
It is not too surprising that not every supplier of mapping covers every single possible country or area of a country, or region of the world for that matter.

Open Street Maps (OSM) cover the world ... but the coverage in some places is not as good as others. Australia is good, India is not so good. By good I mean covers the smaller country roads, country towns. The Indian tourist sites look well covered. But most of the smaller towns/roads are not mapped. Pakistan is probably similar. I've not looked in too much detail at Vietnam nor Cambodia .. but there are things mapped there .. so I'd think it will be the tourist things covered and missing the non tourist areas.