best gps map for India, Nepal, Pakistan, Iran

Hi!

Who can recommend a GPS map for any (or all) of these countries:
- India
- Nepal
- Pakistan
- Iran

Cheers

Panny

For India, I'd suggest http://maps.eicherworld.com/home.aspx?id=0&mid=0

Otherwise, if you're a Facebook user - http://facebook.com/groups/hvkumar/

Can´t find GPS-maps on their page.

Cheers

Panny

GPS is going to be a hit and miss in India. Many times, you cannot look at the road and determine which way the traffic is supposed to flow. Constructions are announced at a fairly brisk pace, and get completed in the contractor's leisure. The end result is that traffic gets rerouted fairly regularly, and no gps is usually good enough to catch up with all this drama. Add to it that every state has their RTO and none of them are centrally linked.

Long story short, the best on-screen navigation solution that I would recommend is google maps on android. Requires a data plan and a working cell connection, but thats a given in 90% of the places you might visit. If you insist on an offline solution, I've heard good things about mapmyindia.com. I haven't used it, but two of my friends are happy in their cars.

Of course, the best solution is paper maps. As was pointed out earlier, the better solution is eicher maps. The one that I used to own looks like this: http://www.flipkart.com/india-road-atlas/p/itmdfjfmuwg2yvsr?pid=9789380262376, but i remember it being less pricey. Another thing that always works for me is to stop at a tea shop, and ask for directions. It's very 20th century, but works most of the time

Good luck, and do post a RR when you head out.

@ Smenon!

Thanks for the reply.
I got the mapmyindia!

What does RTO mean?

Cheers

Panny

RTO = Road Transport Organization.

Essentially people who are in charge of making the rules and regulations for traffic in each state. I think financial incentives are given to officials who come up with uniquely stupid rules (such as no roof luggage racks on private cars, allowed in case of taxies of the same make - Gujarat), so there are always surprises.

Mapmyindia has fairly accurate maps , IMO better than CN or satguide, Good directions can be had at the local taxi stand or at any local business. But they are not as good as the GPS for getting you back to your hotel in town. Most of the small towns have been mapped. You'd benefit entering the places you want to go to/stay at beforehand as waypoints and using the unit to help navigate the last few kilometres.

Thanks for your answere.
I guess CN is Garmin City Navigator.
I googled Satguid, which offer GPS maps, but I couldn´t find gps maps on the IMO site. Looks like a naval system to me.

Cheers

Panny

Sorry about the late response. Eicher has ACCURATE printed maps, but not electronic.

I'd suggest going with hvkumar forum & message board, if you're using Facebook. You can have 99.99% accuracy with, weather reports, personalized route planning, meet up fellow riders, hotel & accommodation information on the go or as customized itinerary for India.

IMO = In My Opinion :)

http://www.mapmyindia.com/

India:

Try the google Navigator from your Android phone. So far, that is the best GPS navigation I have found in India. I have tried Sygic maps and mapmyindia, but nothing comes close to Google.

You can mount ur phone top the handle bars using one of the RAM mounts and keep the phone charged with a 12v socket n cable and save $100 by not buying a GPS device.

Nepal:
Came back from a 10 days ride in Nepal. The only maps I used for a physical paper map book. Cost around 400 rupees Nepali Currency. U can not get lost in the East-West highway(east-west of Nepal) or the Prithvi highway (Kathmandu-Pokhara).

Garmin does have maps of India & nepal, but not sure how accurate it will be.

My $0.02.

Bharath

Aargee & Bharath,

thanks for your advice.

Cheers

Panny

Has anybody experiences with Open Street Map for these countries?

From my personal experience it was quite good for 10% of the countries, I travelled through.
For the rest there where better gps maps from other sources.

Cheers

Panny

You mean Wikimapia? Unfortunately, in India, though we export Software, we're quite weak when it comes to these maps kind of stuff. They're good with cities, but not at country sides/villages.

Like I said, if you can get in touch with https://www.facebook.com/groups/hvkumar/ group, you're worries on planning, route queries, facilities on highways will become much reliable & simpler

Open Street Map:
http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/

For most countries not the best one you can get, but extremly user-friendly download!

I did not reply as I had not used this recently, but more than 3 years back, so my findings may not hold good at present.

3 years back the MMI and Satguide maps had far fewer POIs as compared to what is available now, and of course fewer town were covered, detail was much less. At that time the comparable OSM had a very similar map, but with less detail. However, where I stay in Mumbai, it had much more of a positional error, that is, the entire map appeared to somewhat shifted to one side as compared to the other maps, using the same track on my GPS as reference.

Perhaps that has been corrected now - as I said I have not used it for quite some time. For most purposes the MMI map is probably the best, and now it is not particularly expensive either.

I'm trekking in Nepal till late May, then I plan to buy a bike in Delhi and ride the Indian Himalayas for a couple of months.

Panny, what map did you use in the end and how happy were you with it?

Can anyone recommend an offline solution for android? Downloable maps and some sort of navigation software is what I would need. I much rather use the smartphone than buy a Garmin for that trip.

Hi Mekongfrank,

I used mapmyindia most of the time in India. OSM was usefull, too.

For Nepal I used the OSM all the time.

Both where not perfect, but good enough for an experienced GPS user.

For download links the former posts in this thread.

Cheers

Panny

OSM for android phones .. OsmAnd ... I have it for OZ.

MapMyIndia .. looks like there is an app from Sygic that uses their maps ..

and there is another app 'India offline Map' ..

---------- I've no idea what they are like for India ... they are all 'offline'. Google maps looks to remember what you were last looking at when you go off line .. for about 2? miles around with good detail .. after that it gets fuzzie .. ok for major roads. So if you stop some where with free WiFi .. operate the google map app and get the better data there. You'll want a free WiFi finder too .. there is at least one more app for that!

On first try it seems to do just fine. I only played around with it for a few minutes but the maps seem detailed enough in the mountains and routing works. It will still be a couple of months until I'm in India.

Thanks for your stories Panny. I'm glad you took the time to create your website! Greetings from Kathmandu!

Google maps usually works the best in India, that is, as long as you have data connectivity. The new version lets your save regions for offline use, try it around town before you experiment with the feature in the winderness.

The best offline map/navigation I found is Sygic, they use MapMyIndia maps and will get you around almost everywhere in the country.

You might not find all POI/Addresses in Sygic, what I do is search for the locations I need in Google Maps and copy the coordinates into Sygic and mark them as POI/Favoirutes there so I can search and navigate in Sygic when offline.

I almost always carry the Eicher Road Atlas printed maps when venturing out far. Just in case.

Google Maps - Free
Sygic (India) - Android (Free), iOS (INR 2,200 ~ USD 35)
Eicher Road Atlas India - INR 350 ~ USD6

Armed with the three you should never be lost in India.