Old school paper maps beat my phone in rural Greece last month

I spent 20 minutes trying to get Google Maps to load near Meteora and it just spun. Pulled out a paper map I grabbed at a gas station for 3 euros and found the trail in 30 seconds. Anyone else keep a backup map hidden in their bag?

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holly8982mo ago

Does your phone even work when you are out of signal range for days at a time? I backpacked through northern Spain last year and my map app was totally useless after the first town. That paper map saved me twice when I took wrong turns on dirt roads that didn't show up on any digital version. The best part is you can write notes on it with a pen and mark where you saw the good views or where the trail was blocked. It's like having a diary and a map all in one thing.

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grace_perry442mo ago

Totally agree with you @holly898, I had the same thing happen hiking in the Smokies last fall. My phone died by day two even with a power bank, and the offline maps I downloaded were way too zoomed out to see the little side trails. Swear by that paper map now too, I drew little stars where I stopped for lunch and arrows where the trail markers were missing. Way more reliable for getting back to camp without guessing.

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