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IGN app for Camino de Madrid and other routes

eamann

Active Member
Time of past OR future Camino
2024 Le Puy - Cahors + Saint-Jean - León
3rd Edition. More content, training & pack guides avoid common mistakes, bed bugs etc
Just downloading the maps. Looking forward to trying it.
 
I downloaded it to my tablet a few weeks ago, and while there is no doubt the tracking of the Caminos on the map is as detailed as could be, including elevation, and it is nice to know where one can find an albergue or an ATM, I don't know that I will want to keep such a heavy app on my devices just for that.

To me it's more of an "academic" application than something useful to find my way.

The feature of adding notes and pictures is nice to have, but in terms of being useful while out there, I am not convinced.
 
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Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
Note that there are two mode of operation. Online operation gives access to some detailed photomaps, as well as the downloaded raster mapping. Offline mode does not provide photomaps. Neither set of maps gives sufficient street level detail for navigation in the larger cities. For example, only major streets are named, and app does not permit sufficient magnification to be truly useful. Outside of cities, it probably has sufficient detail.

There are some alternative routes described on the CF, but not all the alternatives that I know of. For example, the river route into Burgos does not appear, and only one route is shown leaving Villafranca del Bierzo.

I was unable to test how well it used the GPS on my tablet.

Nice, particularly the wonderful topographic maps at the higher levels of detail. But not good enough where it counts most, and that is having good detail for city navigation. Products like OSM+ demonstrate what can be done with good vector mapping, and are much better in those circumstances than this.
 
On reading Dougfitz’s comments I see that I may have been too enthusiastic. Time will tell.

For navigating a Camino I have been using for the last 18 months GPX tracks on a free GPS app called Viewranger, available for Apple and Android. I recommend it most warmly. I appreciate in particular its ability to bleep if you wander by more than x (you choose the distance yourself) metres from the GPX track. That function has saved me from getting lost many times.
 
I walked with a Spanish guy at Easter on the Plata who used IGN. He was about to go wrong a few times, I think perhaps because the scale just isn't fine enough. It also had an annoying shrill voice that accused us of 'too much deviation from the route' all the time, although I assume you can turn 'her' off.
 
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Hi everybody, Which is the best way by foot : Uclès to Madrid or Madrid to Uclès (in july !)? And where find informations about accomodation ? Thank you

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