Free GPS maps can be very useful if you can find ones for the area you’re interested in. The base maps supplied by the manufacturers such as Garmin or Magellan are rather basic. They are fine for streets and highways and major features, but for rural and wilderness areas, they are lacking. Details like little-used roads and trails, streams, and small lakes are missing.
The GPS manufacturers offer for purchase additional maps like topo maps that will show some of these details, but they’re still often marginal. That’s where free GPS maps come into play. There are quite a lot of maps available, but it will be a while before the entire earth is covered. With the growing popularity of GPS, there’s sure to be a considerable growth in the choice of free GPS maps.
Worldwide
MapCenter is a place where you can share your maps for Garmin GPS receivers and find maps created by other GPS enthusiasts from all over the world.
Travel By GPS – A terrific site you can search to find and download hundreds of free GPS maps and tour guides for on- and off road sightseeing. Media rich content includes narrative audio and visual images, point of interest data, maps, GPS waypoints and tracks for touring through unique travel experiences.
OpenStreetMap is an editable map of the whole world, which is being built largely from scratch using GPS traces, and released with an open content license.
Garmin World Routable basemap v3 – This map is only for display purposes on the PC as you can not select it to upload to a GPS.
Worldwide – Vsevolod Shorin has created a utility where you can search for free GPS maps for Garmin by clicking on a world map.
OpenStreetMap – maps people have created from OSM data in Garmin image file format.
Africa
Africa countries – GPS maps for some African countries.
Morocco and Western Sahara – GPS vector map for Morocco and Western Sahara
Swaziland – Two Garmin maps of the Simunye, Swaziland area.
Tunisia – vector maps for Garmin and compatible devices.
Antarctica
Antarctica – Covers from -60 to -89 degrees south latitude and was derived completely from NIMA’s VMAP0 database.
Asia
Japan – Covers all of Japan south of 42 degrees north latitude (all areas except Hokkaido island).
Laos – Topo and highway routable maps.
Malaysia – Malaysia & Singapore Free Map Forum
Philippines – A Garmin-compatible road guide to the Philippine Islands.
Russia – Moscow
Singapore – Malaysia & Singapore Free Map Forum
Free GPS Maps of Thailand (parts of Thailand along with Laos and Vietnam)
Vietnam – Free Vietnam topo and highways routeable GPS maps
Yunnan – Topographic Maps for Yunnan built from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Data for Garmin GPS units.
Caribbean
Caribbean Map Project – Covers from 7 to 27.66 degrees North and 59 to 90 degrees West.
Dominican Republic and Haiti – Routable Garmin maps for the Dominican Republic and Haiti (Hispaniola).
Europe
Europe – OpenMaps Project is a group of volunteers creating topographical and road maps for Europe.
Europe – Airspace maps
Europe (skiing) – Maps of ski resorts for Garmin GPS devices, as well as for Garmin Mobile XT application for Symbian, Windows Mobile and Palm OS based devices.
Austria – Dachstein, Ortler, �tztaler Alpen, Riesenfernergruppe, and Zillertal-West
Austria – Jamtal, Tirol
Austria – Cities only.
Bulgaria
Germany – Service stations
Germany
Germany – Cycling routes
Germany – POIs
Germany – Cities only
Germany – Tracks and POIs
Germany – Tracks and POIs
Greece – Topo/road maps for Garmin GPS units, no routing.
Greece
Iceland – MapSource�-Map for Iceland.
Italy – Free GPS maps for cycling.
Italy – Topo maps
Netherlands (also included Belgium, Luxembourg and a small border area of Germany) – Free routable cycling map
Poland – Warsaw area
Portugal, Azores
Portugal, Madeira
Portugal, Madeira
Romania, Erdely region
Slovakia – Topo
Spain, Gran Canaria
Spain – Digital geographic information generated by the National Geographic Institute of Spain.
Spain, Islas canarias which includes Tenerife, Gomera, and La Palma.
Spain, Tenerife
Switzerland – Walliser Alpen, Berner Oberland
Switzerland – Cities only
United Kingdom – Contour maps for Garmin GPS
Mediterranean
Mediterranean – Free GPS vector and raster maps for the Mediterranean Sea.
Cyprus – Free Cyprus GPS map for OziExplorer.
Cyprus – visitor’s maps of Cyprus as well as routable free GPS maps for Garmin devices.
Middle East
Afghanistan – Afghanistan Streets Map.
Israel – Garmin-compatible 2-meter resolution topo maps
North America
Canada Maps for Magellan eXplorist and Triton series receivers.
Red River Gorge Topo Map – Covers Red River Gorge, Clifty Wilderness and surrounding area of Kentucky
United States – Maps of Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, the Bay Area, Monterey, and Oahu.
United States – Topo maps of AZ, CA, CO, MS, MT, UT, WY and 4WD trail maps of CO and MN.
United States – Free adventure maps for outdoor activities.
Mexico
Route 66 GPS Maps – Covers the U.S. Route 66
United States – Various free GPS maps of trails in the western US.
Oceania
Australia – Free topo maps which cover all Australia – you must register to reach this page.
Australia – Tracks4Australia provides an alternative free map set that can be used both with MapSource on a PC or uploaded to a map capable Garmin GPS unit.
Australia – Contours Australia is set of free transparent 10m contour maps that cover all of Australia only for the Garmin Mapping GPS.
Australia – Shonkymaps are a set of unofficial Garmin compatible topographic maps that cover the whole of Australia.
Australia – OSM Australia is just a basic website to gather all the various Australian-related output from the OpenStreetMap project, and make it available from one place.
Australia – weekly planet.osm extractions for Australian states.
Samoa – Garmin GPS auto routable maps.
New Zealand – New Zealand Open GPS Maps Project for Garmin mapping GPS.
South America
South America – Various free GPS maps
South America
Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru
Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay – Proyecto Mapear is a community based effort to map Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Brazil – free GPS maps of Brazil for Garmin receivers.
Columbia – GPS map of Columbia – street level, routable
Ecuador – GPS map of Ecuador – street level, routable
Paraguay – GPS map of Paraguay – street level, routable (in German)
Peru – Creation and maintenance of GPS maps for the Peruvian territory.
Venezuela – Garmin-compatible routable maps.