One thing to be mindful of when using offline maps: you don’t get traffic updates, road closure, etc. Double check your route before turning off your cell.
I was in Banff during the fall and going to drive to Kelowna. I put the destination in the day before using Google offline maps and it didn’t identify a major road closure on the Trans Canada highway due to construction. However, it did when connected to the hotel wifi.
Still way better than a dedicated gps.
When you drove to Kelowna, did you turn off the cellular signal?
I'm pretty sure that the purpose of offline maps is just to have the map of the area already pre-downloaded to your phone so that you don't have to waste data downloading map information like the street layout, street names, etc., while you're driving.
So if you turn off your cellphone signal, then you only have a dead map with no traffic updates.
If you keep your cellphone on, you'll still get the traffic updates, etc.
I personally use Google Maps driving everywhere... even going to work and other destinations that I've been to hundreds of times. The traffic updates and rerouting in the event of road closures or increases in traffic density is invaluable. Google Maps has saved my skin many times by rerouting me when I'm on one of my familiar routes.
And I'm pretty sure that Google Maps really doesn't use much data. I used to drive to and from work (50 minutes each way), Monday to Friday, before pandemic. I used Google Maps all the time, and I don't think I ever passed 2Gb in a month. (I don't use my data for too much else.)
sure if you need hotspot to be connected to the gps via dongle. It was just from a 2 min search. Maybe search it out more to see the details, however it doesn’t make sense to me that this would be a requirement for gps dongle to work. Maybe to set it up but not use it. At least you have a solution. I just use my phone for everything.
