AdvOSM Adventure Road Maps
For cars, motorcycles, SUVs, ATVs, 4x4s, and walkers, on- and off-road. For Garmin, Basecamp, OruxMaps, and GPXSee. Routable, searchable. Updated biweekly, free. Automotive and handheld GPS versions. Every road and vehicle track in the world.
AdvOSM maps show paved roads like other maps. In addition, AdvOSM maps analyze OSM data to show unpaved roads, unpaved portions of paved roads, service roads open to motor vehicles, tracks open to motor vehicles, tracks and service roads closed to motor vehicles, surface warnings, track grades, narrow roads, ford crossings, and weir crossings. Also shown are footpaths, protected areas, and steep terrain using (optional) 100m contour lines. The lines and icons are designed for visibility on a GPS screen.
Most maps show roads colored only by their category: motorway, secondary, residential, service, track, etc., whether they are smooth asphalt, broken concrete, graded gravel, rutted dirt, narrow, open, or closed. AdvOSM maps let overlanders choose challenging but safe unpaved roads and tracks by looking at the map on the screen, informed of surface type, smoothness, grade, width and accessibility wherever this information is in OSM. Routes can also be planned in Garmin Basecamp (free) that can be exported as GPX files to cellphone navigation apps.
The USA, Australia, and Canada maps include optional non-routable overlays outlining the Trans America, Trans Australia, and Trans Canada Trails. The Trail websites host routable GPX files that can be followed in a GPS while using these maps.
Screenshots in day mode and night mode from a handheld model (Montana), 300m/1000ft zoom:
Screenshots in day mode and night mode from an automotive model (Zumo), at 500m/1600ft zoom:
The level of detail can adjusted. The examples on this website are all at maximum detail:
Comparative Examples
Here, half the highway and nearby road is unpaved, and surfaces are "very bad to horrible." Other maps don't show this:
The same place as above, but zoomed out:
Compare with AlternativasLibres Map:
Colorado, USA:
Compare with GmapTool Map:
Dobrich, Bulgaria:
Compare with Freizeitkarte:
El Carmen, Argentina:
Compare with OpenMapChest:
Kakumbi, Zambia:
Compare with UserBeam Map:
Harrowgate, England:
Compare with OpenTopoMap:
Jindabyne, Australia:
Compare with Bushwalk Map:
San Francisco, California:
Compare with BBBike Map:
Road Legend
A Motorway.
B Primary Road. Paved.
C Secondary Road. Paved.
D Tertiary Road. Paved.
E Minor, Residential, or Unclassified Road. Paved.
1 Unpaved Road. Includes unpaved parts of all classes of roads except service roads. Intended for traffic.
2 Track or unpaved service road. Not intended for traffic.
3 Track or service road closed to motor vehicles or motorcycles.
4 Service Road, paved or untagged. Includes alleys and driveways. Not intended for traffic. May have restrictions.
5 Trail or footpath not intended or permitted for vehicles.
6 Protected area with restrictions, such as national park, nature reserve, managed habitat, wildlife sanctuary, hunting area.
7 Trans America, Trans Australia, and Trans Canada Trails outline.
Surface Legend
S2 Intermediate surface; pavement repairs with small cracks, holes, or ruts; or compacted earth with shallow holes and ruts for over 2 km.
S3 Poor to bad surface; rough pavement with cracks, holes, or ruts; or uncompacted earth with holes, ruts for over 1 km.
S4 Very bad to horrible surface; pavement with deep cracks, holes, and ruts; or loose earth with rocks, deep ruts for over 500m.
S5 Very horrible to impassable surface; pavement with ruts, rocks, and obstacles; or earth with deep ruts, rocks, and obstacles for over 500m.
G2 Degraded pavement or gravel track with sand and clay for over 2 km.
G3 Mixed soft and hard surface track for over 1 km.
G4 Soft soil and grass track with some hard material for over 500m.
G5 Soil and grass track without hard material for over 500m.
N2 Narrow road with width 3m or less for over 2 km, or only one lane for two directions for over 2 km.
N3 Narrow road with width 2m or less for over 1 km.
N4 Narrow road with width 1m or less for over 1 km.
Ford Level stream or river crossing on gravel or earth, depending on season and weather.
Weir Reservoir or canal crossing on concrete. Road may be underwater and have steep embankments.
Surface warnings are searchable. If you enjoy deep ruts, rocks, and obstacles, search for “S5:”
Maps Download
To download, click the button:
Each map has four versions, clearly labeled: with contour lines or no contour lines. And HD, for automotive units with high-definition screens such as Nuvi, Zumo, Drive, and Tread, or non-HD, for outdoor handheld units like Montana, Oregon, and GPSMap, as well as for Basecamp, GPXSee, Oruxmaps, and QmapShack.
Click on the name of a map to download it. Maps take a few minutes to download over WiFi but they can take an hour and may fail over 5G mobile. If you experience failed downloads on your network, use a download manager such as One Download Manager for Android or Free Download Manager for Windows. Copy the download link from your browser into the download manager. It will automatically resume the download in case of failure. No data will be lost, and it is faster than browser downloads.
The images below describe each map. Several maps can be loaded into a Garmin with seamless interconnection and routing. Red lines show coverage. Purple lines show trails. To download a map, click the Download Maps button above.
AdvOSM USA
USA West (2300 MB)
USA Central (2400 MB)
USA East (2300 MB)
AdvOSM Canada + Alaska
(3500 MB)
AdvOSM Mexico + Central America
Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin, Sint Maarten, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands (1300 MB)
AdvOSM South America
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela (3500 MB)
AdvOSM Britain + Ireland
United Kingdom, Ireland, Guernsey-Jersey, Isle-of-Man (1300 MB)
AdvOSM Europe
Europe A: Andorra, France, Monaco, Portugal, Spain (3500B)
Europe B: Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands (3300 MB)
Europe C: Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland (2500 MB)
Europe D: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey (3200 MB)
Europe E: Aland Islands, Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Ukraine, Belarus (3500 MB)
AdvOSM Africa
Africa A: Algeria, Azores, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Madeira, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Togo, Tunisia (3200 MB)
Africa B: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Congo Democratic Republic, Congo Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, Namibia, Reunion, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, South Africa, St. Helena, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe (3000 MB)
AdvOSM Middle East
Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen (1200 MB)
AdvOSM South Asia
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka (2700 MB)
AdvOSM Silk Road Asia
China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia plus the adjacent border regions of Afghanistan, India, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey (3300 MB)
AdvOSM Russia
(3500 MB)
AdvOSM Northeast Asia
Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan (2000 MB)
AdvOSM Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia Mainland: Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, West Malaysia, Singapore (1300 MB)
Southeast Asia Island: Philippines, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, East Malaysia, Brunei (1900 MB)
AdvOSM Australia + Oceania
New Zealand, Australia, American Samoa, Cook Islands, Easter Island, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Hawaii, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Midway Atoll, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wake Island, Wallis and Futuna (1100 MB)
To use the maps in a Garmin GPS, download your maps (IMG files) into your PC. Connect your PC to your Garmin using a USB cable, or remove the microSD from your Garmin and connect it to your PC with a USB adapter. Copy your maps into the “Garmin” folder in the root directory of the microSD card. In a few models, this folder is named “Map”. Enable the maps in “Setup—Map Selection” of the Garmin menu. Most Garmins show each map as two or three maps in the selection screen: the lowest is the base map; the next is the contour overlay; the highest, if there are three, is the Trans [Country] Trail overlay. In rural areas, set “Map Detail” to Maximum.
To use the map in Basecamp you must have a removable memory device (SD card, USB thumb drive, or a Garmin with a microSD card inside it) attached to the PC. Basecamp will not open IMG maps from a hard disk. Create a folder named “Garmin” in the root directory of the removable medium and copy the IMG file into it. Basecamp will see the map automatically when it starts.
About Garmin automotive units such as Nuvi, Drive, Zumo, and Tread: Line details such as paved/unpaved, open/closed, road/track, and protected areas (Road Legend above) are visible, but most Points of Interest, including surface warnings (Surface Legend above), viewpoints, cattleguards, and fuel stations, are invisible. Compare these screenshots from a handheld, left, with an automotive unit (with HD map), right—none of the POIs on the left are visible on the right:
Garmin handheld units were designed for adventurers who navigate while looking at map details. Automotive units were designed to guide drivers along a planned route to a destination, keeping the screen as distraction-free as possible. AdvOSM maps include a partial workaround to reveal important POIs on automotive units: surface warnings, cattleguards, and viewpoints are discoverable as Up Ahead Places using Custom Search categories. See the left screenshot below:
The distance and general direction (left, right, or ahead) to the next surface warning, cattleguard, and viewpoint are shown, as per the center screenshot. To see the location, tap the green icon to open a mini-map, as per the right screenshot.
About Asian languages: Beginning with Zumos and Nuvis, and then in 2016 in all models, Garmin made third-party maps unreadable if they use Unicode. OSM maps can only be opened if they are made with the Latin1 character set, which supports only western European languages; all other languages are transliterated. If you need a multilingual map with Asian languages, you must buy it from Garmin or use a ten-year-old Garmin and an OSM map published in Unicode. AdvOSM Maps are no longer published in Unicode.
OSM features are possible thanks to the volunteers who tagged the roads in OSM. You can help by becoming a volunteer and uploading your corrections and surface descriptions to OSM, too.