Trek Guide
Organic Maps is the best free offline map app for Nepal — OpenStreetMap trails, no subscription, works on GPS with no signal. How to download the…
By Travel Himalaya Nepal · Jun 13, 2026
The short answer, if you only read one line: install Organic Maps , download the Nepal map over Wi-Fi in Kathmandu or Pokhara, and you have free, offline, trail-level navigation that works on satellite GPS with no phone signal at all. It costs nothing, needs…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
All the genuinely useful trail maps for Nepal draw on the same source: OpenStreetMap. That matters more here than almost anywhere else on earth. After the 2015 earthquake, thousands of volunteer mappers rebuilt Nepal's map data at a level of detail commercial…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Do this in the city, on hotel or café Wi-Fi, before you get anywhere near a trailhead. It is the single most common thing people mean to do and forget. Install the app before you fly. App stores need data, and airport Wi-Fi in Kathmandu is not something to…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Maps are the headline, but the rest of this list is what makes the difference between mildly inconvenient and genuinely stuck. Everything here should be on the device, not in a cloud folder.
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
This is the part worth taking seriously. An offline map is a snapshot of what somebody mapped, not a live picture of the mountain. It will not show you the landslide that took out 200 metres of trail three weeks ago, the suspension bridge washed out in the…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Google Maps lets you download an offline area and it is genuinely handy in Kathmandu and Pokhara — road layouts, restaurants, the route your taxi should be taking. What it does not carry is Nepal's trekking network. Walk out of the road-head and the trails…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
A barometric altimeter — either an app on a phone with a pressure sensor, or a watch — is a nice way to track the day's climb and to sanity-check the altitudes in your itinerary. Note the distinction: phones without a barometer report GPS altitude, which…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
An app on a dead phone is a paperweight, and cold flattens lithium batteries fast. Three habits solve almost all of it. GPS still works. The radio hunting for a non-existent tower is what drains the battery, and switching it off can multiply your usable days…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
A local SIM is cheap and worth having for the cities and the lower trail, where coverage on the popular routes is better than most visitors expect. It thins out fast with altitude and disappears entirely in the restricted valleys — there are long stretches of…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Permits get checked, and the checkpoints are exactly where your data is not. Keep photographs of your passport, visa, permits and insurance on the device itself rather than in a cloud album that needs a connection to open. If you are still working out which…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Everything in this article is a convenience layer. Apps let you satisfy your own curiosity about how far the next village is, keep a record of the walk, and message home from a lodge. They do not read the terrain, they do not notice you slowing down, and they…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Before you leave the city: the Nepal offline map, the Google Translate Nepali pack, your route as bookmarks or a GPX, offline photos of permits and insurance, your operator's number, and a fully charged power bank. Then put the phone in aeroplane mode and…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Plan your trek
NMA-certified guides · permits sorted · 5,000+ treks since 1998.
Free guide
Permits, costs, seasons and routes — the essentials we send every traveller, plus a free, no-obligation trip quote.
↑ Swipe up
Read the full report and grab the free Nepal Trek Insider Guide — or ask our Pokhara team for a tailored, no-obligation quote.
Read more & get the free guide Plan my trip — free quote