If you’ve got a car journey planned to visit the relatives this Christmas, you’ll probably look to Google Maps for directions.

But, if you don’t want to rely on things like phone signal or battery power it may be an idea to download a portion to your phone.

This means you can be sure you’ll be able to check where you’re going – even if you’re in a black spot.

Thankfully, downloading Google Maps is a simple process. We’ve illustrated the below points with an Android phone but it works on iOS too.

Here’s how to do it.

Select your area

Firstly, search for the area you’re going to need access to. We’ve used London as the example, but it could be anywhere that Google Maps covers.

Next, you’ll need to swipe up the menu from the bottom of the screen. This is the panel showing you information about the area and allowing you to browse for things like restaurants.

Drop-down menu

Tap on the three button menu on the top right part of the screen.

You’ll see the option appear to ‘Download offline map’.

Once selected, you’ll be given an outline of the area you can download.

Select your download area

You can alter this depending on the amount of map you need. An indicator at the bottom will tell you how much storage space the download will require.

After you’ve downloaded an area, you can use the Google Maps app just like you normally would.

If your internet connection is slow or absent, your offline maps will guide you to your destination as long as the entire route is within the offline map.

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