A summer vacation doesn’t have to mean just lounging by the pool. If you’re eager to explore the mountains on a bike, go hiking along the ridges, and pick up a geocache or two along the way, we have good news for you: you can plan your entire active vacation in a single app.

One app for your entire vacation

Imagine a typical active vacation: a few days cycling along a river, interspersed with a challenging hike in the mountains, and the occasional geocache to spice things up. Until recently, that meant juggling several websites, paper maps, and notes on your phone. With Locus Map, you can handle everything in one place.

You can plan your trip at your leisure at home on your computer, send the planned routes to everyone in your group, and then Locus will reliably guide you on your phone—even in places where there’s no signal. Let’s go through how to do it step by step.

Map selection – biking and hiking maps

A good map is the foundation of every trip. And this is where Locus Map has one of its biggest advantages—it offers a wide selection of map data, so you can choose the one that best suits your plans.

At the heart of the app are LoMaps—our own maps based on data from OpenStreetMap. They include marked hiking and biking trails, terrain shading, and contour lines, so you can see at a glance where a steep climb awaits you. They work great offline, and we update them regularly.

If you’re planning a trip around Europe, you’ll also find specialized online resources helpful. You’ll find the right ones for every activity and region—for example, detailed IGN maps in France, Outdooractive in German-speaking countries, or Swisstopo in Switzerland. 

Tip: Before you set out, download an offline map of the entire region. With Premium Gold, you can download all LoMaps offline for free, so you won't be caught off guard by a loss of signal in the mountains.

Route planning – from the comfort of your home

Locus Map for Android offers the most advanced route planner, but it’s closely followed by the web planner at web.locusmap.app—which now also lets you edit waypoints, their icons, and labels, and displays them on the map. Planning on a large computer screen simply has its own charm: you can comfortably put together a multi-stage route, add any number of waypoints, and select the appropriate LoRouter profile (bike, walking, and more) for each activity. You can also fine-tune the route calculation parameters for each profile exactly to your liking.

And the best part is that the online LoRouter is free. It’s more than enough to help you plan your vacation from the comfort of your own home. You’ll really appreciate the paid offline LoRouter (Gold) when you’re out in the field with no signal.

If you're not an expert at fine-tuning routing profiles or dealing with complex waypoints, you can easily plan your route in Locus Map Lite on your iPhone or iPad—you'll find a simplified route planner there as well.

All set? Share your route with the whole group

When you’re heading out on vacation with a group, not everyone has to plan the route from scratch. You can simply share the route via a link (URL)—send it to a group chat, and every member of the group can open it on their device with a single click—even those who don’t have Locus Map. The route will open in their web browser. That way, everyone has exactly the same itinerary on their phone, and no one will get lost along the way.

A place to stay straight from the map

Planning your route is one thing, but where will you lay your head each night? Locus Map can help with that, too. For all points of interest (POIs) in the “Accommodations” category, you’ll find a Booking.com button that will redirect you to this popular accommodation portal.

How does it work? The link does not open a specific accommodation listing directly, but launches the Booking.com website or app and enters the name of the POI into the search bar. All you have to do is check availability and prices, then make a reservation.

Geocaching along the way

Geocaching is the perfect way to spice up an active vacation. Locus Map is an official partner of Geocaching.com, so it offers plenty of useful tools for geocachers. You can easily search for caches along your route, download them, let the app navigate you to them, and log your finds both online and offline. Support for waypoints and Pocket Queries is, of course, included.

Think of geocaching as a fun way to spice up your trip—a few caches along the way to the summit or at a rest stop will bring joy and give you the motivation to pedal on, especially for kids.

Offline in the field

Once everything is planned and shared, there’s just one last step: preparing the app for a trip without a signal. Download offline maps, routing data, and planned routes in advance, and Locus Map will guide you seamlessly through even the most remote corners of the countryside. This is where the offline LoRouter from the Premium Gold package comes in handy, as it recalculates your route even without a connection.

Voice-guided navigation along the route is a given, so you don’t even have to take your phone out of your pocket. When cycling with your phone mounted on the handlebars, it’s also handy that the screen turns on automatically at turns so you don’t miss any. Discovering new hidden paths can be an adventure, but you definitely don’t want to end up somewhere in the nettles and swamps—especially with small children. 

While you're out riding, turn on track recording with real-time statistics on speed, elevation, and distance traveled, so you'll have a keepsake of your adventures. And don't forget to take photos! Locus Map can display your photos over the map or in the track details of your trips.

Set out on your active vacation

From the initial inspiration, through route planning and booking accommodations, to navigation on the trail—Locus Map will guide you through your entire active vacation. So what are you waiting for? Open the web planner, plan your next trip by bike or on foot, and set out to explore. Adventures await.

Článek Active Vacations with Locus Map: Biking, Hiking, and Geocaching se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

After two months of intensive work, we bring you again the new version of your favorite outdoor navigation - Locus Map 4.24. In addition to a number of minor fixes and improvements, we of course have a few highlights for you. So let's briefly introduce them:

LoPoints - the most interesting places on the map

As you know, LoPoints are places on the map marked with icons. They are available online and offline and can be displayed on top of any map. LoPoints are clickable - if you click on them, you'll see lots of tourist information about the place, often including a description or photos from Wikipedia. Alternatively, there are photos from users who have visited the location and documented its current appearance. You can view the photos both in the app and on the web, including the user gallery. We continue to deepen this user interactivity with map data, as you can see in the following news:

Ratings and comments

You can now add a review to each LoPoint, consisting of a rating and a few words about what you liked or disliked about the place. The rating is similar to Google Play, that is, the highest praise is for 5 stars, the lowest for one star. You can comment on your rating, add recommendations, tips or warnings for others. Of course, all within the framework of civilized and polite attitude.

1 photo for LoPoint = 1 LoCoin to your account

Do you know what LoCoins are? Yes, that's right, our "virtual currency" with which you can buy maps in the Locus Store, and also purchase Premium features. Until now, LoCoins could only be obtained for money either directly in the Locus Store or on our website. Now, you can also earn them for photos of places you've visited.

The ability to add your own photos to LoPoints to document their current status for other members of the community of hikers and outdoor enthusiasts has been around since last year. From now on, we want to give back at least a little bit for your contributing to a good cause: 

For every approved photo you attach to LoPoint, we'll credit your Locus account with 1 LoCoin.

So for 30 photos of interesting paces you can get a LoMap of Croatia, for 225 photos you can get half of Germany, for 869 photos you can get Premium Silver for a year, and if you are creative enough, for 2099 photos you can get Premium Gold for a year! And that's worth it :).

Track recording just got a little bit better

Another topic for modification has become recording the tracks of your trips and training sessions, which we haven't touched on in a while. We've looked into it a bit more and made two major improvements based on your recommendations:

Lower battery consumption

We've optimized the recording process, cleaned up elements that were putting unnecessary strain on performance, and the result is significantly lower battery power consumption - you can save tens of percent if you use it all day. Even with the display on.

Attention, you are in motion, and you have a paused recording!

Many of you have expressed the wish that it would be good to have a notification in Locus|Map to alert you in the following situations:

• track recording is running, but you have interrupted the activity
• track recording is interrupted but you are moving

And because we're equipping the app according to your wishes, we've added the notifications. You can turn them on or off as needed in the settings of each track recording profile.

Share tracks with photos

Locus Map is bursting with ways to share your track with friends. With a link to the web, export to GPX, KMZ and other formats like HD JPEG with map and detailed stats... The only thing we were missing was a nice "Instagram" picture to share on your social networks.

So we added it, in three versions. You can share the track with the map in the background:

With an image based on the activity on the track:

Or with your own picture, taken during the ride:

Plus, something for geocachers and route planners

Log labs offline

Passionate geocaching players, specializing in lab caches, will also find something for themselves. We've taken Locus' capabilities up a notch again and added the ability for them to log their catches offline, i.e. without the need to be connected to the internet. 

And to save data, you can also set a maximum number of log downloads per cache.

More accurate time estimation on the route

Estimating time on the route is a pretty important factor for many people when planning hiking tours or cycling training trips. So far, time estimation has been very approximate based on general criteria and parameters. Now we introduce the possibility to adjust some factors according to one's own abilities, which makes the time estimation much more precise.

For the "walking" and "hiking" routing profiles, we have added the ability to adjust the default speed on the flat. This becomes the basis for calculating the time estimate, which incorporates other internal parameters such as elevation, gradient angle, and surface type. These are already taken by the application from routing and elevation data. The default speed can be set between 2 - 12 km/h, so even recreational runners can use it.

Road cyclists, on the other hand, measure their abilities mainly by power in watts, which they monitor with wattmeters on their bikes or trainers. When the personal power value is defined as the basis for calculating the time estimate on the route, we immediately get much more accurate results. There is a range from 60 to 240 W of average rider power:

Finally, something for geeks

It wouldn't be Locus Map if we didn't have something in reserve for the enjoyment of tech-savvy users. As you know, Locus Map can work with the BRouter offline router. This can be set up as an alternative to our LoRouter if you want to use your own routing profiles. We have now made it possible to set all supported parameters of these custom profiles in Locus Map. But how to work with them and how to get them into Locus is for another blog post, so another time.

Enjoy the summer!

Header photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash

Článek New Locus Map 4.24: review your favorite places and take photos for LoCoins! se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

On March 1, a message appeared on Twitter that Viewranger, our very strong competing app, had been shut down by its new owner, Outdooractive. VR users are now forced to use the Outdooractive application. However, not everyone is satisfied with the upgrade, so they are looking for an alternative. Many turn to us and want to know what Locus Map can do. This article is intended primarily for those.

Locus Map is what you are looking for

The Viewranger was great and inspired us in many ways. That's why you can find in Locus Map more or less everything you used in Viewranger. Whether it's basics like activity recording, route planning, navigation, use of various maps… or specialties like Live Tracking (similar to  VR’s “Buddy Beacon”), augmented reality (similar to popular “Skyline”), or wearables support (Wear OS, Tizen, and Garmin).

Let's look at each item in more detail:

Activity recording

All your outdoor activities can be recorded in Locus. Just select the type of activity and press the start button. This is available not only directly in the app on the main screen, but also in the widget or an add-on in the smartwatch.

When recording, the application generates a number of statistics. In addition to the parameters obtained from GPS (length, speed, time, elevation…), it also records data from connected sensors - heart rate, cadence, power, etc. This data can be displayed directly above the map on the so-called dashboard:

Each activity has its own record profile, which can be customized in great detail. You can have an unlimited number of profiles for different types of activities.

The records are stored in a database in an application that synchronizes with the cloud and the web library.

Route planning

You can plan routes directly in the application via the planner, with or without an internet connection. If you prefer a large PC monitor, you can plan routes in the web planner. The route from it is automatically synchronized with all devices in which you have Locus Map installed.

Route planning is also performed using profiles in which you select the type of activity - according to it, the router selects the appropriate types of routes, surfaces, and elevation of the route. Of course, there is a manual mode for planning routes outside the mapped routes or the option to have a complete round trip designed - just enter the direction and distance.

Navigation

You can navigate in Locus in several ways. The first option is along an already prepared route - planned in the planner, imported from elsewhere, or previously recorded. Furthermore, the navigation destination can be specified directly on the map and Locus plans a route to it according to the entered criteria.

Another option that you will appreciate, especially in open terrain without roads, is beeline guidance to the target. The method is especially popular among geocachers.

Choose a map according to your needs

Locus Map offers as a default a hiking/biking map of the whole world - LoMap. It is based on OSM data and can be used online and offline. In addition to map data, it also contains dynamic LoPoints, offline addresses, and elevation data.

Like the Viewranger, also Locus Map offers maps from a number of other providers - Kompass, Outdooractive (DE), Freytag-Berndt (A), IGN (FR, BE), USGS, Neotreks / Accuterra (USA), Ordnance Survey (UK), and also lots of freely accessible online maps based on OSM.

Ordnance Survey maps

Most of the Viewranger users we spoke to use OS maps. We also have them in our Locus Store, in 140 offline packages, covering the whole of the UK. Maps are not subscribed as in Viewranger but are purchased individually for one-time payments. Each package contains two map layers - Landranger and Explorer - in several zooms.

We can offer you also Ordnance Survey OpenData maps combined with OSM data, Rowmaps, and Core Path maps in JohnThornMaps covering the whole UK.

Live Tracking is the new Buddy Beacon

You can share real-time location with family and friends using Live Tracking. It works both mutually - between individual Locus users - and one-way - the location from Locus in the mobile is displayed on the website.

You can share your location publicly or in a private group. You can create groups and invite other participants, you can also chat in them and send points of interest to each other.

Use a smart watch

You can also use Locus Map in conjunction with a smartwatch. We support Wear OS, Tizen (older Samsung watches), and Garmin platforms.

In all cases, Locus Map is the main application on the mobile phone and the watch adds an auxiliary add-on that displays your location on the map, navigation commands and you can also use it to control the track recording.

Where is Skyline?

You can also try out the popular augmented reality feature with Locus, using the Augmented Reality for Locus Map add-on. In principle, it works similarly to Skyline, but before turning it on, you must first turn on the LoPoint view and highlight the mountain peaks in Locus.

Can I customize Locus Map?

Yes, in many ways.

Starting at the main screen, which can be adapted for right-handers and left-handers, you can adjust the visibility of all the main buttons, as well as the function buttons in the sidebars.

You can set the style of routes at all the levels - for the whole application, route folders, navigation, route recording, and in the planner.

Customize the number and layout of items in the main menu, set units, coordinate systems, auxiliary graphics, coordinate grid, even the appearance and size of map and navigation cursors.

What do I need to pay extra for in Locus?

The application is in the basic version after downloading from the Google Play Store for FREE. It basically contains everything you need for everyday outdoor use - track recording, route planner, navigation, cycling/hiking map of the world online, and much more.

You can extend the functionality and remove restrictions on some features of the application by purchasing Premium Silver and Gold packages.

Premium Silver offers a larger map screen without ads and includes a suite of features for sports use as an audio coach or sensor connection manager. There is also a package of map tools for calibration, overlays, and map offsets.

Premium Gold offers maximum - all functions including data synchronization with the cloud, built-in offline router, all offline LoMaps of the world, satellite map, live tracking with private groups, etc.

Detailed comparison of premium plans can be found HERE >>

Maps of our commercial partners are not included in Premium packages. So everyone can buy just the map they really need.

Welcome to Locus Map!

Článek Viewrangers, welcome! se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

The snowdrops are slowly blooming out, out are crocuses, daffodils, and tulips. And also bear garlic! Even the trees and shrubs are discretely sprouting fresh green. You also have more time for yourself, and your loved ones these days. So use it to discover places where you haven't been together before. Locus Map will help you.

Find your destination

So where to go? You want to avoid notorious locations - castles, lookout towers, pubs ... that's all passé. But there are so many beautiful places in your immediate vicinity that few people know about. Geocaching helps you find them! It is common knowledge that geocachers hide their treasures in places that are always somehow interesting. And they often don't lie on busy roads and paths. These may be interesting viewpoints, naturally, historically or otherwise important sites, whose fame has long passed, but thanks to geocaching they have not been completely forgotten. And you can cope with it with basic free membership - it's not about the game, it's more about the inspiration .

So, if you don't already play geocaching, download Geocaching4Locus to discover undiscovered!

How to get there?

Here again Locus Map offers its services. To get to your destination, have a look in LoMaps, you can start guidance to it or turn by turn navigation - Locus Map will find the right route based on how you travel. Are you walking? Locus will use a network of marked and unmarked paths and trails. Or by bike? Locus offers navigable paths and cycle routes. The choice is yours, you can let the app design the route completely or you can plan it in detail in the Route Planner - we strongly recommend it if you want to visit multiple destinations on your trip.

Record your trip

Do you want to know where you went on the trip, what distance and elevation gain you walked? And do you want to show it to your pals on the internet? Just record it. Start track recording as soon as you go, Locus Map will follow your every step. You can track current distance and other track statistics either directly in the track recording panel or on the dashboard - Locus Map works like a cycling computer with it, even without having to sit on a bike :)

Let others know where you're roaming

Share your current location with other family members or friends so they don't worry about you. Locus Map can do this in several ways. If you're really alone, just use My LIVE Location - Locus Map will show your location on a simple map web page. Send the link to it to who you want. If there are more of you and you set out on a trip separately in terms of the necessary social distancing, use Live tracking - use it to track the location of all members of your scattered group.

Plan a bike route to your work

Temperatures are becoming more and more tolerable, so you can go to work on a bike in the morning. If you've never taken a bike to work before, it's high time to start :). You are in the fresh air, a bit of physical effort gets your blood circulating before you enter your office, and last but not least, you avoid the crowds in the public transport. Locus Map and its Route planner will tell you where to go best. When you draw a route, choose a bike profile, and the route will be drawn along bike trails and streets with less traffic. Be sure to watch also the climb on the elevation profile shown.

Enjoy spring in health!

Photos of Tamara Garcevic and Jorik Kleen, Unsplash

Článek Spring is waking up, enjoy it with Locus Map se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

The summer is in full swing and we are publishing a brand new version of your most favourite app. Again, it contains tens of fixes and small improvements, but also a few major enhancements we developed according to your ideas:

More accurate trip planning with new estimated time box

When you plan a trip, a workout route or a bike ride, you usually tell Locus a few facts - what activity you are going to do on the route and what particular places you need to visit. Locus measures the length of the planned route, shows its elevation chart and calculated elevation gain so you can imagine what your trip will look like. Now, it can show your how long it will take!

The estimated time box you can find in the bottom bar of the Route planner:

The time is calculated by a new algorithm delivered by our routing partners GraphHopper and BRouter, interpolated with your average speed of selected activity.

New clear and simple Live Tracking manager

We are going on improving our real time location sharing service - Live Tracking. As we had hinted last time, we've been preparing a brand new screen of Live Tracking manager:

Now you can:

• clearly distinguish among your defined Live Tracking profiles
• simply start and stop them
• see how many active people are in selected rooms
• quickly enter livetracking chat in selected rooms

Simple Locus Store log in without contacts permission

Many of you have wondered why on Earth Locus needs contacts permission. Locus doesn't need to know your contacts - it just needed your Google or Facebook account e-mail for Locus Store identification. Nevertheless, Android has this permission in a bulk with contacts so we spent hours explaining that it is not our fault.

Hurray, Locus doesn't need to know your email any longer, nor does it need the "contacts permission".

Login to Locus Store is now processed directly by Google or Facebook:

Enjoy your summer adventures with the new Locus Map!

Photo by Kay Liedl on Unsplash

Článek Plan your trips according to the length of your time with new Locus Map 3.32 se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

Bone shattering freezes are over, snows are slowly melting, we wake up with first rays of sunshine... Winter season is coming to its end. Time to plan first hiking trips! However, early spring weather can be pretty nasty so what information do we need the most? Obviously, it's the weather forecast. Plus, sunset time for proper trip timing. Locus Map offers both!

If you don't like rainy hikes, weather forecast is a must

Locus Map offers 7 day weather forecast in 3-hour intervals for any place in the whole world. It is powered by DarkSky.net and is available in Pro version of the app:

By default, Locus displays weather forecast for the place you're in at the moment. Nevertheless, you can choose another location. You've got a wide selection of options: online/offline address search, your database of points of interest, you can show it on map, insert coordinates etc.:

or select some of previously chosen places:

The weather forecast consists of a few layers of details. Firstly, there's an overall view of today and next days. Each day can be unfolded into a detailed, 3-hour interval forecast of all necessary meteorological parameters:

Additionally, you can preview the forecast on a simple meteograph:

Mind the sunset time so that you can enjoy your trip in daylight

Hiking in the dark is not much even with a head torch. Moreover, it gets colder very quickly after dusk so it's recommended to know when the sun sets and adjust your trip planning to it. Sunrise and sunset times can be displayed on two places in Locus Map:

1) it's part of the weather forecast:

2) it can be displayed in the topbar of the main screen:

Now, you've got the basics - the weather - adjust your gear according to it, plan your hike by it and don't underestimate anything. And enjoy your first spring stay outdoors!

Title photo by @paulgilmore_

Článek Planning early spring trips? Only with decent weather forecast! se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

It's not so long ago when we informed here about the release of 3.19 version, full of changes, fixes, and above all, new maps of U.S. Nevertheless, we had something left in a drawer so we decided to release another version right after two weeks. 3.20, again, is mainly about new maps, this time of Europe and Middle East.

Kompass is not Compass

Two different map publishers, first seated in Innsbruck (AT), second in Krakow (PL). Phonetically indistinguishable names may be confusing but each company provides map coverage of different areas:

Kompass

One of the biggest European cartographic publishing houses offers in Locus digital maps of Austria, Germany, northern and middle Italy, Sardinia, Corsica and other areas. See the mapsheet overview:

The maps excel in  clean and clear drawing and are zoomable in several levels. They display marked hiking paths, cycling routes and symbols of tourist facilities and attractions. Kompass maps are available in the form of offline packages, containing particular map area, furthermore, it's possible to define your own custom map crop and zooms.

[caption id="attachment_9897" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Via Ferratas at Lago di Garda[/caption]

Compass

Traditional Polish hiking maps producer has prepared almost whole portfolio of their maps for Locus, including the most attractive locations of Poland and partially also of western Ukraine. The maps are available in individual map packets:

Maps are drawn in one scale, basically 1:50 000, and other zooms are, therefore,  rendered as its augmentations, respectively diminutions. Anyway, the maps are structured very nicely and in great detail. They contain network of marked hiking and cycling routes, horse-riding routes and sailing routes on the big lakes of the North. Of course, complete tourist facilities and natural and architectural attractions list is included.

[caption id="attachment_9898" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Beskid Makowski mountains[/caption]

Hiking for free in Israel

Very accurate and detailed hiking maps of the lands of our biblical predecessors are provided by the Israelhiking map server. The maps are based on OpenStreetMap and include also terrain shading. The map covers complete area of the state of Israel including Gaza strip and the West Bank:

The map is available in Locus Store in three versions - hiking, MTB and hiking trails network without background that can be displayed above any other map of the area through the  Map overlay function. All maps can be downloaded to offline for free.

[caption id="attachment_9899" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Hiking map[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_9900" align="aligncenter" width="350"] MTB map[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_9901" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Hiking trails for overlay[/caption]

That's all about maps and now let's talk about some news in the app control:

Finally, routepoints/viapoints distinguished when drawing a route!

The problematics of points creating a route in Locus may seem a bit tricky - Locus as a global app reflects a few approaches at once and not always it's simple to tackle them right and to explain everything precisely. Many of you were puzzled by the bunch of icons above the route points after manual drawing without router's assistance. We had no clue how many users draw routes point by point and primarily we promoted the option of router-assisted route drawing planning. However, upon your numerous requests we re-assessed our approach and the result is as follows:

• a normal manually inserted route point that is depicted as a green dot on the line during the drawing is left WITHOUT any highlighting when the route is saved. Such a route point tells Locus just to "draw the line this way" and it doesn't matter if you draw the route with or without router's assistance. Navigation along the route announces in this case only direction changes and distances (e.g. "after 200 meters turn right") and when recalculating the route with the point priority the route is directed right to the final point.
• if you want to insert a point with some additional information to the route, like "good pub" or "my buddy's cabin", and want Locus to navigate you through this place (viapoint) even when the route is recalculated, add it with the + button and then tap it with your finger again - the green dot turns BLUE and the point is ready for further editing.Save the route, icons with arrow show above the "blue" points.Tap to select the point, choose "edit" and you can change its name.If you have TTS (text-to-speech) set in your voice navigation, the voice notifies you of such a point (e.g. "after 200 meters good pub"). Of course, other navigation commands remain the same.

As you know, that's not all - other changes and improvements are listed in  the changelog that can be viewed from the main menu > about app.

Enjoy!

Článek Map avalanche is rolling on – Locus Map 3.20 is here! se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.