This weekend we did a little Trip to Groningen (Holland). Shopping, Coffee, relaxing… I thought it would be a good idea to use Google Maps “MyMaps” Feature and collect some “Points of Interesst” before starting the Trip. So i added some placemarks to the Groningen Map and sent the link to my iPhone.

… trying to open that Google Maps generated Link on my iPhone opened Google Maps but did not show any of the Placemarks i placed. Hmmm, ok, let’s try to export an KML File and open that… Error. Na, nothing, just the Map, but without any Placemarks. Diggin’ a little deeper i learned that Google Maps on the iPhone doesn’t support KML Files (even it did prior to v2.0). Even there’s a little Hack by changing the original Google Maps URL and redirect to the KML File stored on your own Webspace i could not make it work.

I ended up in taking a Screenshot and adding it to my iPhone Photos… but, well, as you maybe know they get scaled down, resulting in a pixelated Map of Groningen with no Chance to read a single Street Name. Lovely. So back to good-old printed Street Maps.

p.s.: i’m aware that Applications like Nearby allow you to create own Maps with Placemarks, but i was looking for a solution to access that Maps without any further Roaming Costs when accessing it in a foreign Country, something like a cached Map or even a static Screenshot one.

UPDATE: Thanks to Tim i now have a working Solution for the next Trip: http://adlr.info/mymaps-iphone.html