If you're an amateur like me there's one thing you can/should do with no downside: download the area you're going to using Google Maps offline feature.
It's not super detailed in backcountry but it will have major trails, major/minor bodies of water, and it will let you leave little GPS breadcrumbs for yourself when offline.
On weekend trips this has definitely made me more comfortable and it requires no skills.
It's highly variable and depends on region but I've found that particularly when it comes to hiking trails, OpenStreetMap blows Google Maps out of the water. In my area there are tons of little paths in the forests that are on OSM and none of the other mainstream mapping services.
On Android, OSMAnd is really good and there's also Maps.me. There are open-source versions of both on F-Droid as well.
I don't even bother using google maps for european alps, only for car navigation (online). Its vastly superior, so many hiking trails and other interesting things (like abandoned buildings/temporary sheds) are well documented, and usually pretty accurate. I've done tons of hikes to places I've never visited before, met nobody and just planned whole trip based in presence of those trails. Not a single disappointment.
Personally I use View Ranger on Android which is free and uses OSM maps. I 'preload' it offline by just looking at the whole area online (maybe there is some preload of a block/circle but I've never needed that, its default cache is enough for even 2 week hiking). I don't even bother with GPX trails, just follow the visible trails and decide on spot.
> On Android, OSMAnd is really good and there's also Maps.me.
Imo if you're a outdoor user on Android you should try out Locus Maps. I've used them with the downloads from openandromaps. Imo no other program comes close in terms of capabilities.
Hiker/backpacker here. If you're doing anything more than a short walk in a city park, don't use Google Maps. Upgrade to either AllTrails or Gaia GPS and pay the subscription fee that allows you to download offline maps. (I use both.) Without going into a full review of each, I'll just say that I wouldn't dream of doing any kind of hike without them. The difference between Google Maps and a dedicated mapping app is like the difference between, say, Notepad and VSCode.
All trails is constantly trying to mine data off the mobile device to facebook and other analytics services. I have premium membership and I will only use their website.
I will usually take screenshots of the aerial maps of an area I'm going to hunt - it's not usually a large area, so you don't need that many, and aerial photos detect important features for navigating through heavy bush (like a bluff line, or gorges/canyons on small streams) that aren't shown on our topographical maps - our topos only go down to 1:50000, would love to have 1:24000 like in the article or the British 1:25000 "Explorer" maps.
I've also used Google Earth for similar reasons - taking screenshots of the hillside I'm hunting from different angles, and the sun simulator in it is very helpful as well when planning a hunt on a cold morning. Being able to simulate what areas get the sun first at sunrise helps predict where the animals will be.
I've found OsmAnd (app version of open street maps) to be pretty darn good. Especially when traveling and needing an offline maps.
Don't treat it like Google Maps were you can mistype an address and Google will return what you expected.
What is even more underrated is mapy.cz, and select the "outdoor" layer. The Czechs are crazy for outdoor activities and they have the best maps online IMHO.
Are you in the US? I use OnX maps for hunting. It's got hybrid topo + satellite and a variety of tools for e.g. dropping pins, measuring distances, measuring areas, recording your trail. It also has private land ownership information at a very detailed level (if I zoom in on my house, I see my name marked on the lot).
Afraid not, I'm a New Zealander, but I have just purchased a similar app for here - although it doesn't show land boundaries, but that's generally not a problem as I only really hunt on conservation (government) land well away from private land.
It's not super detailed in backcountry but it will have major trails, major/minor bodies of water, and it will let you leave little GPS breadcrumbs for yourself when offline.
On weekend trips this has definitely made me more comfortable and it requires no skills.