[OSM-newbies] Using osm offline?

[a_snail]

In my case I have a Garmin GPS which I regularly download large areas for
from:
http://openmtbmap.org/download/

If your not based in Europe, this page might be better
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download

One thing to watch out for is different downloads are optimised for
different things, so in my case I download the walking and cycling ones,
which would be next to useless for you in a car given the routing would take
you down paths.

Not all POI are included, but that is also the case when you view a mapnik
or osmarender map in http://www.openstreetmap.org/

I'm sure there are downloads for other GPS devices in the Wiki with a bit of
searching.

Hope that helps or at least points you in the direction your after


-----Original Message-----
From: newbies-bounces at openstreetmap.org
[mailto:newbies-bounces at openstreetmap.org] On Behalf Of My Forwik
Sent: 31 August 2010 11:27
To: newbies at openstreetmap.org
Subject: [OSM-newbies] Using osm offline?

I would like to use OSM offline on a huge road trip I am going to take. I
would like to be able to:
-view map at all zoom levels
-search based on street name / location
-display POI's in the area
-a routing engine would be nice too.

The area I will need the map off is about 4,000km by 2,000km.

I have been scrapping the tiles and using the earth.osm xml to search for
names, all viewed in a web broswer using a little javascript, but I'd rather
not reinvent the wheel.

Its all abit overwhelming as to where to start due to the number of tools
and programs. What sort of setup would you recommend?