Open a Strava route or activity in Google Maps, Google Earth or Apple Maps

"Export Strava route to Google Maps" is one of the most searched phrases in this whole topic, and the honest first line is: Google Maps does not import routes. Not GPX, not anything. What people mean is one of two other Google products, and both work.

Google My Maps: the one that works

My Maps is Google's tool for making your own maps, and it imports GPX.

• On strava.com, open the route and use the download arrow → GPX. For an activity, use the more menu → Export GPX instead.
• Open Google My Maps in a browser, create a new map, and use Import on a layer. Pick the GPX.

The line appears on Google's map, and because My Maps lives in your Google account, the saved map shows up in the Google Maps app on your phone under your saved maps. That is as close to "Strava in Google Maps" as it gets, and for showing someone where you went it is plenty.

It will not navigate you turn by turn. My Maps displays a line; Google Maps navigates between addresses. If you want turn-by-turn on a phone, that is a bike computer or a navigation app with GPX import, not Google.

Google Earth: the one for looking at it

Google Earth opens GPX files directly and drapes the line over 3D terrain. For a mountain route, a fell run or anything with a view, it is the most satisfying way to look at a file on a screen. Export the same GPX from Strava and open it in Earth — no conversion needed, though Earth is also happy with KML if a tool gives you that instead.

Apple Maps: no

Apple Maps has no import for route files. There is nothing to work around; the feature does not exist. On an iPhone the options are Google My Maps in the browser, Google Earth, or a third-party app that reads GPX. The phone workaround covers getting the file out of Strava on the phone in the first place.

The other reason people search this

Often the wish behind "see it in Google Maps" is simpler: to see the route by itself, bigger, cleaner, without Strava's interface around it. For that you do not need a map product at all. Drop the GPX into the configurator and it is drawn as a single line, at poster size, in your browser — with or without a map underneath. That version is the one that ends up on a wall; the Google versions are the ones that end up in a group chat.

Both start with the same export. The activity export and the route export are on different pages in Strava — check which one you are looking at before hunting for the button.