We have a first-time trip to Paris coming up in the near future. I’ve got AppleMaps and GoogleMaps on my phone.
It seems like a good thing while we’re at home, surrounded by guide books and travelogues and web sites, would be to save all the points of interest that we want to see. And then when we get there, we’d just bring up a map with all our pins stuck in it…making navigation from where we are to where we want to go a simple matter. No need to search, or try to remember names of restaurants.
Google maps lets you create a list of specific saved places. Particularly handy for vacations, because they’re separated out from your pinned hardware store location or whatever.
I think I failed to grasp until this moment, that I don’t need to specifically save “my map of Paris”. I can put a pin (now that I know how…thank you) in the map of Paris now, and when I get there and pull of a map of my environs…lo and behold, my pins will still be there.
Not that it’s hard to find this information, but make sure your map app includes all the metro lines, bus routes, etc., so you don’t have to walk everywhere.
Good tip. I just tried it out on my phone, and it gave me public transit directions for Eiffel Tower to Palace of Versailles. It’s a 39 minute ride with one transfer; the next bus leaves in 15 minutes.
On Android, Google has an offline maps option where you can download a region and navigate without network access. No real-time info, of course, but all streets and Points of Interest are there. I suspect the IOS version has a similar feature, don’t know.
Used the feature extensively recently in Mexico when I did not bother to set up an international plan (from my US-based service.)
Offline/no real-time would mean that you’ve basically got a paper map on your phone, right? Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
I had forgotten about the international roaming aspects. On my last trip abroad, a day spent roaming around Copenhagen looking at my phone burned through my data plan for the whole trip. I should probably talk to my carrier.
Except that the GPS is still functional, you know where you are. My android phone will also give you driving directions but, for some reasons, won’t provide walking directions offline.
If I needed any real-time data, I’d spring for the local SIM card, the international roaming option from your carrier (for short trips) or, as KneadToKnow mentions, a burner phone, I did not need that as offline maps got me where I needed to be without a problem.
Your iPhone XR is eSIM compatible so I suggest searching online for a service provider that offers whatever data plan you’re looking for. Personally, I like Ubigi because I’ve found them to be the most reliable and fairly inexpensive. I don’t know how much data you need but, for example, they have a France-only plan that gives you 3GB for 30 days for $12. (It said France only but I was able to connect in neighbouring Belgium and Luxembourg.)
This is true, regardless of whether you have data or not on an iPhone. I’ve downloaded google maps for use off-line (on my iPhone) many times when we travel. You can google how to download the maps, it’s pretty simple.
From a usage POV, it’s the exact same as if you’re online.You see your little dot moving along the street etc. It still provides turn by turn driving directions, walking directions or transit.
You can still search for POI’s, and find them but sometimes it’s not as good since it only matches your search to exactly what’s the data you downloaded. So if you get the restaurant name slightly off it can’t find it. When you use it and you’re online it’s also cross referencing your mis-spelled searches with the internet to help you find the restaurant.
Unless something has changed recently, Apple Maps does not allow for off-line usage.
Google works well and if you’re comfortable using the interface then stick with it, but there are lots of map apps that do this.
The only issues we’ve had (which you also might) is that when you’re walking around among tall buildings in a city, most GPS’s don’t work super well. The signals bounce around. When you have data it also uses the cell towers to help it be more accurate. You may find yourself walking out to open areas to try to get a better.
My suggestion is to download your local map from where you live now and then switch your phone to airplane mode then play around with it and make sure you’re good with it. I wouldn’t wait until I was walking out of the hotel in Paris to try it.
Unless your provider offers a killer deal on international service, you can just buy a SIM card in the first Orange or SFR shop you encounter and have the English-speaking kid pop it into your phone if you don’t know how. I commonly pay around €20 for a few gigs of data and a month of service. Lots of places they’ll be sold in the airport, including from vending machines.
For places I don’t plan to be very long, or Japan and Korea where Google Maps can’t be stored offline, I instead use maps.me, which are offline maps (based on OpenStreetMap data) by default. One thing I really like about maps.me is that I can set a point (such as my lodgings) and my phone will point which way it is, and the distance. In most cities, I prefer rambling in a general direction to being given turn-by-turn walking directions, particularly in parts of the world where streets are unnamed or where I can’t read the signs.
Highly recommend first Orange and this option. I was in Paris two years ago and paid about what you did for a week of internet, text, and phone (it was really 14 days, but I was only there for a week).
However, I ordered the SIM online before I went so I wasn’t looking for shops once I got there.
I did have an issue. After I popped the new SIM in after landing, phone and text worked, but internet did not. I had to go online that evening (at the hotel, through the hotel wireless) and change a couple of internal settings on the phone. You also get a new # for that time period and have to text your family and friends so they can reach you.