Smart Phone Use and Apps when traveling?

[Pauline]

I tried Waze on this trip but it said “could not connect to server”. I’ll try it again tomorrow on our drive to the airport.

I travel with my Garmin GPS which I like and am familiar with. On this trip I tipurned it on and it thought we were in the US! I can’t get it to work. The car has a GPS so I used that but it took awhile to figure it out.

 

[artnbarb]

I don't think it's worth bringing our Garmin GPS with us - space is limited, the unit is VERY outdated, and even if our rental car has GPS, I think I'm going to rely on Google maps or Waze.

I agree that figuring out the car GPS can be quite challenging! You'd think it would all be standardized by now!

We'll be driving in Ireland, Yorkshire, Sussex and to/from Munich-Austria. And I still have a paper map for each location!

 

[BryanS]

I tried Waze on this trip but it said “could not connect to server”. I’ll try it again tomorrow on our drive to the airport.

Pauline, try turning on your data package

 

[Pauline]

Data is turned on. I’ve been using my phone for data a lot on this trip.

 

[BryanS]

I thought you could use a chuckle before heading to the airport. Safe travels!

 

[Pauline]

In the car driving to Milan Linate and Waze is working.

 

[CaWino]

I just returned from my first trip to New York City and highly recommend the app Citymapper for navigating and travel with public transportation. It was a real lifesaver, robust in features, and easy to use. The subway system can be daunting but Citymapper was a big help. It provided travel options, recommendations, number of stops, where to get off etc. It is available for most of the world's major cities.

 

[Peabody]

I highly recommend Google Fi cell phone service if you travel overseas. The service is $20 per month and $10 per gig of data with full reimbursement for data you do not use. When travelling oveseas, there is no additional fee for text or data and a per minute fee for calls. The rates are even cheaper for calls if you use their Google Hangouts Dialer app for calls through Google Voice.

The only downside is that you have to buy one of their phones that is compatible with their service.

https://fi.google.com/about/rates/
https://www.google.com/voice/rates

I second this recommendation. Google Fi has saved me a small fortune.

 

[lubeceo]

If you are travelling with a group of companions by cars I would recommend Zello. It's a very good way to communicate with each other in a group conversation through mobile internet (it doesn't use lots of mobile data). It works like walkie talkie and helped us during our trip, when needed to decide which places to visit or where to stop.