For my Luddite Travelers

Good advice, especially the screenshot. But a true Luddite would not use an app . . . Or a smartphone for that matter.

. . . or a computer.

But a true Luddite would not use an app . . . Or a smartphone for that
matter.

That would be me! Yep, still using paper maps and love 'em.
And we do not (yet) own Smart Phones!

A real luddite would only have a suitcase full of clogs to throw into the machinery of industry.

But more seriously I only recently found Rome2Rio and it is great. I was using it to look at buses in Provence that only run later in the year so current results show no bus routes but they will be there in-season in June and July.

And when using Google maps (which has a really good public transportation tab display) remember that it is in real time for wherever you're searching so if you don't see any busses remember it may be 2:00am there when you're searching.

Also Loco2.com is great English site for train tickets across Europe and works better than some of the official websites and charges the same prices. (I'm looking at you Renfe.)

Probably repeating what everyone knows but Rome2rio would have been new to me a few weeks ago!

Happy planning everyone!
=Tod

It is amazing that some of us actually made it to and from Europe forty years ago with no problems. The only adjustment we have made (because our sons insisted on it) is to carry an ipad and check email in the evening.

I reference Rome2Rio every chance I get - for first layer research. For research you want to know what is happening some months away so schedules and pricing wasn't perfect but you could find out who provided services of choice and double check there.
I appreciate this thread, as it looks like for 'real time' it is a better resource - in app form. Good to know. Thanks.
(since I am a partial Luddite, I am sure I would look beforehand and transfer the details to a piece of paper, or use one of numerous coloured highlighters and mark the route on a paper map.)

Using GoogleMaps or Rome2Rio makes traveling so much easier and faster. I can get around Europe on my own, but when i started using GoogleMaps a few years ago it was amazing. It’s also indispensible for me here in my daily life.

People managed without a lot of things before they were discovered or invented, but tools can make life easier.

Is Rome2Rio better than, or the same as, GoogleMaps?

I use maps.me for navigation - works offline, and gives amazing level of detail (such as where the next bench, water fountain or trashcan is), and "metro 01" for the trains. Yes, it's two apps, but theyre very light, and both work offline.

I am all about my phone and electronic devices, but I sometimes think the old days were better. Forty years ago I just bought the plane ticket and the rail pass and flew to Europe. At each town we’d go to the AYF youth hostel, or go to Tourist info and they’d hook us up with a place to stay, In a couple towns, Salzburg for example, a woman walked up to us in the station and rounded up Americans and took us to her guesthouse. I spent 0 time planning. I did buy a Let’s Go.

I suppose I could do the same today? It would involve giving up control, though.

I hear you Mary - I first trvelled in Europe in 1977. Independent at the age of 17, for 3 months I just went wherever I felt like going next, with no plan or accommodation booked. Have to admit, though, that I missed many things I had been virtually standing next to, but didn't know about.

These days I use aps and offline maps just to make life easier, but it does mean that I hardly ever talk to anyone else, because I dont have to. Which is a pity.

Please, please, please be careful using Rome2Rio. It's often my first stop to see what form of transportation I need to get from A to B, but I've found the travel times, frequencies and fares are often way off base. You really need to dig down and find the name of the rail and bus companies providing service and go to their websites to get accurate schedule and fare information.

If I already know I'm going to need to depend on a bus, I usually just Google bus CityA to CityB.

I have never tried to use Rome2Rio for travel around one city, so I don't know how well that works. I'd prefer to use an app or website belonging to the local transit authority, though.

Speaking of luddite, I have no idea how to save a screen shot on my smartphone. I suppose I could Google that...

For Paris travel, I strongly recommend Citimapper which I have found to be superior even to the RATP´s own app.

Googlemaps is fine for walking around but for public transportation, googlemaps has many drawbacks, accuracy being one of the more noticeable deficiencies.

acraven, a screen shot goes automatically to your photos. You don’t have to do anything to save it.

Tocard, i have been using GoogleMaps for public transportation in Paris for years with zero problems.

"I have never tried to use Rome2Rio for travel around one city, so I don't know how well that works."

For fun on a dull today I tried point to point addresses in Paris. Some were good, some not so. Many metro changes were made in the gares and Chatelet which sane people try to avoid. RERs were also widely used when a metro would handle the situation nicely. Bus transfers I tried were missed completely.

Google maps, apps, a smart phone.... I don't use any of them traveling in Europe, especially in Germany, when I am doing solo traveling.

With the Mrs. it's a different story when traveling with her, she uses the Smartphone.

If it weren't for the insistence of the Mrs, I would dispense with carrying my flip cell phone in Europe...a nuisance.. when out and about.

Let me re-phrase: As a Luddite, I don't know how to take a screen shot on my smartphone.

Can't stop thinking about a chocolate donut...

acraven, on an iPhone you push the power off button and at the same time push the home button.

Alas, I have an Android phone. Guess I'll have to resort to Google! Google knows all.

Scythian, thanks for mentioning the connection between openstreetmaps.org and maps.me. I've noted positive comments about both of them on the forum and was considering switching from CityMaps2GoPro. Now I have more reason to do so.

acraven, it’s true, Google does know all... 😂

Gosh I guess we are true ludittes - we don’t use any apps lol

In Paris I just google for a metro map , look at it , and take those trains , I can figure out easily enough how to get from point a to b that way .

Google says -- for Android press power button and "home" button at the same time. I did a screenshot of that for when I forget it again.

scythian, very good story!

Kathy and Zebec at Thermopylae.
I am done. The end.

Thanks, Laura.

@ angelina521....Count me in as one of those Luddite travelers when I am traveling solo, especially in Germany.