We just returned from a trip to Scotland and while we managed pretty well for the most part with google maps, I was left wishing I had looked for a better source for walking directions. We could have saved our feet a bit if we'd been able to know which green spaces you could cut through vs which were private or if there was a shopping arcade we could walk through instead of around the block.
Which apps do you all use for walking directions for day to day use or travel? Which work offline as well as online? I had a phone plan, but in Glasgow I couldn't get service at all for some reason, so having those offline maps really helped.
I'd be interested to know if you also have favored apps for public transportation directions. Google isn't super reliable there either, they just don't show or don't know enough of the options for me. I downloaded the app associated with a specific region (Lothian bus app, for example) but if there is an app that people find useful in multiple regions, I would love to look into it. Thanks all! My travels have all been made so much better thanks to the smart and thoughtful posters in these forums!
Posted by
SoCal
1849 posts
Citymapper is excellent for walking and public transit directions in urban areas, but it's useless in the sticks.
Posted by
Chicagoland
864 posts
I'm another Citymapper fan, but it's not going to help out in the boonies. Sometimes you really need a paper map.
Posted by
UK (London - Chelsea Harbour)
338 posts
Citymapper is fine… in the city. As with any transpo app, you should download a few and then check directions from point to point on each of them. I live in London and don’t usually need directions in the countryside, but in London I use and compare the TFL app, Bus London, Google, and Citymapper when route finding for a destination within the city with which I am not familiar. This applies all over… multiple apps will return multiple results, and you can research and then choose the most efficient route.
Because transpo apps use realtime data for the moment you are searching, they won’t serve you every option: that can include not serving you the shortest, cleanest, easiest trip - because at that exact moment in time, there’s a wrinkle you didn’t anticipate. The more apps you check, the liklier you are to find the optimum route.
A few years ago, a good friend used Google to get from a pub to their AirBNB (about 7 miles away from the pub in the heart of the Cotswolds). She wound up on a cow path through a field that required fording a watercress-clogged stream and climbing a steepish incline. If she’d searched with another app, she might have avoided the mishap.
For walks in the country, the old Ordnance Survey maps cannot be beat: https://shop.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/maps/os-explorer-maps/ They show every stile, spinney, footpath, car park, contour line, campsite, pub, and more. They’re seriously wonderful.
Posted by
France Southwest
2957 posts
Citymapper is excellent in cities. While waiting for buses, I've found it's much more reliable than Google Maps for local public transportation.
On foot, whether in the city or the countryside, I use OsmAnd for walks and hikes.
It works with very accurate and detailed open-source maps. You can pre-download a map of an entire country. So, there's no data usage once you're there.
The main features are free, and you can download several country maps for free (at least 5 if I remember correctly).
There's also Here Wego, also free and with pre-downloadable maps.
This is the system and maps that equip most GPS devices in car navigation systems worldwide.
On foot, I prefer OsmAnd.