How to have map navigation in Europe

We still get by in Europe without purchasing a SIM card or paying for data. We have Verizon. A few times we have purchased 24 hours of data. We can navigate just fine offline with downloaded maps on google.maps and maps.me. We can use wifi so many places--our lodging, city hotspots (Paris has them), libraries, coffee shops, museums, fast food restaurants, so many places.

Navigating with a phone connected to wifi isn't much good, what you need is mobile data.

Wifi is used within buildings; mobile data is when you are out and about.

Connecting to multiple different wifi services also opens up a security risk. How do you know they are secure (or even genuine)? Using mobile data means you only connect to the service provider's signal.

What do you see as the advantage of buying a portable hotspot - are you connecting a laptop to it when you're out and about?

I'm not sure anyone navigates with wifi. However, many download maps when they have wifi and the navigation typically works very well offline. Even if a person has mobile data or a sim card, navigation will really burn thru the data.

Of course you can download maps in Google Maps while you’re on wi-fi and then navigation uses no data. About the only thing you’re losing is “live” traffic conditions.

I'm not sure anyone navigates with wifi

@julesm - I agree, though the OP uses those words in their post. The way I read the OP's post is that they couldn't get the data on their Orange SIM to work. If that's what they mean the most likely cause is their phone - maybe a setting needs enabled/disabled - rather than the Orange SIM being at fault.

Thanks everyone. I have Verizon, also. I understand it might not have been Orange. Good point. I checked every setting possible. Enabling and disabling as reference material suggested. Maybe I'll get an inexpensive phone there to use, as I've read others have done. I guess what I missed is something like Citymapper. Go left, then right....I agree you can do just fine with downloaded maps and even a few handwritten notes:) I had plenty of data so admittedly I figured the wifi is what was missing. There just were times I would've enjoyed in the moment, or with an unexpected detour, directions. I have Nord VPN, arranged all my banking needs ahead of time so I wasn't logging in, etc. NY Times has an article today "Using your phone while traveling abroad." The comment section was INFINITELY more valuable. Lot of T-Mobile fans and interesting ideas for worldwide phone useage. Thanks again!

One thing I've learned in following these discussions is that one person's "shouldn't" is someone else's "must."

Lots of ways to accomplish the same thing. I personally wouldn't want to be without cellular data, but others seem to do fine without it.

Wish I had an explanation for the OP as to why their data didn't work. But it should be kept in mind that a "hot spot," from a practical standpoint, is just a cell phone without calling or texting capabilities. If data aren't being received, it doesn't matter whether you have a phone or a hotspot. What you need is a data plan with good coverage in the areas you plan to travel in, set up correctly.

I don't know about France or Orange sim cards, but in Italy we've used TIM or Tre sim cards for years, and most recently Airalo Esim instead. Google Maps and everything else that needed data worked almost 100% perfectly at all times, live with no pre-downloading, on the highways, way out in the country, in narrow alleys with tall buildings on both sides, even out in "the middle of nowhere" a few times. That is what you are paying for.

A Sim card or an Esim are what you use when you don't have wifi --- it's really a shame that the people in the Orange stores didn't help you.

I'm a little confused about the wifi you said you were missing, but you had data for navigating?

Do you know how to connect to wifi? It's the same anywhere, it's not unique to being in Europe. You enable it on your phone (the little triangular symbol of bars), then you connect to a network, for example, in your hotel, where they would probably give you, or have posted in your room, the network name and password. Or in a coffee shop, where they might have the network name and password posted on the counter. Once your phone's wifi is turned on, you login to the wifi network. It works as long as you are still at the hotel or in the coffee shop. Once you leave, you're out of range of their wifi network. At that point, if you have data, your phone would use that. Or if you were traveling without an international plan, you would have no service until you found another wifi network you could access.

I'm another huge TMobile fan. I don't even have to think about cell service when traveling. I don't have to call them, turn anything on, purchase anything. I just go. I take my phone out of airplane mode when I land and I almost immediately get a text saying 'Welcome to [country]!' and reminding me about the terms of my international data plan. I have heard that international data speeds are slower, though I haven't experienced that often at all.

We had a similar bad experience with customer service in an Orange store in Paris, years ago, never could get the SIM card to work. Years later, with a smartphone, I found T-Mobile 55+ Magenta works great overseas, at no extra cost unless you want to make phone calls (cheap then). I navigated with Google Maps, getting turn-by-turn directions. Without them I'd still be trying to find my way out of Orange (the city, not the phone service).

Garmin has watches that show street maps and/or trekking trails. They are solar charged. They do have ones that operate in Europe. I am not sure if you need additional technology or not. They are in different ranges of price. I was thinking how cool it would be to have one when I go mushroom hunting! Do you have to keep in line of satellites?

T-Mobile 55+ Magenta here as well. Works great. If I needed to make a local call, such as a restaurant or hotel, I might use Google Voice, because I don't understand all the roaming rules.

Regarding a Garmin watch, I don't have a smartwatch, but I do have a 35 year old Garmin handheld GPS (Etrex). If I was in the deep woods of da U.P., and particularly if there were a lot of wet leaves overhead, it wouldn't work everywhere, I'd have to wander around looking for an open area. I am sure that anything as new as a smartwatch should perform much much better, and be much less bothered by overhead trees or big city buildings. My smartphone is right now receiving 20 satellites (out of 30 that are above the horizon), a gps can navigate fine with 4 or 5. And I'm sitting in the middle of my living room. I'm sure a Garmin watch would work great anywhere outdoors or near some windows. But with such a small screen, you wouldn't be able to see a little building labled "Gasthaus Krone". On my Android phone I use Organic Maps (download the maps when on wifi), and I like seeing all that city detail on the screen.

Judith,

Download a Google Map of where you live. Turn off your cell service. Go for a walk. You will be using your phone's GPS to navigate. If it works at home it should work the same in Paris.

Please note, the GPS only tells the map where you are and navigation to where you want to be. If you need other information, such as the next time a metro will leave the nearest station, GPS can't help.

Great idea! Thank you

Great idea on using the navigation prior to your trip. In fact, I used it in my car for a couple weeks to get a feel for how to use it and an idea of how it routes.

I just want to concur with the posts regarding downloading maps to phone, and using Google Maps. It works great, BUT does not give up to date bus information, which I always find extremely useful. Therefore you need data...

I have personally never had problems with Orange, but my other half stumbled upon two half wits in Lyon Orange, who wouldn't even sell her an Orange card for tourists - yes we speak French. The one she got from the corner shop nearby only started working 3 days later. Maybe the answer is to get one from Amazon, which might be a bit more expensive, but consensus seems to be that they tend to work properly. I have yet to do this.