Google Maps

That's great to hear. I used my Android as a GPS with Google Maps for only a day driving in Slovenia back in May. Although I had plenty of mobile data on my phone, I put it in airplane mode anyway just to save it and try out the offline maps. Mostly worked fine but occasionally Google Maps would give an error ("unable to display map" or something). But I found that it never stopped navigating even if it did that, and if I simply hit the "back" button it would resume right where it left off. Could be that I have a slower phone by modern standards.

I've been wondering if that would work, so just tried it at home. Worked fine, except that I found you can only make a route for autos, but not pedestrian. My idea was to use goggle maps to make a route from the Venice train station to our hotel, so that won't work, but I think it will still be useful navigating Venice in general.

MnBob, just buy a SIM. I found my phone with Google Maps (with mobile data) very useful in Venice, although sometimes it was hard even to find my orientation even with the phone showing me my location on a map. OK, I know where I am - but which direction am I going? It's also nice to know the vaporetto schedules - Google Maps will tell you how to get to the next place and which vaporetto stop to walk to right now because it knows when the next one is scheduled to leave, from where.

Hi Jim -

I have a question unrelated to Google Maps if you don’t mind. How was driving out of CDG? We are traveling with our kids (older teens) next June. As it stands right now, we are planning on flying to CDG from Prague and making our way out to Normandy for almost a week and I’m not sure if we should train out to Caen and rent a car or just drive from CDG and stop along the way and spend the night somewhere fun.

Thanks!
Amy