lost in a big city........
 

A tip to those who work with maps and refuse to use gps.........:confused1:
I have used this method a couple of times to great success.......:mchappy:

1. Find a taxi driver and give him the address or road you need to find.

2. Agree a price before hand for service to be provided.

3. Dont overtake him when stuck in traffic.

4. Use common sense when following the driver, so as not to be led into somewhere you do not want to be:stormy:
5. Arrive at destination, and breath a sigh of relief .

done this a few times, happy to hear im not the only onebier

I tend to just ask a taxi driver.. head in that general direction.. ask again... ask again... itirate itirate itirate... the closer you get the more people know where you need to go... and its free :)

oh yes. been there done that. never payed a taxi guy to get me there, just ask for them to point me in the right direction, then ask another when i'm closer. i usually get there eventually. this can be a little embarrassing when you have a new lady on the back...
first thing to look for in any new city is to look for the tourist info, just to pick up one of them (usually) free maps so i can find where i parked my bike.

I only do it when I do not want to be lost (not often)tried that option in Mexico city and after a couple of hours of frustration I decided taxi man was my only option.........It is great if under pressure for time or light and need to find your way in a hurry:thumbup1:

Guet a decent G P S ....

A tip to those who work with maps and refuse to use gps.........

Just curious why you refuse to use a GPS? I've found that they are most useful for exactly this purpose, getting into and out of large, unfamiliar cities.

I've often enough gotten lost following someone with a GPS--one-way streets, construction closures, local holidays, ridiculously inaccurate maps….. I've gone around in circles pointlessly in blistering heat for an hour or more with someone who refused to stop and reconsider their reliance on the little electronic box.

Sometimes merely stopping and asking directions is sufficient. Sometimes paying a pittance to the taxi driver is by far the best solution. This includes those late arrivals in strange cities when your only real concern is to find a secure place to sleep for the night--grab a taxi driver, tell them your price range and needs (parking, no hookers, private bath, whatever), and save yourself endless hunting when you'd rather be relaxing over a meal and a beer.

Of course, I've also spent long, frustrating times in strange cities trying to follow verbal directions or maps, wishing I had a GPS. This seems most characteristic in Europe, and for me was worst in Italy. I've had times when I left my hotel in the morning, couldn't find it on my return and was reduced to begging strangers to guide me there. The number of potential humiliations in overland travel is infinite…or is that just me?

Mark

And if your GPS unit gets stolen or breaks..?

Heh, no I don't think it is just you. I've just returned from a couple of weeks in Italy (with my GPS) and that was part of the context of my answer--it was incredibly helpful having the GPS in Milan, Tuscany, Naples, Bari, etc. The only frustration in Naples was usually I pick hotel in the center off the GPS (and am guided right there), but in Naples the first three hotels didn't in fact exist, at least at the indicated places. So then I turned off the GPS and drove in a straight line until I found a hotel; not complicated.

Where there are good GPS maps, I can't resist the convenience of using a GPS. I was also glad to have one in Ulan Baator (and Mongolia generally) and most other unfamiliar cities. On the other hand, if the GPS map sucks, there is not much point in using it--the maps I had for Morocco were abysmal and I soon turned them off altogether.

Not to mention the fact that in many places it is rather difficult to communicate with locals with any great accuracy because of language issues.

But the easiest way to avoid the problem is to avoid big cities altogether.

Is that a reason for not using a GPS? That could also be a reason for not riding a motorcycle, using a cell phone, etc etc., all of which could be stolen or break.

Of course if it is stolen or breaks you don't use it anymore! Although I've used GPS for tens of thousands of kilometers in all sorts of places and have only lost one. No big deal.

I think you missed my point: I wasn't arguing against GPS; merely stating that the OP's suggestion is a great one if your GPS fails for whatever reason.

I refuse to use gps because I travel light and when navigating with paper maps I tend to remember the names of the places that I have ridden through...bier

I like the "Taxi Technique" too. I've traveled with friends using GPS with mixed results. I don't own a GPS but am trying to learn them, get better at figuring them out.

I'm a slow learner regards computers ... but hopefully will find an easy to use Novice oriented GPS that will work outside the USA and won't involve complicated downloads and buying various routes. Seems a bit complicated.

If Apple made a GPS ... I'd probably buy it as I've had good luck with their computers.

I have a question for the GPS riders out there ... How do you manage to look at the GPS screen and follow it ... while riding in City traffic?

Constantly looking down at the screen may have some risks? No?
I know some units do voice prompts ... but ones we've used (in the car) have always been WRONG ... and take really stupid routes. (this with places I know) Now why is that?

Must be me as the whole world seems to get along fine using GPS. ?c?

This is a good point--for me the whole point of having a GPS in a big city is to have the voice prompts, so that I don't have to spend the whole time looking at the screen.

Basically for each new turn I look at the screen once or twice--once to see how far to the next turn, and often look at the turn itself to see if it is a 90 degree turn, a dogleg, or whatever, just so I now what to look for.

I really don't like driving in big cities without a GPS because I can't focus on the road at all, I'm always looking around trying to figure out where I'm going or where I am.

I'm not likely to use the taxi method unless I'm absolutely desperate for two reasons:
1) I usually don't know myself where I'm going, as I don't make hotel reservations, etc., so I usually don't need directions to a specific place. I usually ride to the center and then look around for a hotel that appeals to me. If I have time the night before I will look online or in Lonely Planet to see which hotels have parking, etc. and will often initially head to one one of those hotels, but I won't necessarily stay there.

2) I prefer to travel on my own terms, not those of a totally unknown taxi driver. If I pull up to some taxi driver, unless we can communicate fairly well, I have no idea if he is going to take me to a whorehouse, a five star hotel, or some bland airport hotel, none of which are what I'm looking for. For me, when I go to a big city (fairly rare), I go there to experience the atmosphere, and the hotel's location is a big part of that--why let some total stranger make that decision for me?

I use Garmin GPS with either Garmin or OSM maps, and generally think they work great. The one exception was the Garmin maps for Morocco, which were completely useless to the point where I just stopped using the GPS.

While everyone can of course make up their own mind about how to do things, I would not rule out using a GPS because you want to "travel light". A GPS weighs a few ounces, and if wired to the bike you don't have to worry about extra batteries, etc. Also, I always use a paper map with the GPS and pick out a general route on the paper map and input the waypoints (ie, towns) in the GPS. This way, without having detailed paper maps of each area I ride through (which would certainly not be travelling light), I get the benefit of being able to ride the small, even tiny, roads between my waypoints that the GPS picks out. As a result, I've had some great rides that I would never have had if relying solely on paper maps.

Finally, obviously you can't turn your brain off just because you have GPS, as they will take you down some wrong paths sometimes, so you have to check whatever route it proposes before setting off and generally know where you are. Hence the need for a paper map along with a GPS.