What iPhone app for global travel?
 

For those of you utilizing your iPhones GPS while traveling abroad what apps have you found the most useful? There seems to be a lot out there but I'm curious what actual international travelers are using.

Thanks!

Mapsme, ioverlander, wikicamps

Edit - Whatsapp, Booking.com and the best of them all Airbnb. With Airbnb I can usually find a room for half the price of the cheapest single rooms in a guesthouse, hostel etc. And the rooms are usually much better and I have met some amazing hosts that have have gone out of their way to host me, help me, feed me etc etc. Cannot recommend Airbnb much enough. You always give feedback, the host of the guest and the guest of the host - so the bad guys will soon be left out.

There are also location-specific apps that might be useful depending on your mode of transport. Allstays and freecampsites.net for north america and several for greater Europe. Wikicamps Australia for Australia is by far the best

I second mapsme, and I also download offline maps for google maps. IOverlander, xe.com for currency conversions, google translate (you can download languages for offline use)

ioverlander, google offline maps, google translate, airbnb, whatsapp

There was others I used often, but my ihone crashed last week and I cannot get into it to check.

WhatsApp, Navigator and Booking. Com

Rad. I've got a WhatsApp account and am iOverlander, both superb for travel. Never thought about booking.com not a bad idea. Airbnb is interesting, I've used it a number of times in the states but haven't really thought about it out of the country. I will download the app now. Thanks for the tip!

Thanks for the tips! Ive bookmarked those sites for use while I'm still in the states and Wikicamps looks like an amazing resource for when I get myself over to Aus. Thank you!

I have mapsme on my phone but have yet to fiddle with it. Do you find it pretty simple to use? I'm beginning to some to the conclusion that I'm not that technology savvy. lol

Just looked into xe.com and saved that site and have google translate downloaded. Very useful stuff.

Thanks!

Thank you! I was unaware of google offline maps until. This looks very handy. Thank you and sorry to hear about your tele crashing!

Thank you! Appreciate the helpful tips!!

Not a iphone user ... but I've been told 'mapout' is better than mapme ... uses the same data from OSM - both off line maps, down load once and you have the maps where ever, even in areoplane mode.

Get a good VPN service.

I currently use Tunnel Bear, as per this thread:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...rvices-86393-2

Have to add that my experiences with Airbnb is from south-America. But many different countries down there...

Maps.me. We were in Cuba earlier this year where cell phones don't have data service. Still, maps.me worked flawlessly. What a great app.

Maps.Me as well ? or should I say ME.TO - Maps.Me lol

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZgZ2HKWT9...os-android.JPG

Here are my favorite Apps - and the reason why they are important for me:

https://www.4x4tripping.com/2020/07/...-2020-fur.html

Even why is maps.me on my list, also if there are better solutions around.

Surfy

IMHO maps.me is really not very good unless to want to follow its route with limited flexibility options (last time I used it you could even set it to avoid toll roads).

Its also not very accurate with gps position, when running alongside my garmin it often had my position as 500m away from where I was.

Gaia GPS is a proper navigation app that works incredibly well, even with the free version. It won't do turn by turn but if I need turn by turn I use google maps or my Garmin.

That will possibly be down to the accuracy of the GPS signal to the receiver in the smartphone rather than the app.

In my Disco 3 I positioned the Garmin Zumo centrally between driver and passenger from a windscreen sucker. On the Disco 4 I can't do that anymore as there's some form of interference with the GPS signal.

I used to use Waze but it sends me down too many side streets just to save a second or two.

My go-to smartphone navigation for the UK is Apple Maps, as I can just speak, "Hey Siri, give me directions to..." and it will load the app and destination for me, and then give me haptic taps on my Apple Watch to emphasis turns.

I use KTM MyRide on the smartphone when I'm riding the 790 as it pops up a pictogram of the next junction together with various data on 790 instrument panel.

Maps.me i just use for setting waypoints - where is my Loundry, where is my car parked - and - I let people set a waypoint when I ask them for buying firewood, find a loundry and so on.

That there are the "houses" viewable on the map - helps other to orientate - and to help you. That it is usable offline is nice for beying abroad.

For road navigation "turn left in 50m" and Roadnames and Nummers I suggest another piece of app - here bier It works offline too.

Waze is very good - specially also for police checkspoints (too speed mesuring) in South America - but - works better online...

// Edit: works offline too means = you can download the maps for offline use

Surfy

That would be logical, except other GPS apps run on the same phone show the correct position.

Maps.me really doesn't cut it for a proper overlanding navigation tool, its just not advanced enough in its abilities. Fine for a free city turn by turn based navigation app but I still prefer Google or Apple Maps

maps.me is easy to use. You need to make sure the maps are up to date - update them whenever you have a good connection.

Also - iOverlander is good, Wikicamps is good in Australia, wunderground is good for weather, some countries have good apps for national parks, Australian Fires is good for the obvious need, über is good wherever they operate and it's all on one account, YPF is good in Argentina and much of Mercosur.

I have found maps.me better than google or apple maps; I suppose it depends what you want, however the offline capability of maps.me is very useful. We don't use any of these to tell us the way, except in populated areas, when we use waze mostly, so once again, it depends what you want, I guess.

Maybe i did not wrote it cleary, because of my english :oops2: - i`m sorry.

"here" i did mention bevore - is an App, known formarly as Nokia Maps, based on Navteq who give the Mapsource to Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, VW - and offers in 95 Countrys turn by turn Navigation as iOS / Android App - and Maps for 195 Countrys.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qAUflnJQF...ne-android.JPG

You can download the Maps by country too for offline use - which is handy abroad whithout coverage. While bying online, you too get traffic jam handling.

In my eyes the only good current solution for all doing an worldtrip, driving the panamericana or transafrica - or even need assistance while using an rental in foreign countries without builtin navigation. And it is free.

From time to time we want to go to a specific destination (shop, Hotel, Mechanic, or to meet with someone) - also while overlanding.

Maps.me is fine for all of us, who are looking for offroad navigation, means orientation and not turn by turn. Maps.me could even do that - if you navigate in Peru from Arequipa to Puno - you will have a lot of fun (tested).

During Overlanding I usually dont need point to point navigation, while jumping from a wildcamp spot to the next - i just follow the tracks who looks nicer in a given direction.

Maps.me allows too to view the surrounding offline - to see where are villages, where forests, where a river/lake, POIs - also a point a offline Navigation Software didnt handle that good. Online is always better, but not always available.

So maps.me is for me and my undertanding for what we overlanders do - an important tool too - and on my list of the most important apps for travel. Each listed app has his function, which the other tools could`nt do.

As i mentioned before, maps.me is also very nice for asking for something, and let people set an waypoint for you on your smartphone. That dont works on "here" that well (or even google maps if you are online).

If it goes about offroading and to follow known 4x4 tracks worldwide, another tool is very handy:

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o2wzz5MGk...best-track.png

wikiloc review: https://www.4x4tripping.com/2020/07/...4-offroad.html

Guess such tools leads the Prius drivers to drive abroad : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl2t1AkTC98

I guess the offline capability isnt that important anymore, most of us will buy a local simcard or a roaming package. But abroad the coverage isnt still that good, that you can use google maps during driving in Panamericana or anywhere else in remote areas.

Because each app has his own storage - you had to download each country you like to use during beeing offline - also in each app.

To the accuracy of Smartphone/Tablet with GPS: I did use just these iOS devices for navigation during the transafrica, europe, US and in south america - it works well. Some Glass/Frontscreens can block the signal a bit, there you should opperate with an external GPS receiver like mentioned there: https://www.bluetoothtest.de/gps/ I did use apple smartphones and tablets (3G) as exklusive Navigation Unit in Toyota / BWM without the need of an external receiver. It has been tested personally for over 100k kilometers (60`000 miles) travelling abroad.

//Edit: for the southern part of africa also this is handy - tracks4africa : https://apps.apple.com/ch/app/tracks...de/id918481937

Surfy