Fresh from a month abroad, I’ve got a whole folder of tried and tested apps on my phone’s front page that were saviors during our European adventure.
1. Book your trains in one app
I used Omio for every train ticket- not only were my Italia and Trenitalia tickets cheaper through the app, I didn’t have to remember to validate a paper ticket while on the platform!
In Italy and other countries, you incur a fine if you don’t machine stamp your train ticket before you board. Omio uses a convenient mobile ticket.
Even more, I never wondered which email I needed to bring up, or where I stored my next train ticket, because all were saved in one place in the Omio app!
2. Download an entire local map
Because we didn’t have our own local phones and data plan, we ended up wandering around, relying on finding free wifi to orient ourselves to the next destination.
If you are like me, your phone provider has undesirable international data rates and questionable connectivity to that expensive data.
It’s not a problem if you download your GPS while using your hotel’s wifi or elsewhere.
Google Maps has a unique download feature so that an entire city map can be accessed while offline.
in the menu under Custom Maps or Offline Maps, choose your area then click download. It’s useful when you can’t remember to turn left or right, but it’s limited at looking up destinations’ addresses.