I am lucky to be able to travel a lot.
And there’s one thing I now never fail to do – especially when heading to a new destination.
It might sound simple, but I’ve found it’s an essential way to navigate a place, plus get to as many of the spots I want to see as possible.
I create a ‘guide‘ on Apple Maps, and save all the places I might want to visit on that.
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For example, whenever I read about a cool cafe in an article, see somebody mention a must-visit bar on Instagram or spot somebody on TikTok at a cool vintage shop, I find it on Apple maps, and add it to a ‘Guide’ for that city.
It means two things- not only can I easily then navigate to that place if I want to head directly there, but also if I find myself wandering around a certain part of a city, I can easily find out if I am near anywhere on my ‘to do’ list.
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I also pop my hotel or Airbnb on there too, so I can work out how to get back without having to look up the address.
I do mine on Apple Maps, but you can do the same on Google Maps.
NYC is the biggest Guide I’ve created with 147 spots, followed by London with 151, and I am always adding to them for my next trip.
I have bars, cafes, shops and also tourist attractions on there.
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I used my Guides to navigate the South of France and Italy on my Euro summer trip last year.I also added spots along the way, like the gelato place my Airbnb host in Florence recommended.
All you do is find the place on the map by typing in the address, then click the three little dots on the right and hit “Add to Guides.”
You can then start a new guide or add to an existing one.
I guess probably won’t ever visit some of my saved spots.
I never have made it to Chat Mallows cat cafe in Paris, pricy celeb-fave Chiltern Fire House in London or the building where late musical theatre composer Jonathan Larson lived in NYC.
But they’re all saved just in case.
You can also send your Guide to a friend too. In fact, you really should – I once lost them all after a phone update and had to get people to send them back to me.
Apple has a series on celebrity guides too which you can check out- we did actually go to Eugene Levy’s fave bar in Venice thanks to that.
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It’s called Cantine Aziende Agricole and was in his Apple TV show, The Reluctant Traveller. You can see his Guide here.
Of course if you’re going to be online it’s essential to ensure you have a local SIM card so you don’t rack up massive data charges. I always buy one online before travelling.
I also have handy phone case with a strap on it so I don’t get my phone stolen while using it to navigate either: it’s firmly around my neck at all times.
Luckily I don’t mind looking like a geek.