Going on vacation abroad is a very rewarding experience, but so that it does not turn into a financial abyss, you should prepare your trip well. If you intended to use your smartphone to locate yourself during your visits, it is recommended to install an offline GPS like Maps me on your mobile..
Precautions to take with your mobile abroad
The smartphone has established itself over the years in our daily lives. Whether searching for a gas station, finding a restaurant or simply finding your bearings in a city, the GPS function of our mobiles has become essential. And since most mapping apps are free, almost no one uses paper road maps.
Be careful however if you go abroad. Using a GPS application outside its borders sometimes has unpleasant surprises. The roaming charges or roaming can be very high..
Check with your mobile operator if your subscription includes internet connections abroad . Please note this is not always the case. In addition, the destinations that can benefit from these offers vary depending on the operators and the subscribed packages. Some offer calls and SMS to certain countries but limit access to the mobile internet.
It is therefore advisable to obtain information from the customer service of its operator. The latter will inform you of the prices charged in your country of destination. You can also take note of the offers and specific options to benefit from a mobile internet connection abroad..
Offline maps and navigation
For those whose package does not work abroad and who still wishes to take advantage of the mapping service on their smartphone, they will need to download a GPS application that works without an internet connection . There are dozens of them on the Play Store.
Obviously, not all are created equal. Among this new generation of GPS, some clearly stand out from the crowd. This is the case with the Maps me app . If you travel a lot, this is an essential tool to have absolutely.
Once installed on your device, Maps will allow you to consult maps, orient yourself and carry out research, all without any internet connection. You can create routes, know the duration of your trip, save your favorite places and take advantage of the three navigation modes (auto, pedestrian and bicycle). Its offline function proves to be extremely efficient and reliable in finding its way.
Maps also offers me many points of interest such as restaurants, museums, tourist sites, fuel stations, metros, buses or ATMs. 
And thanks to the millions of OpenStreetMap contributors, you will benefit from regularly updated maps and information. Why then bother with a paper guide.
Maps works on any Android smartphone with a GPS system. The application is available for free on the Play Store. You just have to make sure you have enough storage space to store the cards.
Store cards on SD card
Maps is very practical for me on vacation. All cards and functions are free. The only black point concerns storage problems. The downloaded maps from a Wi-Fi term risk to saturate the internal memory of your mobile. It is therefore advisable to clean the house regularly.
For those who cannot separate themselves from all their maps, Maps offers me a very useful trick to install them directly on an SD card. Given the very low price of these small memory cards it would be a shame to miss out. Especially since the procedure for performing this operation will not take you more than two minutes
- Download Maps me from the Play Store
- Click on the Menu button (3 line) located at the bottom right
- Then select on the parameters section and new on the parameters heading
- Tap card storage
- Choose from the list as storage location your SD card
Now the maps will be automatically downloaded to your SD card. You will no longer need to worry about whether you have enough space in the internal memory on your smartphone.
