Insanely Usefull - Custom google maps
 

Not sure if this is common knowledge or not, but man, this is sooooo usefull in any sort of travel, and it works incredibly well.

https://www.bettercloud.com/monitor/...n-google-maps/

Basically create custom maps of destinations and then add points of interest throughout those custom maps. If you have the google maps app installed on your phone, you will need to "share" or email the custom map to yourself via email and then it will sync up with the phones google maps app

just did a few cities for our euro trip, and man, knowing exactly where you are in referance to all the sights and restaurants etc. you are wanting to check out is soooo much easier than manually searching each place every time etc.

This has the potential to be my #1 go to travel tool from now on

Edit* this is what it looks like when used in the app

https://i.imgur.com/hp0sf9p_d.jpg?ma...idelity=medium

pretty legit. I gotta say, it works well if i have data in the country i'm at.

Then again, 1/2 of the time / fun is to get lost in a city. Will definitely check it out. The layers works really well.

When travelling, I use https://maps.me/download You can download offline maps for whichever city you are travelling to. I was able to use it in China.

Been using this for a few years now and it's great when planning with other people as well because you can share the custom maps and give permission to edit and add places. Sometimes I get lazy and just mark things on the normal google maps app, been slowly moving those items over to custom maps. My google maps is littered with the 4 basic icons, sometimes its hard to see the streets lol.

The main thing for me is restaurants. I fucking hate ending up at some tourist trap or shitty restaurant where I feel disappointed that I ended up there. With these at least you can note good ones all over the cities and make an effort to go to those as opppsed to whatever it close by or within sight

The next level is to add in the note when you tag a restaurant saying what they're known for or a specific dish that brought you to notice them in the first place. I've been transferring stars on the default map over and adding notes.

I have way too many stars on my map, sometimes I'll click around and be like wtf did I tag this place for, haha.

yep I use map.me as it doesn't require connection...does this work with offline maps? my roaming data is garbage

I like this style of travelling exploring because then you have a quasi list of things to see and do while you're out. Done one thing, and look at the map to see what's close or what you feel like doing.

Google maps also has a filter for 4/5 star restaurants. I usually find that feature pretty reliable for good places to eat. It has a filter for places that are currently open as well.

Data for the most part isnt an issue anymore as long as you have an unlocked phone. Buy a local sim with a data plan.

Bumping this to say it has only improved since the OP

Next time I’m at a computer I will see if I can share all my saved maps.

I'll take a look but I don't know what would make it better than just using Google Maps, which only keeps getting better for both traveling and local living

There are plenty of high rated non tourist spots, you just have to make sure the reviews are by locals (Google automatically translates them too). This is very useful if you're not in a tourist area, but still want decent food. Found some pretty nice random spots in Kawasaki when I was there for a month. My reviews are the only ones in English EleGiggle

Edit: Oh wait, you're just talking about making custom lists in google maps.. I thought this was an alternative map app or something FailFish

MB

Yea basically by doing research before hand you can narrow down exactly what you want for food etc. instead of constantly searching via reviews

You can also randomly open the custom map and see if you are close to any places you had pre-marked when randomly wandering around

custom map japan

just here for future use.

How different is this from saving the location on Google maps itself? Seems to mirror the same function.

http://www.prntscr.com/nxpqnz

You can add notes to the saved locations, as opposed to; having a star or heart, and relying on Google Maps description and reviews for the location.

You also don’t get the functionality of different icons, notes, additional information etc.

Also I’m not sure if you can just scroll over half way across the world and start dropping pins and hearts etc. it won’t save long term. These are stored permanently

you can also download offline maps on google maps app on your phone. Works with navigation as well.