Helping The Independent Travelers Going To Europe.

Welcome. My name is Kevin Williams, I work in the Rick Steves Travel Center.  We focus mostly on helping the independent travelers going to Europe, but one thing that has become a big question for us is,"what do I do about my phone or my tablet?" So today we're gonna really look at that closely.  And I was lucky enough to be at the right age when sort of the technology and travel were really merging together.  I remember from my very first iPod Touch, which is basically the iPhone without the phone, noticing how well it could help me get around, and I've seen the technology just kind of evolve with it. So today what I would like you to keep in mind is, if it's a first-time trip, you should really take a look at the Europe Through the Back Door.  This is Rick's Travel Skills guidebook, and it's going to have a lot of information that will be covered today, along with types of transportation, information about getting your money, everything you really need to know before you go.  Read it, leave it behind.  And if you're doing your first general Europe trip, trying to hit some of the highlights,that's where the Best of Europe guidebook could be a good fit for you also.  Today this is the meat of what we're gonna talk about.  We're gonna look at cost-effective options to stay connected and communicate with friends back home or people while you're traveling.  We're gonna make sure you understand how your settings should be put together to make sure you don't get any crazy charges, and we're gonna talk about some apps that really make your life while you travel easier, rather than make it harder, or you're too focused on it.  And then the last thing we'll talk about is a little bit of the ebooks, pros and cons that come with them. You might want to be prepared to have some sort of cell phone with you, because pay phones are harder and harder to find nowadays, much like here, and internet cafes are definitely becoming a thing of the past.  So your hotel may have a computer in the lobby that you can use, but because most travelers are now using their own tablet or smartphone, there's a good chance you're gonna be wanting to use that too.  This is what I travel with.  I do take an iPad, I do take a smartphone,and then of course the cables to make sure thing charge or connect with other electronics.  I like to keep everything together in one sort of bag. So if you have anything already, it's a good fit.  I do use Apple products, not because I think Apple is superior in any way or form, it's just what I started with, that iPod Touch,and I don't want to buy the apps again.  So today's class will focus on Apple products and Android products.  If you have a Windows Phone, nothing specific,but I do know their settings are very close to Andriod usually.  How many people do remember hearing of people on cruise ships or traveling, coming home to thousands of dollars on their phone bill.  Then it got downgraded to hundreds of dollars on their phone bill, and at this point phone companies don't really want to charge that because it's bad publicity for them. People don't like having surprises like that, they complain, they get vocal, media catches on to it.  So for the most part, the companies have gotten better with their international plans.  But this will let you know sort of the best option for you,how to have it set up, what kind of device you might need, there's sort of a mixture of it. Purchase a data plan with your local provider in and while traveling, some are better than others. A lot of you may have heard of the SIM card and an unlocked phone.  That was very popular for a while but I don't think it fits every traveler anymore. It will be more for people who need to make a lot of calls within the country you're traveling or within Europe.  And wifi is going to be your best friend. It should be free, if not cheap, but free more than likely, and you'll be able to find it almost everywhere.  So WiFi'll probably be a great friend for you.  And then a combo of all of these can be a good fit for you too, and what I mean by that is, WiFi is probably the one you'll use most. But then after that, if you do have friends or family in Europe that you need to call a lot, you could maybe have a sim card ready in an unlocked phone for easy use, or you could get an international plan from your current provider for backup,for emergency situations, and use it sparingly.  Don't panic too much yet,there's going to be more information coming.  Two terms I want to make sure you know the difference of, and there's gonna be a few terms that I'm gonna be a broken record, on you'll hear 'em over, and over, and over, and I just want to make sure you know them for when you're traveling.  But the first two are data and WiFi.  Data sometimes has the code of LTE, will have 4G, or 3G, 2G, etcetera. This is the information when it's connected either to a satellite or receiving tower, and this is the one that can get expensive very fast.  So know when you're connected to data, and know how to avoid it when you're traveling.  But basically when you're walking the streets and you want to look at Google, that's your data.  WiFi is the one you have to actually go out of your way to connect to, but it's usually faster, and again, it should be free.  Normally you pick a network you--lot of times it's locked, you'll need to have a code, you just type in that code, and then you'll be connected on that network, free to do whatever you want.  When you're on WiFi, this is when you watch cat videos.  When you're not on wifi, wait, just save them for later, 'cause you'll use all your data way too quickly.  This is an example of what an international plan could look like from your provider.  Each provider of the big names are a little bit different, but they have definitely gotten more affordable.  You can see for roughly $25,you can get a basic international plan from this company.  It's gonna still charge you$1. 79 a minute when you're traveling, it's gonna charge you 50 cents to send a text,$0. 05 to receive one, and it's gonna give you 100 megabytes.  Now 100 megabytes at first may sound okay, but a hundred megabytes is not a lot by any means.  The example I like to give is an email, if it's just text, could be up to a megabyte, that's not too bad.  But the second somebody puts a picture in it, that can become three to five.  If you watch a video,again one of those cat videos or a kid doing something silly, that could be a few hundred megabytes.  It could be all of your 100 megabytes right then, and then you'd have to pay another $25 to get another 100 megabytes, so you really want to be careful on the data usage when you're traveling.  You can see next to it they have another option where you can pay a little bit more and then you have an allowance, rather than pay-as-you-go.  And then if you didn't do either of those, the true pay-as-you-go gets very expensive very fast.  And if you look to the far side, you'll see the international travel data.  They're gonna charge you roughly $2 for every megabyte.  So that's gonna get very expensive fast.  So if you do think there's any chance you'll use your data on your current provider, you probably want to pay for the international plan ahead of time.  And again,$25 doesn't break the bank, and it gives you a backup just in case.  Check with your provider though, some are better, some providers even give you unlimited free data now.  So it's always good to double check with your provider for more specifics.  If you want to be able to call hotels, call your family or friends who live in Europe, maybe you're a family of five and you just want to have a way to call each other at any point during the day, that's where you may want to invest in an unlocked phone and a SIM card.  The way this works is, Europe's done it a little different than us for a long time, you buy the phone you want, and then you buy a SIM card which is the actual company, that cellular connection, and you put that in the phone.  This way you can have a nice mix of it.  You can get unlocked phones here or when you travel.  The one warning I'll give though is prepaid data is not as cheap as you might want to be.  SIM cards are great for phone calls and texts.  They're very affordable to buy them there, and again, if you know you're gonna make many calls while traveling it would be worth stopping at a store in Europeand buying a SIM card for either your unlocked phone, or buy an unlocked phone while you're there. I actually have a very basic unlocked phone that I travel with when I know I'm gonna be making a lot of calls.  I sometimes do guidebook research, and in that case I do have to call ahead a lot, to either make sure my reservation's ready,make sure the person I'm trying to meet with is there.  I think most travelers don't need to do this as often.  I think most travelers actually can send a confirmation email when they're wifi to the next hotel.  They can use Google or other search engines to look at something before they leave. So calling ahead like you had to do even 10 years ago, probably not as needed for the general traveler.  SIM cards, they kinda look like memory cards for cameras but they come in different sizes now, they also go in different places, often they go behind the battery of a phone.  For some of the smartphones they just go right on the side, they're a micro SIM card.  But again,prepaid data I usually see, it costs about $20 for about a hundred megabytes. Which is pretty much the same thing your current provider will do, and you don't have to do the hassle of buying a SIM card. This is a big reason some Europeans are starting to go closer to our subscriptions style, it's so that they get a data allowance that's more affordable,rather than prepaying for data.  'Cause SIM cards usually you pre-pay for minutes for your phone call or for when you texting someone.  So just think about how much you really need a phone if you're thinking of getting a SIM card.  And if you do want to get one, you can find them at stores like this.  Now these sort of stores I have actually bought a lot of SIM cards from them, they tend to be a little more affordable, but it is buyer beware a little bit.  I've had pretty good luck.  You can find the bigger names, the more official stores, big companies in Europe include Bada Phone, Wind, Three, but otherwise you can go in here.  And even if you're in a country, you don't speak the language, charades usually gets you as far as you need. Basically, if you need the phone, you point at a phone, and then you point at the SIM card, you smile, it works pretty well. Same thing if you come with the one you already have, you just say, "eh, eh," go from there, usually they can figure out what it is you're trying to do.  Same thing if you need to top up minutes, just walk in with your phone, show 'em the SIM card, have money ready, and they can help you put more money on it if you've run out.  But let's focus on WiFi, 'cause really, this is the best thing to happen to travelers.  This is what's gonna let you stay connected and not feel like you're totally disconnected, or have topanic about, "how am I going to communicate with friends or family back home," or ahead of time when you're in Europe.  WiFi is pretty much everywhere,especially European travel.  You'll find it at most hotels.  If it's in Rick's book there's a very good chance there's going to be free WiFi, 'cause that's a fight Rick has been doing for travelers for a long time. Some sights have free WiFi, some parks in Europe have free WiFi, some cities are WiFi zones, I know Barcelona's trying to get that started, and some countries are trying to become entire WiFi zones.  So Europe is well ahead of the United States when it comes to WiFi.  If you're not finding any of these convenientoptions, this is your chance to go stop in at a cafe.  Go to an internet--excuse me, not an internet cafe, they don't exist--Go to a normal cafe and when you're there you'll be able to connect to a WiFi.  Often you'll have to buy something, but this is a good chance to actually get an Italian coffee, go get a French pastry, just buy something and just ask for the WiFi password, and they're happy to give it to you.  So you can get connected to WiFi quite easily.  So WiFi is probably what you're gonna focus on, but I wanna make sure you have your phone set up where you will not be charged without knowing it.  So this is, again,where we'll get a little more detail. You're gonna hear similar--the same word over and over again, but I know you can handle it. These two icons--get familiar with if you haven't already.  One is Apple's, one is Android's.  Android's can sometimes look a little different, and I also like to warn right now,Android has different versions of what their platform looks like.  So when you're looking at these slides, if your Android phone doesn't look exactly like this one,don't panic,that's normal and your steps to find these options should be very similar, if still not exactly the same.  Apple has kind of kept the same style for, like 10 years almost now, so those should look pretty similar.  The first term you're gonna hear a lot is airplane mode.  Airplane mode is a traveler's best friend.  It was originally made for people who wanted to use their phone while on an airplane,because you weren't allowed to have your data or your WiFi on while flying.  So you could turn this on and then you could use your phone offline, another word you're gonna hear. Offline means you're not connected to anything. Offline has data off, it has wifi off.  So when you do this when you're traveling,you know everything's turned off.  If you go to settings on an Apple phone you'll see it right there at the top.  You can just click it on right there, and very quickly it turns off everything.  It will turn off your WiFi, and you'll notice cellular, which is what connected to your data, it turns a gray color, meaning you can't change it, and it also says airplane mode when you know data is 100%turned off.  If you want the shortcut, if you're on your main screen you can put your finger right where that X is, the X won't be on your phone, just put in that area, and if you push your finger up, you'll get this control panel.  And this is where you can get to some quick options, you can change your music quickly,adjust your brightness.  You can also then turn airplane mode on right there. Next to it is WiFi, if you want to turn that on or off.  You'll see on the bottom pane there's a flashlight, there's a calculator, quickly get to the camera, you have a few options right there.  On an Android device, similar settings, you hit the settings button.  Somewhere it should say "connection," like you see on the top of this version, from there you can go to "more networks," and within that you can turn on airplane mode.  A lot of Android phones also have a quick option similar to Apple's, but you start at the top and you pull down,and it'll have some of the main icons, airplane mode is usually one also.  Now airplane mode is probably all you need, but I know people like to make sure they have everything turned off ahead of time.  No one likes a surprise charge, myself included, so you can do a few extra steps to make sure your data is turned off. First part is, go to Settings, click on "cellular. "You'll notice airplane mode right now is not turned on, it's in normal settings right now.  So you can turn on--or click cellular, and within that you'll quickly see "cellular data" and"data roaming. " You want to turn both of those off.  So right now it's showing them on, but if you click it, the green will go away, and now you're 100%sure your phone won't connect to those.  But again, for simplicity, airplane mode is really the one you want you to practice with, just practice, practice. Android, similar again, go to settings with "connection" on the top, click "more networks," click "mobile networks," and from there you can access your mobile data, and just turn it off, and also turn off "data roaming. " So all types of phones, these will be similar settings.  I do recommend before you travel, practice this over and over again. Practice turning on airplane mode, practice knowing what works in airplane mode and what doesn't. You can also practice accessing your data ahead of time, but it's really airplane mode I think is the one that's the easiest, friendliest, and you have fewer problems and surprise bills.  I also recommend before you go, download, whether its iTunes or the Play Store, so you can download apps.  If you do in the United States, it thinks you're from the United States.  if you wait till' you're in Europe, it think you're German and it just makes life harder later.  Also everything we talk about,especially when we get to apps, practice using them here, but we'll talk about that a little bit more.  Now connecting to WiFi,I would think a lot of people have tested this before, but just to play it safe,those settings are pretty easy. Now on this slide you'll see airplane mode is on, which then originally turned off my WiFi.  When I could go on WiFi though, unlike cellular,you can adjust WiFi.  So you click on that, and you can turn WiFi back on.  Once it's back on, you pick the network that you want.  Once you've picked that network, you should be connected.  Now you'll notice that they have lock symbols.  Secured networks will come with a little lock symbol, and I recommend using these kind of connections more than anything else.  But usually you need a password for these, and that should be provided by either your hotel, a café.  Some places are set up with an unsecured network originally, but then it takes you to a login screen that needs a password,that's okay too, as long as there's some sort of protection.  I, every now and then,will connect to an unsecured network, but I won't do anything drastic with it. Meaning I might do a quick google search, but I will not open my email, I will not use my credit card by any means, 'cause it's just too easy for someone to kind of see what you're doing.  But if you just need to do a quick search on something very basic, where a museum is, that would probably still be okay so unsecured, but for just personal safety of your information I would use secure networks. Android, very similar, you can connect airplane mode and then go back to WiFi,turn it back on, and from there,same thing, pick your network, it'll connect you right then, and now think about what you have.  You have your phone in airplane mode so everything is disconnected, you turn back on WiFi, so now you know you're only connecting to the type of information that should be free. Your phone is not going to connect to a cellular network where the data charges add up very fast.  So WiFi is really gonna be your best friend when you're traveling, track that down,connect to it.  Again, when you're in the middle of the streets of Budapest,confused on where you are, it's not a bad idea to detour into a little cafe, order a cup of coffee, ask for their WiFi, connect, find where you are on the map,send an email if you need to.  WiFi is gonna make all this a lot easier than you think.  I know a lot of people like to be connected at all times, but it's easy to disconnect from that.  There is one setting that I want to really make sure you also understand, 'cause this is the one that will surprise you, you've used all your data. This is for people who decided to purchase the international plan from your provider.  So if you decide to have that for a backup, you want to make sure your email and your apps are set up correctly.  If you have it set to be "push,"is what the word Apple tends to use, or "sync," which is what Android tends to use, that means it's just gonna push it right to your device.  This can take all your data without you knowing it.  So you could have been in airplane mode, no connection,and you decided, "I want to check something really quick," and you turn off airplane mode, you connect to a cellular network in Europe, and if your phone is set to "push" or "sync," it feels that you're connected, and it sends everything that's been building up.  So that means all 100 emails that've been building upover the past two days get pushed right on your phone, and if there's pictures in there, if there's links to things, it easily could, all of a sudden, take all 100 megabytes that you're allowed, without you knowing it.  Apps have similar settings where if you don't set it ahead of time, it could just automatically update the second it feels a connection.  So I would recommend changing "push" or "sync" to either fetch,which is either a schedule, or you can go in and actually set it to be manually fetch,which is the best setting when you're travel.  Set it to manual, this means your phone will not update apps, it will not download emails or anything unless you tell it to. So when you're ready to actually use data you can use this.  If you left it in push, it's just gonna do it without you knowing it. The way you'll get to that is in settings, you can scroll down the page just a little bit.  From there you can find "mail, contacts, and calendar. " You click on that one, it's gonna take you to this screen where you can pick "fetch new data. " You can see I have it off right now. We'll take you to the next screen, and you go "fetch new data" one more time, and that's going to lead you to that push icon, where you can turn it off.  So right now it is set to be off for me.  You can even then go into each app, or each connection, and change it to either be fetch or manual, or you can also come down here a little bit and in the "fetch" settings, change it to just be manual also.  You can do all of it just to make sure everything is manual, but again, this will make sure you can really use that 100 megabytes as sparingly as possible, to avoid having to be charged over and over again on that limit.  So play with your phone on this one,double check you have your settings the way you want it before your trip. Android, similar yet again, but again, they like the word "sync" rather than "push. "So this one you go to "accounts" on the top, and one big difference I've noticed using Android, is they tend to have you go into each sort of application. So instead of just going to mail in general, you have to pick your Google option, you also have to go to your Facebook option, etcetera. You wanna make sure they're all set not to be synced.  So once you click on Google in this example, you then pick your account, and within there you'll see that it's syncing everything.  So if you want to make sure it's not syncing all these options and Googles, you'll actually uncheck all of them.  That is shown on the bottom, what it should look like when you've turned it off, but otherwise when you open it, it will probably have everything with some sort of green check, or some sort of option that says "on. " You wanna make sure you go through and turn everything off. Before we look at some communication apps, I just like to bring up a point that's important to me.  Lots of people traveled in the eighties, the nineties, even the thousands, probably without any sort of smartphone or tablet.  And what you kinda did back then, probably, was organize a meeting point.  If you're gonna go two different directions say, "be at that restaurant at 6pm. " Or you organized, "if we get separated, meet here, meet back at the hotel,"get that sort of option put together.  Carry the business card of your hotel just in case you're afraid you're gonna wander off somewhere.  Then you can show the business card and ask, "do you know where this is?" Or get in a taxi, show 'em that,and they'll take you right there.  I just like to say, this still works.  Just 'cause cellphones exist now, doesn't mean you have to always use it.  It's good to still use some of those traditional travel skills to get around.  What you can easily do is pick that time.  Now you're gonna probably have your device, and you know some tricks now where you could use it to connect.  Even if you want to use WiFi with people you're traveling with, one thing that works now, that kind of meet in the middle of this separation idea, is if you get separated, you'll both go find a cafe, you'll both get online, and you'll wait for the other one to send you a message either through email or instant message, which goes through wifi, something along those lines to make sure you can find each other again.  Or if you pay for the international plan, that's that time that you're going to use one text maybe, to find out where the other person is quickly.  So a mixture of both is fine.  I know we all love to just get our phone out and call the person or send 'em a text, but while traveling,depending who your provider is, it's just not necessarily gonna be the cheapest or easiest option for you.  With that said though, there are some great apps to keep you connected either at home or while traveling.  I like to start with Google Hangouts, because Google is kind of the perfect American company in my opinion,which means they're really good about taking someone else's idea taking, taking someone else's other great idea, putting them together in one app that they put their name on.  And that's kind of what Google Hangout's done, it's taken a lot of the video chat, internet phone call, instant messaging, programs, and put them together an easy-to-use fashion.  If your friend sand family don't have a Google account they probably will have to set one up, but it's free and it's easy.  And what's nice about Google Hangout is you can have multiple people in one conversation,you can just have one-on-one conversations, you can see at the bottom there's a little phone icon, that actually lets you do internet calling at a very affordable rates, usually around 2 or 3 cents a minute.  So that's an easy way to call back home.  The video chat works surprisingly well also, and it can do a whole conference call.  And the way it works is if a good wifi connection, a nice strong one,it's a great way to just call multiple people at once, and it does a great jobof jumping back and forth on the screen of who's talking.  So if someone talks,they become the big screen and everyone else goes small.  You can also just click onthe person you want to listen to.  With this wifi connection part, while it's in mymind, I do like to warn, buildings in Europe weren't necessarily made for WiFi. They were made to keep invaders out, so a lot of old buildings have really thickwalls.  Don't be surprised if your hotel is this way, if you don't get the greatestconnection in your room, walk down to the lobby, they always make sure that's thestrongest WiFi point.  And one thing I've noticed that I love seeing, is WiFi hasstarted connecting travelers.  Because they're in this old hotel, they come downto the lobby to check their email, but then another traveler does too, andanother one, and they start talking with each other, they start finding out, "what didyou do while you're here? How long have you been in Madrid?" And they start sharing theirideas,building sort of a connection, and so while they're kinda disconnecting fromeveryone else, they're also reconnecting with travelers too.  So it's a great way tojust meet other travellers, if your room does not have as strong of a connection asyou were hoping for.  I do like to bring up Skype because they are one of the firstpeople to really have this online call I was using it for a long time I wasa year abroad in England back in 2006, and that's roughly about the time Skype wasreally getting popular, and so someone told me about it.  And one--I was actually curious how Istay in contact with my family back home.  Skype made it really easy.  You just connectedthere, and at that point it was through computers, which still works, but youconnect, you can do video chats, if it's Skype to Skype for free, you can also useit to call phone numbers, whether it's in United States or in Europe.  But therehave been times when I'm traveling that--even not for calling home--if all of a sudden mydebit card isn't working like it's supposed to,I just connect to WiFi, get on skype, call the number through Skype, and that wayit's only costing me $0. 02 a minute.  I know most banks say they have that toll freeinternational number but sometimes it just does not cooperate, in my opinion, andI've had better luck just using Skype.  You also see my credit there of $4. 63.  I put $10Skype Credit on my phone about six years ago, so it lasts a real long timeconnected to WiFi.  And again, another big reason is, it is free if you're talkingSkype-to-Skype, meaning one person is logged into their Skype account, and youare too.  That is free.  If you do wanna make a phone call it will cost you alittle bit, but not much. Here's just an example of a way that you can, you know, you're the person at the cafeon the screen, calling back to your family who's curious where you are.  You canand the screen calling back to your family who curious where you are you canyour hotel in Paris, just point it out the window, and just brag a little bit.  Skype doesmake it easy to call.  They take care of all the country code issues for you, soif you go to the paid calling screen, you just type in the area code and the 10 digitnumber, and it'll do the rest for you.  And again, they can do it for landlinesor mobile phones for about 3 cents a minute, so you can easily talk for a while. Another trick that's nice with Skype is if you want to call hotelbefore your trip. You're in the United States, you really want to stay at this one hotel, but every time you email themit's not coming back, you're not hearing anything.  So you want to make sure, "are they open,it's not coming back you're not hearing anything you want to make sure the openemails, do I have a reservation. " Skype will make that affordable and easy to do. In this case, you click the country code area, you find the country you're trying tocall, let's say in this case we're gonna pick France, and you'll see right there at the topit puts in the country code.  Now you just need to type in their normal number, theone that they list on their website, or we list in the guidebooks.  And then you can callahead, try and make sure you do it during their nine to five hours, don't call themat like 1am, they're not going to appreciate it.  But Skype will make it easy for you tocall ahead if you need to.  You can also use this when you're in Europe too.  Ifyou're already in Germany and you want to call your next hotel, connect to theWiFi at your current hotel, call the number in Germany of your next hotel, andyou can keep it more affordable too if you don't want to try dealing with figuringout a local phone.  'cause through Skype it's very easy and affordable. This section is for all the Apple users, Android users take a little siesta rightnow.  But if you ever use your iPhone, you may notice some people will have bluetext messages when you text them, some people have green.  And this is because ofiMessage.  iMessage is when it goes through Apple's own server which isusually through WiFi, but if you're connected to data it will go throughthat also.  If it's green means, it was sent as a text message, which means itwent through a cellular network, your current provider.  So take a look at yourphone, go through your text messages, see who's blue, see who's green.  If it's blue,it means you can text them over WiFi no matter where you are.  When you connect toWiFi in your hotel room in Paris, you can text your friend back home just likeyou're at still home.  It doesn't matter with WiFi, on iMessage, blue colored text. If the person you want to text is a green color, that means you have to actuallyuse either a cellular network, or use Google Hangouts like I just talked about,or one of these other programs.  WhatsApp is another one that gets brought up alot, it's similar to Google Hangouts.  Same with Viber, it's much like Skype.  Test allof these if you like,but the ones I show are the ones I've used for quite a while, and feel verycomfortable with and like to recommend.  Alright, Android users can wake up again. What I really think your smartphone or your tablet is going to be beneficial towardsis your transportation and your navigation.  Getting around can be alittle confusing in a new city.  People definitely can still take traditionalmaps, I think it's good for backup, but there are some apps that are gonna make lifeeasier. Really cellphones have become the modern-day Swiss Army knife.  I mean,everyone has one of these now and knows how to basically make it do something for them, andthere's a lot more it can do without you knowing it.  So a few apps I like includesCity Maps2Go.  I know I've told you about two kinds of connections, does everyoneremember data? Does everyone remember wifi? There's actually a third connection that'salways running but on most phones you can't turn it off, and that's your GPS. And a big reason for this, the government says they want GPS always running so ifyou call 911 they can track you down easily.  Edward Snowden might havegiven us a few other ideas why they wanted it on, but luckily a few travel appdesigners realize the benefit of this.  So even when you're traveling, your GPSknows where you are, even if you are in airplane mode, totally disconnected fromcellular and data.  City Map2Go utilizes this.  First thing it does is it'll show you whereyou are on the map, and that's a little blue dot you see there.  It will not giveyou walking directions if you're trying to find somewhere specific, but ahead oftime you can put pins of where you wanna go.  So the way this app works is youdownload it, once you have it downloaded you actually have to be connected, WiFipreferably, and then download the cities you're going to.  You download their mapwhen you're connected to WiFi at home so that you can use them offline whenyou're there, and it works very well.  This case it's actually Edmonds, Washington,but it'll show where you are, and then I put a little pin of where I want to go later,meaning, when you're traveling you should pinyour hotel, pin the train station if you're gonna be using it, any of the sights you might use. And basically what this lets you do when you're ready to head out, you can lookand see where you are on your device, and you can see where it is you want to go. And that little triangle, it also follows what direction you're looking. So basically, you can also come out of a Metro tube, that's a big time when I'musually confused, come out of the Metro tube, look at that, turn, turn, I need to gothis direction.  That's usually enough to get you there.  It's kind of like atraditional map without having to track yourself down on it. One trick I have learned with it though is, if you board your flight in theUnited States and, we'll say, fly to Amsterdam, the first time you open it hasa hard time finding where you are at first, it can take sometimes five minutes to findyou, and that's because the satellites using GPS are looking for you back homein the United States or Canada.  It's taking awhile to find you over in Amsterdam,so what you can do in this situation is if you can connect eitheryour data, briefly, or WiFi at your hotel, that will let it find you like that.  Justhalf a second it will know where you are.  and from that point on when you're inairplane mode and completely offline, it knows where to start looking for you alot quicker.  So that works pretty well to make it even more efficient for you.  Butdownload a lot of the places you're going, pin those important informationbeforehand, andthis one can make getting around cities very easy.  Google Maps is the next one Ibring up, and there's a good chance this will be the only one you'll need at acertain point.  Google Maps has gotten better and better and better. Google Maps can do a lot of things, but for to do everything, it's needed aconnection for a long time, which made it not my favorite travel app.  But it'sgetting better.  When you are connected, you can see you have driving directions,you can use public transportation.  And this is great in big cities, especiallyParis and London, they'll tell me what Metro to get on, which one I need totransfer to, maybe what bus to catch, it works very well, but you need to beconnected, WiFi or data.  It can give youwalking directions, and it can even give you biking directions if you want.  And sowhen you're connected, hotel, cafe, it can do all of this, quickly, easily, it'swonderful. Offline, it used to not do a whole lot for you, but luckily for us they've updatedthis.  If you go to your settings within your Google Maps, you can click righthere on offline areas.  Once you click that, you're gonna wanna go to that plussign down there at the bottom when you click that it's gonna ask you to pickthe area you want to download so in this case why I'm connected to wifi you doneed a connection for this part you can start downloading that region you candownload an entire map of Paris right now when you hit download gonna takesome room on your phone but you'll see it starts downloading gonna have a wholearea offline but the one downfall is when I'm offline it's not going to giveme walking directions I use that rhetoric the top this show I am anairplane mode right now but when I click walking it says not available offline ifI go to driving however it does it for me cuz its offline driving directions sothis is where I say four people walking around cities using it it still may begood to double check by connecting to wifi what the walking direction is cuzyou don't really want to walk on the freeway like it might be telling the carto do so within a city you may want to just double check things if you have achance but we're really big are people driving in the countryside one bigquestion I do get in the Travel Center life is what do I do about GPS andTuscany and Umbria well now you can actually download a pretty big area thatyou see this is a lot of testing in a lot of Umbria rate there you'll noticethat I am connected right now you need to download this area and also haveunderlined in the data area it's taking one thousand five hundred megabyteswhich is a gig and a half depending how much storage is on your phonethis can be a huge chunk of it and so you might not be able to download a lotof maps but try and make enough room to at least get onethese but once you download it gonna take some time because a gigabyte and ahalf is a pretty big file went to dunno you can look at driving directionsoffline knows that arrow again is showing airplane mode so when I did thisI was completely offline no wifi no data and was able to show me how to get fromhotel academia Florence all way down the Siena Cathedral when you start drivingit does have the voice navigation with you it does tell you this step-by-stepof what to prepare for this is really going to change things to make it a loteasier on drivers in Provence and France Tuscany Umbria here just get used to itthoughdownload this download your home area right nowpractice using offline after you've downloaded your home area and reallydrive around see if it's working for you see if it's giving you the rightdirections more than likely it will and just keep an eye on how much room inyour storage these maps are taking all subways for the people in the cities areyou taking public transportation I like this just goes it does give you anoption to look at those metro map and I have been asked before aren't thoseusually free in the metro stations are there signs usually the metro stationsand I say yes there usually are all of my own personal experience once inBarcelona when I got off the train I was gonna catch the subway first time thereI got to the big map which was heavily graffiti and I looked where they shouldhave the free metro map and they were emptyluckily I remembered I had this app and it truly has pretty much every city youwould need in the air and it's nice HDD metro maps you download the app ones itcomes with the maps included alreadyupdates them for you free of charge also and it really has a wide range but theway it can work is his parents for example indefinitely a very busy metromap Paris is one of the best metros in the world and when you're there you'reprobably gonna use the Metro more than anything else you can zoom instays nice HDD tales you really need to see closerareas and it's gonna have a lot of those if not all of those European cities andjust a show that they have everything they even have the less impressiveUCSD's which one metro in this case at Seattle Airport up to downtown so thatthey have included that shows you can expect that those European cities withgreat public public transportation networks will be available to you soonhave me it's probably gonna slowly fade out for me of Google Maps truly keepthat up but now me with an offline app little bit before everyone else but theway they work is now have me comes in different country so you do not have meItaly never be friends and they would both that they were free online at mapsand that is true they were when I have tested it though I would safer drivingit was always about 10 to 30 seconds behind of we're actually was and whendriving that's a big dealI do believe they're gonna get better and better as it goes in it's a goodbackup for you if you wanted to have something else to go along with GoogleMaps our city maps to go but where it did work great for me was looking upwalking directionsunlike Google Maps offline it still gave walking directions it is free and itfollowed me a lot closer as you move a lot slower walking as I see most of thisdeal and there there are options if you want to pay for different aspects withinthe appone option is you can pay for different voices if you want Snoop Dogg to tellyou where you're going you do have that option to purchase that voice in thereso I don't think you really need to personally but it is one option for youif anyone going to Europe is riding a train that should be high on thepriority of an app to download even if you're not sure you're gonna write atrain I would download this just so it's readyDBA Navigator is the German rail companies out and the germans put uponthemselves to know everyone's train schedule anywhere in Europe it's veryimportant to them I'm pretty sure the germans know the Italian rail betterthan real Italian is so you can connect and look at schedules so this is the onedownfall to this app though so look up a train schedule you do need a connectionwifi our data but there are some tricks to use it offline but first just to getfamiliar with ithere's your Start screen with it being go here and you can just put in whereyou're going to top you'll see I was looking Amsterdam to Paris I gave it thedate and then it give me some options you can also then easily see that thereis the departure time the arrival time how many connections how long theduration of the trip is a good idea of which one you want to connect with inthis case you probably 10 connection that second you can also click thespecific route and see where you're transferring in this case as a transferin Rotterdam tells you how long your transfer is you can even click it againand we'll tell you every intermediate stop this is help me a couple times whenI've may be falling asleep on the train wake uppanic did I miss my stop the trains usually tell you at the next stop isopen this and seen only by a few more stops that's good and when I say openthis on the train I'm usually offline so there's a little step that I like tomake sure you're prepared for and these beautiful pictures I'm taking is done bytaking a screenshot of your phone and this is great to have information yousearched ahead of time available offline and what you have to doAndroid or Apple as you press the power button I use it turns on and off thescreen on the side or the top and the home button using the round button onthe bottom press them at the same time on Apple devices using if you're soundson you'll hear a click a camera and a flash Android you have to hold a littlebit longer but same thing usually some sort of / or square will highlight andthat means your screen has been moved to your camera roll away your pictures arethat you normally take so what I like to do sometimes with bond is a look at theschedule I'm going to be using take a screenshot and that way when I'm on thetrain offline later I can just open up the picture of what I should beexpecting you can also do with confirmation emails let's say you got alittle bar code that someone has to scan later take a screenshot of it and I canuse it offline you can even use that with some of the map at that you want tomake sure that you have a map for youoffline in a picture mode although again maps of gotten better for offline usethe 480 body bond and everything else like that I do think it's really good topractice taking screenshots have them saved on your phone for offline use thatagain is right here there are few more general absurd I think are well worthlooking at before you travelof course Rick Steves Auto Europe and I'm actually very proud of this one Iknow rick is to rate is always wanted to be Your tour guide you always want to bethere with you but you can't be with everyone at all times so luckily thisfree app he can actually give you audio tours where he is your guide in your earit also has access to all his podcasts which are as radio programs and thesecan range from a guide that he's having an interview with an expert who wrote abook about something and it's a good way to get you excited about where you'regoing to learn a little bit more about the background the way the app works isyou download things ahead of time meaning when you're connected to wifiyou download the audio tour or the podcast that you want to listen to whenit's downloaded to your device you can listen to it offline cuz we know youdon't want to be connected while you're traveling to download it ahead of timethe podcast actually worked great for that long flight you probably haveanywhere between six and 12 hours of flight time so you wanna get moreexcited about where you're going to sit back listen to that interview learnsomething more about your next destination or even if you're renting acar you have one long trip or even a train ride another good chance for youto just relax and learn without having to stretch yourself too much but to findinformation with you download the app as you go to add tracks and you pick thedestination of where you're going when you're on the next screen you'll pickthose tracks you want to download why you're connected in this case you'll seethat in the Britain London locationsthere's the British Museum and if you see that little blue it's from berlin atthe walking across crossing guard signal in Berlin Berlin that means it's awalking tour and that's where Rick will be your guide through your device toyour your phonebelow that you'll see some more of the general information whether it's justsome travel tips for you whether the podcast but anything that catches youreyedownload ahead of time it's gonna be put in your playlist from there that's whereyou can access anything you've downloaded ahead of time and then youcan just sit back some great walking once even as a few that use of publicflirtation there's one that you jump on evaporate on the Grand Canal in Veniceand he'll tell you what you should be noticing he also has one around the ringstrossen Vienna and so he keeps trying to add more and more disease but whyyou're listening to it on the device you'll see a picture of what you shouldbe looking at you composite which works great on those public transportation audio tours because sometimes they don't move the same speed as rick was recording it so if there's a delay its nice deposit wait for the next one tohappen you can even bring up the map to get an idea of where it is you're going to be going to try and stay on target and with that also if you're having a hard time understanding rick'sEdmonds accentthere are the scripts to they can read along with so you have some options foryoutrip it is great for the type a person who wants to really keep everything organized I i know i some of my early trips had big piles of papers I printed out just to make sure everything was in order and this will help save you someweight help save some trees and it does a very good job of keeping thingsorganized you can actually allowed trip it to access your email and it will scanit every now and then and look for if you have any confirmation emails whether it's from Arab air travel from hotels car rentals anything on those line and you can also add things yourself you want to put a specific node about a certain day but ill put it in that chronological order for you great icons with the time you can see in this folder trip Lite's Allen answereda thing connected empty and Luxembourg stayed at Hotel little bit later I tooka train and so just keep that all organized for you the one thing I also like about it is what you're seeing here it saves your past trips so up new ones getting ready for you but it saves all the old information so in a year from now when you think what hotel did we stay in Luxembourg you access your past trips and see everything you did and if you want a visual what your trip is gonna look like when you're traveling has great map feature to where you can see where it's going trip it works decently well offline but you do need it to connect to update anything new but what is updated it works offline it just won't pull anything new that you might have reserved but that's usually enough for most people before you fly out connected or upload everything you need you're good to go to a trip it really has helped us keep that organized and again I love looking back at what I've done Dropbox connects to the cloud and I know a lot of people have heard about this class that we're all putting our data in just its very handy for travelers one tip that you still can do but you can shift it is we've always said have a printed copy of your passport some where in your bag or somewhere just on hand I actually think drop box is a better choice to put a scanned copy of your passport within their they have protection codes you need accounts to log in and this way you can actually access your passport any where Dropbox can also be accessed through a computer you go to their website you sign in and it's anything you upload it to it is available meaning if you do lose your passport or unfortunately have it stolen you can go to a hotel lobby computer even just ask your hotel borrow their computer or your passport a printed version of your passport is enough to get into a embassy and that we can start getting everything issued for the replacement the other documents It hink are well worth having in your Dropbox for travel are things like a packing list if you're that type of person actually have that to make sure remembering what you're bringing home and also to put in the phone numbers to your credit card companies you don't necessarily need a credit card