Confession time: I love traveling and exploring new places, but I have always strongly disliked travel planning.
It’s always been a tension area for me and my then boyfriend (you knew him as D) ever since we first started traveling. See, I’m the “go with the flow” type. I get to a place and just wander around and see what interesting things we can find. D, on the other hand, was a planner. He had to have all the logistics figured out, as well as a list of things to do/see and how to get to each.
But I mean, travel planning is hard. I’m really really bad at it. I just don’t have the patience to research and read a bunch of articles of what to do. And then plot all those places onto a map and figure out a route. This led to a lot of popular sights being missed due to my lack of planning.
GPSMyCity helps the planning-challenged
Luckily, apps like GPSMyCity is here for the lazy planners like myself! GPSMyCity provides travel guides and walking tours of over 700 cities around the world. So even if you arrive somewhere totally unprepared, you can just download one and go on your own walking tour.
I find this to be a great compromise. The planners can easily plan out what they want to hit up, while the wanderers will enjoy the freedom of walking around unguided.
For example, for Kuala Lumpur, here are some of the walk options:
Another thing that GPSMyCity provides is travel articles all in one place. And the awesome thing is that these travel articles are written by bloggers such as myself! I love it that they are working with bloggers to get our articles out to a wider audience. And we get to share our knowledge with other travelers.
Offline maps
You can download any travel article for free. The app will save it and then you can read it anytime you want without internet. This is so great because 1) all these articles are just all in one place to easily search, and 2) it’s such huge help when you can access them without WiFi.
You also have the option of upgrading any article (for $1.99) to include a GPS-guided map. The map will include all the points of interest suggested in the article along with a walking path if you so wish to do a self-guided walking tour.
But the important thing is that this map is completely accessible offline. A lot of times when we travel, if we’re just in a city for a few days, it’s not even worth the trouble or cost of purchasing a local SIM card. And then we’re pretty dead/lost if we can’t look up directions on google maps.
Giveaway
I’m happy to announce that some of my blog posts have been turned into articles on GPSMyCity. And to celebrate it, I’m giving away 2 free upgrades (more details later)!
So here’s how these articles and maps work:
Let’s say you’re taking a trip to Hanoi (one of my favorite places I’ve visited!), and you search “what to eat in Hanoi” in google. You’ll probably come across this article. So you read it, but now you have to find these restaurants… and do you see how confusing Vietnamese street names are?!
Well, the guys at GPSMyCity have found the addresses of every location mentioned and plotted it on a map. And you can use this map offline without wi-fi or data. So now when you get to Hanoi, all you have to do is pull this up, and follow the route. The app will give you turn-by-turn directions to each point of interest.
So you can leave the planning to GPSMyCity and just enjoy your sticky rice and egg coffee!
mmmmm still dreaming about this…. pate over sticky rice!
This is honestly a pretty genius app. So I was more than happy to work with the company when the guys at GPSMyCity contacted me.
As an introduction to this app, I am giving away free upgrades of my most popular post “What to Eat in Hanoi”, beginning today December 12, and ending Sunday December 18.
I know a ton of people read this article every month, so I’m guessing that means there are a lot of travelers to Hanoi, which means that this could really benefit some of you!
Here’s how to get it:
- Download the GPSmyCity app. It’s free. Then browse by city (such as Hanoi) to find this article and download it for free. For this limited time, the upgrade to get the GPS-guided map is free too!
- Or click on the links below, and you should be prompted to download the app. After it downloads, you’ll be directed to the article.
Here are my current articles on GPSMyCity (the ones with “giveaway” are eligible for free upgrades):
Thanks to GPSmyCity for the awesome app and for allowing me to share this giveaway! I did not receive any compensation for writing about it. But if you do upgrade one of my articles on GPSMyCity, I will receive a very small fee. But remember, for this week, upgrades for 2 of these posts are free!
Travel planning is such a snore. I didn’t mind when we went to The States, since we had a lot of time, so it was quite relaxing. But if we’re just going for a weekend away, I don’t really bother. I just had a little browse, stick some stars on Google maps and make it up as I go along. Luckily, Kris doesn’t mind that so much anymore. He used to be a bit more uptight about plans, but I’ve worked with that so now we just plod around. Walking about is my favourite way to see anywhere.
The only thing I plan is food. I make sure we have a few options and where they are. I just can’t be bothered with food, so I like to just have that sorted. Hungry travellers make for cranky trips haha!
Ugh I hate travel planning. I really just lack the patience. I don’t understand how some people LOVE it and make spreadsheets and stuff. I’ll plan for food to some degree since I do like eating good food! D liked watching Anthony Bourdain and finding the places he went to, and we’ll follow that. But even for food, I just ask locals or airbnb hosts what they recommend!