Disclaimer: I have not been offered any incentive by the app developers, or anyone else, for this post. I use the paid version of this app myself, paid for by myself. The app developers, however, have offered me an offer code that the readers of my blog can use to get 1 free year of the app. Details are at the end of the blog.

My family and I love holidays (who doesn’t?) and our favourite MO, when ‘urban holidaying’, is to walk and explore. The standard process to do this is:
– read up a few blogs to find some places of interest (food, drink, attractions etc.) — my wife normally does this
– create a list on Google Maps and save some/all places in a list — that’s me
– look at the map and decide the most optimal route for the day — that’s me, too

I would always wonder why Google Maps could not just provide the most optimal walking route once a few places were added to a list. It remained a pet peeve for a long time, and still is, as far as Google Maps is concerned. Then I came across the GPSmyCity app.

I used this app when I was on a solo trip to Brussels and Ghent a couple of months ago and felt as if someone watched the process my wife and I follow and decided to make an app out of it. This is how it works:

1. Find your City:
To get started, you search for the city you are travelling to (the app covers 1,500+ currently), and ‘Launch’ it. this downloads all the necessary data so that the app can then be used offline as well.

2. Decide what you want to see:
There are broadly two ways to do so – just follow one of the recommended walks, and there are many of them, or create your own custom walks (max 20 places in one walk). For the latter, there is a list of all listed attractions for that city that can be bookmarked to make the process easier, or you can choose/bookmark places from the various blogs and articles they have, or from an existing walk. If a particular place you want to visit (or start your walk from, like your hotel) is not listed on the map then you can, very easily, add it yourself.

3. Follow the route:
Once you have decided your walk, you can either follow the recommended route, or drag and drop from the list of places in your walk to create your own route as well.

Pricing:
All the city info, travel blogs etc. are available free of charge but the mapping and navigation comes at a cost. For $18.99 per year, one can get access to all the travel blogs, info, and mapping and navigation features. There is a 3-day free trial of all features so you can give it a whirl before you buy.

Special Offer:
The app developers have offered me 10 one-year memberships as a giveaway. Each membership works on two devices. If you are keen to avail of it then you can download the GPSmyCity app from your app store, and register an account. Then go to More > Feedback and email them the claim code Abhi231130.

That’s it. I hope you enjoy this app as much as I do.