We just came back from a short trip to Boston this week. Being so close, we didn’t do a lot of planning (except for food – more blogs on that later). Instead we went equipped with a data plan and a phone and explored that way – although effectively, we only used two apps – Google Maps and Foursquare.

Google Maps was essential because you can get a unlimited ride pass for a WEEK on the MBTA for only $15 and we ended up using this a lot instead of walking around everywhere. Unfortunately, the MBTA routes don’t make a lot of sense so we had to look up the routes between destinations quite frequently. Google Maps is also generally useful when you have no idea where you are or need to search for a specific place that is nearby.

In the past, I’ve used Yelp to find places to eat when I didn’t know where to go, but the more frequently I’ve used it the more that I’ve found it lacking. I tried it once while in Cambridge and it suggested a places in central Boston! I didn’t want to go there, I wanted some place nearby! I later found a setting where you could restrict the area and ranking of the search, but I don’t want to do this every time.

I found myself using Foursquare more and more. I could search the nearby area for interesting things and I could also quickly scan tips to see what was interesting there (instead of reading through reviews). In fact, I used the tip feature a lot; because I didn’t remember or research what was supposed to be good at each place I went. Both Google Maps and Foursquare are essential tools, although you’d need data to take advantage of it.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: 4sq, google, travelling