One of the safety tips to consider in your trip is to not get lost by using tools such as Google Maps. It is especially true in new countries where you do not know the safe and dangerous streets. But before going further, let me tell you something important. Saudi Arabia is a safe country especially if you get lost. Ask people who visited Saudi Arabia, how many times they got lost and all local people ran to help them when they needed help.
Even if you are not lost, we want you to do this experiment when you visit Saudi Arabia. Ask any local people (Saudi people) about the directions and tell them that you are lost and ask them for help. We want to live the amazing experiment of how safe you are.
Anyway, even if the people in Saudi Arabia are nice and helpful. You need to do all you can to protect yourself. One way to do that is by relying on Google Maps. It is one of the most amazing services that people know. It is free and you can use it as a navigation app, find attractions, and compare the reviews of recusants, coffee shops, and hotels as well. People rely on Google Maps service more than anything else.
In this post, we will guide you to the following aspects of Google Maps:
- What is Google Maps?
- Advantages of Google Maps while traveling
- Top tricks and hacks of Google Maps when visiting Saudi Arabia
- Add Multiple Locations to your trip on Google Maps
- Download and Access Google Maps Offline
- Save your parking spot
- Share Your Location on Google Maps
- Use your voice in Google Maps via 'Hey Google, Where Am I Going?'
- Find out how busy an attraction is before going.
- Find out when the last transit trip home was
- Label/Mark your favorite and planned Places using Google Maps
- Find out the best time to visit a place using Google Maps
- Find restaurants and Café near you
- Use Google Maps for Navigation
What is Google Maps?
For people who do not know Google Maps, it is a web mapping platform and service provided by Google LLC. It gives you free access to satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets, real-time traffic conditions, and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bike, air, and public transportation.
You can use their services to plan your traveling or daily needs such as checking the traffic condition to go to your work. In this way, you can arrive faster by finding less busy routes.
Advantages of Google Maps while traveling
- Google Maps is free to use.
- Easy to use for free live navigation in all countries.
- Provide a variety of features and layers to plan your trip and travel.
- It is available for free on the desktop and mobile app.
- Most businesses around the world, such as restaurants and stores, are relying on Google Maps to provide information about their business information such as location, open hours, and phone number. It made it easy for you to locate your store when traveling.
- The maps are accurate and up-to-date map data.
- Google Maps platform provides offline map access and location sharing
Top tricks and hacks of Google Maps when visiting Saudi Arabia
Add Multiple Locations to your trip on Google Maps
When you are traveling to explore new areas, especially in a limited period of traveling such as a few days, you need to cover most places as much as possible. You need to visit many places every single day. You are not sure how to handle that. Google Maps gives you the option to include more than one stop and rank them based on your needs such as based on the distension. Here are step-by-step on how to add multiple locations to your trip on Google Maps:
Download and Access Google Maps Offline
It is an important feature when you don’t have a cell signal. You can use this feature in your first days after arriving in Saudi Arabia to help you get directions from/to your hotel to recusants and activities. This feature is important in areas with poor network coverage. Here are step-by-step to download offline maps in Google Maps:
- Search in Maps for the location where you want to go.
- In the location window, pull up the menu at the bottom.
- Scroll right through the tabs and tap Download Offline Map. Maps will download a map to your phone for the area you selected.
Save your parking spot
Because you are not from the country or city, there is a high chance of losing you can parking spot. Using the feature of labeling your car parking spot, you do not need to worry about the place where you park your car whether you parked it in the parking garage or neighbor. You can save your parking spot by opening Google Maps and tapping the blue dot marking your current location. Then, select Save Parking. A pin with the letter P will mark where you’ve parked.
Share Your Location on Google Maps
It is helpful in cases where you want to share your location with friends and family. Step-by-step of how to share your location in Google Maps
- Open Google Maps tap your profile icon in the top right corner and tap Location Sharing.
- Tap Share location and select who you want to share your location with and for how long you want to share it.
- You can change the amount of time to run the sharing location feature.
- If you want to see someone else’s location, tap that person’s icon at the top of the window and then tap Request.
Use your voice in Google Maps via ‘Hey Google, Where Am I Going?’
If you prefer to focus on the road without getting distracted using your phone by hand, Google Maps provides you with another feature to use voice commands for navigation, searching for places, and more. Just tap on the microphone icon and start providing your location and commands such as in using Siri. Here are step-by-steps on how to Use voice commands for navigation, and searching for places in Google Maps:
Find out how busy an attraction is before going.
Before you leave your restaurants, especially when you visit busy cities such as Riyadh, you need to make sure what is the traffic condition of the roads. Google Maps provides you with a good layer such as the Traffic layer. It gives indicators to realize the real-time condition of the traffic all over the map. The Red lines indicate heavy traffic, yellow lines indicate moderate traffic and green lines indicate smooth traffic. You can activate the traffic layer in Google Maps by following the simple step-by-step as the following:
Find out when the last transit trip home was
If you are using public transportation to move around the city while traveling, you need to be aware of when the last transit trip to your hotel/home will be. Google Maps allows you to know that. First. ensure you’ve entered your starting point and destination correctly (tap the up and down arrows icon to switch them around if necessary) and then tap the Depart at Time filter. You’ll see a section that says “Last.” Select that, then hit Set to see your options.
This is helpful to find public transportation details in Google Maps.
Label/Mark your favorite and planned Places using Google Maps
If you are one of these people who plan their trips, this feature in Google Maps is for you. For example, you may plan to visit some restaurants in Saudi Arabia, activities, and coffee shops. You can easily label them on the map before you arrive in Saudi Arabia. In this case, you are focusing on your plan without any destruction or need where to go or what to visit.
Find out the best time to visit a place using Google Maps
You need this feature when visiting famous restaurants and coffee shops in busy cities in Saudi Arabia such as Riyadh. These well-known restaurants and Café are crowded with people. Instead of spending hours waiting at the restaurant waiting area, you can check out the less busy time/hour during the day as the following:
This simple bar graph shows you the typical busy and quiet times during the week. Use it to plan your visit and avoid the rush! This way, you can relax and enjoy your trip more.
Find restaurants and Café near you
We understand that sometimes you feel lazy or just arrived from a long trip. You just want to eat anything to gain more energy and be ready for your activities and adventures. You want to look over the nearby restaurants and fast food to eat. Google Maps provides you the ability to find out the nearby fast food restaurants. Simply open the Google Maps app and type in ‘supermarket’ or ‘café’. The map will show you anything nearby that’s registered as one of those businesses, and how far away they are. Also, be sure to hit the ‘Open now’ button at the top of the screen, so you are only seeing open places.
Use Google Maps for Navigation
We left this feature of Google Maps at the end because most people and travelers are aware of it. We left it as a bounce in case you do know it. You can use Google Maps App on your phone as a navigation device. It is free. The only thing you need to do is just open the application of Google Maps on your phone and type any place, restaurant, or Café you want to visit. Then, click on Direction and select the routes you prefer based on the destination or time. Using the navigation feature in Google Maps, you can estimate the time and destination of your trip even if there is a delay. Here is a step-by-step of how to use Google Maps as navigation while visiting Saudi Arabia:
In conclusion, you need to remember that if you get lost in Saudi Arabia, do not worry. People are more than friendly to help you and assist you. Just ask them in the street or stores and you will find out that.
Remember, you need to get your Saudi Visa before you travel. We made an ultimate Guide to get your Saudi Visa from here.
