Sygic

Sygic GPS Navigation is a free smartphone application available on both Android and iOS that provides a full-featured navigation system that can be used both online and offline. It uses screen and audio signals to provide door-to-door information on travel, live traffic, speed cameras, parking places and gas price suggestions. It offers maps for more than 200 countries around the world and operates in more than 30 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Greek.

A great feature of using Sygic to help navigate from A to B is the ability to view maps in both 2D and 3D modes. Where apps like Google Maps only offer a bird’s eye view, with Sygic you can opt for the smart-looking 3D display that uses vibrant colours to help features to stand out when driving.

Regular map updates are completely free of charge, meaning you can throw away the old map you have and forget worrying about heading towards a road that no longer exists. I particularly like the fact that you can download specific maps to be accessed offline, as it means that you can save money on data roaming charges when travelling in another country, as well as battery life on your phone.

However, although Sygic is quite clearly a very hi-tech application when it comes to navigation, its service comes at a price. The basic package is free to use but to access any of the add-ons you must pay a premium, for example, for features such as voice navigation, real time traffic information and unlimited maps. With these features available for free on other apps, such as Maps.me, it would not be the first choice for backpackers.

David Jones

I am a professional travel writer and travel enthusiast who traveled the world twice, so I am sharing my firsthand knowledge about everything related to travel and spending time abroad.