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A few days back I tweeted about how much I was enjoying the Lonely Planet feature on my phone, but it’s seriously so amazing I just have to go into more detail. I even went to the effort to find an app to take screenshots.

I hadn’t really used the GPS much on this phone, because the zoom was faulty and would wildly zoom in and out on your location without any user input. But I’ve now had the issue fixed, and I’ve started having a play. The super planner in me has had far too much fun with this. This is the first screen when you push the Maps button.

The “Weather” and “Events” functions are also fantastic, but they are not the jewel that Lonely Planet is. When you start it up, it recognises where you are and displays this screen

I feel like I know enough about Melbourne at the moment, so I searched for one of the cities I am visiting for some ideas.

If you scroll down from the city guide summary screen, it gives you a list of options to click on

All of these are handy categories, but I am most interested in things to see while I am there.

Considering I’m not in Paris at the moment, I’m not sure how it is calculating that I am 51m away from Pont Neuf, but I can verify that the distances it tells me for Melbourne sights are correct. This will be quite handy if I find myself bored in Paris (or any other city) and want something to see nearby!

I am also not sure quite how many sights are loaded into this thing, the most pages I have managed to make it through is six before I got bored, but I had only made it to about 3km away from my “location” so there must be hundreds of them.

If you select one, it brings up this page with more information, the closest public transport stop, and icons to call, email or visit the website of the attraction. If any of this information is unavailable, the button is greyed out.

If you select the final icon, it displays a little LP logo of the attraction on the map.

And if you select the icon, it gives you a list of options. At the moment I am a big fan of ‘Save Place’ but I get the feeling ‘Walk to’ will come in very, very handy when I’m on the other side of the world.

So now I’m not worried about not having somewhere to eat, or missing any major attractions, or not having a roof over my head anywhere in my travels because of this handly wee thing. I’ve already set up an ‘Accommodation’ folder in my Saved Places, I have every single hostel, hotel and camping ground saved on my map so I can find them easily. But best of all, all of these functions are totally free!