Got to say, that's my preferred method as a public transport user/pedestrian in London who sometimes goes to unfamiliar parts of town. A few minutes with the map beforehand and the help of a button compass (Suunto Clipper is my favourite), and I seem to get to the destination very easily when a few street names and bearings are committed to memory.

I used to get to the destination station, and would wait for the phone to get a reliable connection to download the map tiles... then the dodgy phone "compass"/magnetometer needed calibration, so wave it in a figure eight for a while, try to reconcile surroundings with arrow that keeps flipping direction, etc.

I get on much better with "south out of station, left onto X street, right onto Y street, final left onto Z street, then watch out for that building eyeballed on Google Streetview earlier".

You can even just go by street signs and general directions sometimes. I don't know if I have any paper maps any more. Plus, you know, reading maps while driving is probably as dangerous as texting.

The other day, I left home intending to go to a hospital near where I live. As I usually do, I plugged my phone into my car and tried to tell it to navigate there. But for some reason it hung while trying to contact Google to locate the address.

So I rebooted my phone, and rebooted my car, to no avail. Eventually I gave up, and based on the general knowledge that the hospital was to the south east, took one of the main roads through the city east, until I saw the first of several blue "H" signs directing me to the hospital.

My car has an electronic compass as well, if I didn't know which way was east/south.

road closed. detours. insane levels of traffic you didn't anticipate. have fun.