Easy. Have a smartphone and a data plan. Your life is saved. Is it?

True… and false.

1. Get Citymapper

Luckily, London has one of the most accurate GPS tracker. So your connected smartphone can know exactly where you are. Postal codes in London also work very well. No need to remember all the lengthy details of an address, just the 6 or 7 character code is enough.

And luckily, in London you can use Citymapper — an app to show you the exact way to go from your <current location> or <insert a postal code> to <insert another postal code>, either if you walk, drive or travel by public transport. The app can also estimate the travel time with real-time updates of bus and train arrivals.

But be cautious! There are certain times Citymapper cannot help you. When your data plan runs out, when your phone battery dies, or worse, when your phone is not even with you anymore — three circumstances that share a fair chance to happen. So what to do? Keep reading.

2. Listen Carefully to the Bus/Train Vocal Guide

It’s not just to leave at the correct stop. Native speakers might find it funny, but really, foreigners should listen and remember how a place is pronounced.

I had never known “Greenwich” was NOT like green witch. Neither “Fulham” was full ham. The correct pronunciation for “Ruislip” can surprise English learners as a foreign language as well.

Listen and remember correctly, because you will definitely need it to…

3. Ask Other Passengers

Passengers in London are very nice and willing to help… as long as they can. If they cannot, it’s either because (i) they don’t understand you or (ii) they don’t know better than you.

And how to minimise the chance of both? Pronouncing the name correctly is important (see section 2), but you should also try to ask something they are likely to know.

Don’t ask by a street name, unless you are certainly very close to it already. London addresses are more known by postal code, nearest stations than the name of the street. A lot of streets share a part of the name but they are completely different, or even very far away from one another.

Choose a station with more traffic. If a station is a junction of more than a tube line, it has a better chance to be remembered. Regarding this, see section 4.

If you really have to ask people around, be patient. This is the city that welcomes 17 million tourists a year, so you may very well be asking someone that has just arrived London yesterday. Thus it’s definitely unwise to ask passengers for ways in the middle of Oxford Circus.

4. Explore Maps, Guides and Signs As Much As Possible

Believe it or not, I really enjoy just looking at the map on a train trying to figure out this and that.

Guides of the TFL are extremely awesome. They are clear, logical and optimised for necessity.

Some people don’t pay attention to places they don’t need to go. But knowledge never hurts, it can only help you when you least expect it. For example, the line map on a tube train can tell you which stations have more traffic as more lines cross by, or which stations are more likely to be known.

If I hadn’t stared at the tube map for so many times, even at places I never had a plan to go to, I wouldn’t have known that adding “Road” to “Edgware Station” will make a whole world of difference. And be careful, there are two stations that share the name of “Edgware Road” and “Bethnal Green” as well.

On the other hand, it can also be fun to play with your brain a little bit to think of why you can change from Hammersmith & The City Line to Metropolitan Line (and vice versa) at any stop between Great Portland Street and Moorgate, but it’s not shown as so on the train guide.

5. Explore More, In General

My first days in London were associated with my smartphone. It was so helpful that I was confident to travel alone without asking anyone. Until my data plan ran out and I had to find ways on my own.

That was when I realised how much I could see without a digital device.

At the end of the entry titled “How to Not Get Lost in London”, I would like to recommend you to get lost in London every once in a while. Let your mind, eyes and feet wander from your iphone, your Facebook and your comfort zone.

I did, and I was helped by a blond hair woman who walked five minutes to take me to a cash withdrawal before getting back to her date at a restaurant near Soho Square.

I did, and my eyes could capture the best sunset landscape at St. James’s Park that no photograph on the internet can.

I did, and I do plan to get lost more sometime later on.