I found the following method to be very useful - Use a paper map, decently large to see names of street. - Spend some time looking at it familiarizing with over

I found the following method to be very useful - Use a paper map, decently large to see names of street. - Spend some time looking at it familiarizing with overal shape of the city area of interest (probably more useful for europe where city centers tend to be quite irregular) - Mark your key points, where you live, where you work, where friends live etc. - Walk around your area to discover places you will need (supermarket, small groceries shop, a bar, a laundry....). Mark some or all on the map. (not so much for future reference but because it forces you to think about where they are in relation to all the rest). - Take one afternoon or more to just walk around a wider area (maybe the city center), pay attention to what you see, mark intersting spots on your phone (if you don't want to walk around map in hand), then transfer all on your paper map. - Take every opportunity to walk to places (again, easier in Europe).