When I'm in a new city, I navigate with a GPS for the first few trips around, then I start progressively getting rid of it: First, I let the unit plot my route

When I'm in a new city, I navigate with a GPS for the first few trips around, then I start progressively getting rid of it: First, I let the unit plot my route, and I study it for a minute before getting under way, but then I put it face-down on the passenger seat and try to navigate from memory. It's right there if I need a hint, though, still tracking. Some while after that, I'll let the unit plot my route, but then simply turn it off. If I get lost or turned around, I'll pull into a parking lot and turn it back on, get my bearings again, turn it back off, and try again. This adds a bit of pressure to the recall, and really steps up my brain's navigation abilities. I've found that these few simple steps, and just maybe a dozen trips, make me learn VERY quickly. I'm no longer a tourist, I feel like "I belong here", and that's a big deal for me. Feeling comfortable in a place is important, and knowing my way around is a huge part of that. ---- Related (and reposted from an old comment of mine): Some time back, I gave my old TomTom to a not-very-technically adept friend. I figured a little introduction was in order, and at first, I asked her to interact with the unit while I did the driving. The first thing I did was ignore every instruction. A few minutes of https://xkcd.com/1837/ https://xkcd.com/1837/ ensued. Because I wanted to drive home the point, you won't break the machine by ignoring it. If you don't feel like making that turn, just don't make it. The voice in the box will just recalculate, it won't get annoyed, it has infinite patience and can recalculate for as many maneuvers as you feel like missing. This is a crucial bit of understanding that I think many drivers lack, as they blindly try to follow impossible or unsafe maneuvers like the computer's word must be obeyed absolutely. This should be part of driver's-ed.