Fredbargate

I am planning a trip to the States later this year.

To add a Sat Nav to the car hire will cost about $200 for the period of my stay.

Looking on Amazon USA I can buy one for $100.

However every time I try to buy they say not available to your country.

I have tried various addresses to no avail.

Any sugestions???

Dxf

Hi Fred,

What I did is to backup the maps on my existing Tom-Tom satnav, then bought Canada and North America for quite a cheap amount (35€) and installed it.

Then on my return, I backed up the Canada North America maps, and re-installed Europe

Davexf

ps. the backup of Europe had to be renamed to allow the backup of Canada /America otherwise the system overwrites your Europe backup

Fredbargate

Hi Dave

At the moment I do not have a Satnav, but would like to get one with USA maps so I can get to know how it works and preplan some of my trip so when I get off the plane late at night I can get in a car and drive off without having to think .


I do have Garmin Mobile PC Europe on my netbook but that is no longer supported.

amideislas

Do you have an android phone with GPS? You can download the entire country maps from google

Fredbargate

Thanks amideislas but no is the answer.

I do want a device that will work without being online most of the time running up data charges as I believe some phones do.

missile

You can hire Garmin for £24.98 here> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Premium-Garm...4456938&sr=8-1
You could buy a Garmin NUVI 1370T which has maps for EU and USA @ £149.95
If you can borrow a Garmin with SD card facility, use this > http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-Navig...4456673&sr=8-9

If you prefer Tom Tom, you can download USA maps online.

You can plan your routes on your PC using Tom Tom website then download to your sat nav.

amideislas

You don't need to be online. You can download the maps before you go.

Mitzyboy

Ive just done it

I have Tom Tom europe, so only enough room to have one map group
I saved the europe maps to my pc as a backup, and then installed the US Maps from Tom Tom. When I return I will remove the US onto my PC and reverse the procedure

Dxf

Hi Mitzy,

Beware - backing up a tom-tom will destroy previous backups!!! Or at least it did in my case. My solution was to rename the backup folder before backing up the second time.

Davexf

Mitzyboy

I actually go to file explorer on my pc to be honest and do it that way.
With tom tom also, when you go into manage my tom tom it will show you what is on the tom tom and on the pc
So I end up with a backup of the whole things, and a separate file with the maps ... complicated

missile

That looks like a Sanderson sofa in your downstairs lounge?

VFR

The Nokia Lumia (mine is the 800) has built in satnav with the maps on board & will work happily offline. The Nokia system is considered to have the best system out there & was the reason I bought this one & the fact that it does not need to be online.

amideislas

I'm sure the Nokia is great. But it doesn't use Google maps, does it? Say what you will about Google, but their maps are by far the most accurate.

Personally, I was shocked to discover the simplicity and brilliance of Sat Nav on an Android phone/tablet. It's really brilliant. I'd never buy a dedicated navi now.

Fredbargate

If I use a mobile telephone for GPS then the price from my local telecoms company will be something like Handset £400+. Then service at £40+ per month and if I travel outside Gib roaming charges.

Now I have a €20 phone and on PAYG I spend around £25 a year,

My original post was looking for a way to get a $100 satnav shipped to Gib.

However the post by amideislas has got me thinking. I have been considering buying a Nexus 7 to replace my EEEPC so that would put me into the Android world and possibly the free GPS programs or TomTom U.S.A. for $35.

However I believe Asus the manufacturer of the Nexus 7 are shortly going to market a similar tablet in their own name with better connectivity and expandable memory.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/asus-f...e-Phone_review

amideislas

Just be sure to download the maps you want using WIFI. It's easy, you open the navi app, move to the area of the planet you want, touch the settings menu, and then choose "download for offline use", select the specif area(s) you want, and wait till it all gets downloaded. Afterwards, you need not be connected.

CAVEATS: The larger the area you select, the larger the download, so you need to be sure to have the storage available. For example, don't download all of north America. Probably would require 10-15GB of storage.

For anything you'd likely be exploring in a few weeks, you'd probably need only 2-3GB of storage maximum.

Also, the Android navi can use google earth and street view for real-life satellite views as you are travelling. It's very slick and impressive, but the satellite images are not downloaded in advance (only the road maps), so be sure to turn this option off when travelling or else it will attempt to use the mobile network to download the satellite images in realtime.