sat nav for uk car trip to spain

[bordseye]

what is the easiest and cheapest way forward. I have an older garmin but in the UK prefer to use waze. However I cant find how to downlaod spanish maps into waze which suggests it works on live data. I dont want to pay for eu data roaming. Here used to allow map downloads but doesnt see highly rated these days.

whats the best way forward?

[hellorent]

Here we go, used it all over france, spain n portugal

[TEKNOPUG]

Copilot downloads maps and stores them internally, so you just need a GPS signal to work.

[Jimbo.]

Google Maps allows you to download maps onto your device in advance.

[AW10]

Any chance you have a new enough phone for it to be dual SIM and capable of taking a eSIM? You can get v cheap data roaming by buying an appropriate eSIM through apps like Zim or via airolo.

[Mars]

Jimbo. said:

Google Maps allows you to download maps onto your device in advance.

And as Google owns Waze now, is there any benefit to using Waze anymore?

[Granadier]

No idea but I used Google Maps for walking directions in Barcelona recently and it was quite amusing hearing the British Google lady trying to pronounce Spanish road names

[littleredrooster]

GiffGaff allows me 5GB per month of EU roaming from my allowance and this has, so far, been more than enough to just use Waze for all of our continental trips.

[AW10]

Mars said:

And as Google owns Waze now, is there any benefit to using Waze anymore?

waze has crowd sourced road info - Google doesn’t

[Mars]

AW10 said:

Mars said:

And as Google owns Waze now, is there any benefit to using Waze anymore?

waze has crowd sourced road info - Google doesn’t

Yes it does. I even add to it myself.

[AW10]

So it does; hadn’t noticed that before. Thanks for the correction. The distinction between Waze and Google maps seems less the clear.

[Mars]

AW10 said:

So it does; hadn’t noticed that before. Thanks for the correction. The distinction between Waze and Google maps seems less the clear.

I suspect Google will kill Waze off like they did to the Revolv thermostats after they bought the company and poured that IP into Nest.

[the-norseman]

I use Waze but abroad I did find Google Maps better, just wish Goolge Maps would show live speed, it just shows sped limits occasionally and that is it, even though the setting is turned on for live speed.

[croyde]

I used Google Maps to go up Mt Ypsarion on Thassos. Hire company said I needed a 4x4 and rented me a Jimny.

The track was bloody rough and lots of rocks and boulders but I gamely pushed on thinking that many others had done the trip in similar little 4x4s.

It was getting quite hairy and at 3000ft altitude we got stuck on a pretty steep slope which was all rocks with the Sat Nav saying we only had 3kms to go.

I had to reverse it down for about 400 metres with the poor car tipping from one alarming angle to the other.

I'm still thinking that plenty have done this before me and my lady friend was telling me that we should have gone the way she had said.

Luckily I had OS maps on my phone and a signal, which brought up a detailed Greek version which showed me that we were up the wrong mountain on completely the wrong track.

A slow difficult descent was undertaken in a different direction. After a while two Greek guys in a massive 4x4 pickup came from the opposite direction, pointing at us with eyes wide open in amazement. First people we'd seen in 3 hours.

They were from a marble quarry and once passed that we were on just rough roads, the like the rental cars were meant for.

Checking Google reviews for that mountain had a few people commenting that the point in Google Maps was a few miles north of where Ypsarion actually is.

We never made it as it was our last day, it was hot and we needed a beach to go swimming and clean all the dust off

The actual route can't be that hard as people were posting that they'd gone up there on scooters and sports motorcycles.

To be honest, it's the first time that Google has let me down. Next time I'll use a proper map.

[the-norseman]

Mars said:

I suspect Google will kill Waze off like they did to the Revolv thermostats after they bought the company and poured that IP into Nest.

Well Google has had 10 years to kill it off as they purchased Waze in 2013.

[trumptriple]

As mentioned above, Here We Go and Google Maps you can download your maps and use them without data. I'm driving to Spain myself soon, do it every year and use one of these.

I prefer Here We Go, but Google is better for finding shops/restaurants, etc.

[davek_964]

I'm a bit lost on the refusal to pay for roaming.

Even if your contract doesn't include it, don't most operators offer some kind of short term roaming package for trips like this? It would make it a lot simpler.

[bordseye]

Decided to have a look at downloading maps from waze onto my i phone but found you have first to put in a route. How do you downlaod the map of a whole country - Spain say - so that you can wander when you get there rather than go to pre selected destinations?

[Mars]

the-norseman said:

I use Waze but abroad I did find Google Maps better, just wish Goolge Maps would show live speed, it just shows sped limits occasionally and that is it, even though the setting is turned on for live speed.

In SatNav mode it shows both speed limits and your current live speed.

[Freddie Fitch]

"Best way forward" is to pay for data roaming.
You will then be able to keep up with PH.