Does WAZE work in Europe?

[RDMcG]

I generally use Waze as my default nav /warning system wherever I am in North America, put it up on AppleTalk and good to go.

I do have a Euro TomTom system but it does not have the live traffic etc that Waze does. No idea if it operates in Europe (especially Germany / Austria). Would be grateful for any info- many thanks.

[LimaDelta]

Yes, it does.

[Badda]

Put an address in and see for yourself.

[omniflow]

It works absolutely fine. I've never found anywhere in Europe where it doesn't work.

[Mark V GTD]

Works in Asia too.

[RDMcG]

Many thanks. I go to Germany quite frequently and for some reason it never occurred to me to use Waze there. My stupidity!.

[PugwasHDJ80]

GPS doesn't work well for long distance planning, great in towns but down use it to plan a trip across france- it's caused chaos for us in France.

[numtumfutunch]

Id disagree with the above

A few years ago we made the mistake of travelling across much of France on 'black Saturday'

Waze was fantastic routing us around the major pinch points, a highlight was a toll free dual carriageway from Poitiers to Bordeaux which ran perfectly well in contrast to the Peage our friends took which was stationary saving us significantly in time and money

Cheers

[RDMcG]

I generally do a bit of advance mapping so this is more of an additional aid to the trip than the only source, but this is very helpful.

Here in Canada and in the US the speed trap warnings are excellent, plus any warnings of accidents, road closures etc.

[Boleros]

Check your settings though, I could have avoided an extra two hours on a journey in Switzerland if I’d unticked avoid toll roads. Grrr.

[RDMcG]

Boleros said:

Check your settings though, I could have avoided an extra two hours on a journey in Switzerland if I’d unticked avoid toll roads. Grrr.

WIll do. I generally do not avoid toll roads here, esp on the long trans-US trips.

[Truckosaurus]

RDMcG said:

Here in Canada and in the US the speed trap warnings are excellent, plus any warnings of accidents, road closures etc.

The speed camera warnings work well in France - they announce them as 'Police ahead' as technically it is illegal to 'detect' speed cameras.

Interestingly, America is the only place I've had issues with Waze, it kept wanting to send you onto HOV lanes which in a couple of places separate from the main lanes at interchanges.

I did a road trip of WW1 sites around France/Belgium totally with Waze, just treated it as a Magical Mystery Tour as it sent you down all these little country lanes. (Perhaps why someone above said it caused them trouble, if you want to stay on main roads)

[Mr Magooagain]

numtumfutunch said:

Id disagree with the above



Waze was fantastic routing us around the major pinch points, a highlight was a toll free dual carriageway from Poitiers to Bordeaux which ran perfectly well in contrast to the Peage our friends took which was stationary saving us significantly in time and money

Cheers

Yes it’s common in France, you will have traveled on the RN 10 (free)
Route national = RN 10
Autoroute. = A 10

[durbster]

It works but I did read you can be stopped if you're seen using Waze in France because using any kind of speed camera detection is illegal.

There's an alternative called Here We Go. I tended to use that because you can download the entire route in advance, so I didn't have to rely on mobile data.

[WyrleyD]

durbster said:

It works but I did read you can be stopped if you're seen using Waze in France because using any kind of speed camera detection is illegal.

There's an alternative called Here We Go. I tended to use that because you can download the entire route in advance, so I didn't have to rely on mobile data.

Never had any problems with the Gendarmes when using Waze when I lived in France, even when being stopped for vehicle/document checks which occurred 2/3 times a year around where we lived.

[andy43]

WyrleyD said:

durbster said:

It works but I did read you can be stopped if you're seen using Waze in France because using any kind of speed camera detection is illegal.

There's an alternative called Here We Go. I tended to use that because you can download the entire route in advance, so I didn't have to rely on mobile data.

Never had any problems with the Gendarmes when using Waze when I lived in France, even when being stopped for vehicle/document checks which occurred 2/3 times a year around where we lived.

The French just mark fixed cameras as ‘police spotted’ so I'd argue it’s not a camera database which is indeed illegal. Waze works great in Europe and if you’re set to ‘visible’ the number of other Waze users you can see on some roads suggests it’s far more widely used than the uk.

[durbster]

WyrleyD said:

durbster said:

It works but I did read you can be stopped if you're seen using Waze in France because using any kind of speed camera detection is illegal.

There's an alternative called Here We Go. I tended to use that because you can download the entire route in advance, so I didn't have to rely on mobile data.

Never had any problems with the Gendarmes when using Waze when I lived in France, even when being stopped for vehicle/document checks which occurred 2/3 times a year around where we lived.

That's good to know, thanks.

[//j17]

Boleros said:

Check your settings though, I could have avoided an extra two hours on a journey in Switzerland if I’d unticked avoid toll roads. Grrr.

But (assuming you're not Swiss/in a Swiss hire car) you'd have had to stop somewhere to buy a Vignette (CHF 40) to be able to use those Swiss toll roads - probably worth it to save 2hrs but cost/benefit ratio drops with the time saving.

[Boleros]

//j17 said:

Boleros said:

Check your settings though, I could have avoided an extra two hours on a journey in Switzerland if I’d unticked avoid toll roads. Grrr.

But (assuming you're not Swiss/in a Swiss hire car) you'd have had to stop somewhere to buy a Vignette (CHF 40) to be able to use those Swiss toll roads - probably worth it to save 2hrs but cost/benefit ratio drops with the time saving.

I did but what I didn’t know was that Waze defaulted (or so it seemed given that I’d driven through France on the toll roads) to not using toll roads in Switzerand. So I bought the vignette, cos you have to, but Waze then took me on the non-toll roads.

To be fair the drive was quite scenic but given my wife was in another car, I was confused when she was on a completely different road and way ahead of me. It only dawned on me when we got to our hotel.

[Whataguy]

andy43 said:

WyrleyD said:

durbster said:

It works but I did read you can be stopped if you're seen using Waze in France because using any kind of speed camera detection is illegal.

There's an alternative called Here We Go. I tended to use that because you can download the entire route in advance, so I didn't have to rely on mobile data.

Never had any problems with the Gendarmes when using Waze when I lived in France, even when being stopped for vehicle/document checks which occurred 2/3 times a year around where we lived.

The French just mark fixed cameras as ‘police spotted’ so I'd argue it’s not a camera database which is indeed illegal. Waze works great in Europe and if you’re set to ‘visible’ the number of other Waze users you can see on some roads suggests it’s far more widely used than the uk.

I've used Waze before, it works fine as long as you have sufficient roaming data and a mobile signal. Not usually a problem as it doesn't use much data.

I mostly use TomTom Go on a phone in Europe for the route bar that shows you where any problems are on your route. It also runs from downloaded maps, so any temporary loss of signal isn't an issue.

TomTom get round the camera issue in France by calling them 'safety zones' instead when you get a warning. It's the same thing though.