Euro trip planning, best sat nav?
Discussion
Happy Easter to all.
I have been considering paying a company to organise this trip for me but off of the back of advice received on PH I've decided to look into organising it all myself.
The game plan...
A 13 day trip out to the Italian lakes in late June. I intend to spend around 4 days chilling at the lakes and the rest of the time to the lakes driving on the best roads and passes possible.
I need some advice as to how best plan the routes from hotel to hotel. If anyone has done the very same trip and has detailed routes, places they stayed and any other info that would be amazing.
In any event I need to buy a suitable sat nav for the job. It needs to be something that allows complete manipulation of the routes and not something that just tries to get you from a to b as fast as possible. I've done a little reading and it seems some people have worked out the routes on their computer and then uploaded them to the sat nav. Well I'm afraid I'm not the best when it comes to computers so can anyone recommend the most pain free/idiot proof means of me sorting all of this out?
I'm massively excited about getting this all booked up and also a little nervous that I've left it too late and the hotels will all be gone! In any case I can't think of a better way to see in my 40th.
Thanks in advance,
Mike.
I have been considering paying a company to organise this trip for me but off of the back of advice received on PH I've decided to look into organising it all myself.
The game plan...
A 13 day trip out to the Italian lakes in late June. I intend to spend around 4 days chilling at the lakes and the rest of the time to the lakes driving on the best roads and passes possible.
I need some advice as to how best plan the routes from hotel to hotel. If anyone has done the very same trip and has detailed routes, places they stayed and any other info that would be amazing.
In any event I need to buy a suitable sat nav for the job. It needs to be something that allows complete manipulation of the routes and not something that just tries to get you from a to b as fast as possible. I've done a little reading and it seems some people have worked out the routes on their computer and then uploaded them to the sat nav. Well I'm afraid I'm not the best when it comes to computers so can anyone recommend the most pain free/idiot proof means of me sorting all of this out?
I'm massively excited about getting this all booked up and also a little nervous that I've left it too late and the hotels will all be gone! In any case I can't think of a better way to see in my 40th.
Thanks in advance,
Mike.
Many questions and some answers !
I would use a Garmin .. I currently have a Zumo which can be used on a bike
It all depend whether you are a motorway hugger or wish to get adventurous, I tend to head to Luxembourg to Saarbrucken to Pirmasens then into Germany's Black Forest onto the B500, head South into Switzerland and choose some mountain passes https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@46.8130219,6.88263,...
I would use a Garmin .. I currently have a Zumo which can be used on a bike
It all depend whether you are a motorway hugger or wish to get adventurous, I tend to head to Luxembourg to Saarbrucken to Pirmasens then into Germany's Black Forest onto the B500, head South into Switzerland and choose some mountain passes https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@46.8130219,6.88263,...
I use a Garmin with live traffic as a back up, in case my Tomtom traffic goes down.
Garmin is nowhere near as good as Tomtom in my case.
Having said that, I am on my second Tomtom 1005 and tried the new 5100, that's supposed to be their best current offering, and it's rubbish, having lost a wealth of features found on the 1005. It's maps are far less detailed in 2D as well.
Have you considered looking at some paper maps?
Garmin is nowhere near as good as Tomtom in my case.
Having said that, I am on my second Tomtom 1005 and tried the new 5100, that's supposed to be their best current offering, and it's rubbish, having lost a wealth of features found on the 1005. It's maps are far less detailed in 2D as well.
Have you considered looking at some paper maps?
Unfortunately modern TT devices since about 2011 have had a far inferior itinerary-planning capability. You have to go back to older devices to have the proper capability. Garmin devices allow full planning on a Google Maps interface via TYRE or ITNConverter then loading of itinerary files with multiple waypoints to the device.
nutsytvr said:
+1 for the garmin. Planned a france, switzerland, italy trip on mine last year; and an Arizona, California trip this year. Its very easy to set up bespoke routes using the "apps" facility.
anychance of a quick teach-in pleaseI've never planned a route before and don't know how to plan / upload - I've booked a trip away next monthe to Europe with Longers and he will supply the route (not sure how it comes yet .itn? whatever that is)
If I were you, I'd forget defining a route and loading it on a satnav.
If your satnav packs up, what would you do?
Get some good maps, plan your route and just use the satnav for your next destination.
Your journey will be more interesting if you've viewed it on a map and you'll have a picture in your mind that a satnav alone won't give you.
If your satnav packs up, what would you do?
Get some good maps, plan your route and just use the satnav for your next destination.
Your journey will be more interesting if you've viewed it on a map and you'll have a picture in your mind that a satnav alone won't give you.
mybrainhurts said:
If I were you, I'd forget defining a route and loading it on a satnav.
If your satnav packs up, what would you do?
Get some good maps, plan your route and just use the satnav for your next destination.
Your journey will be more interesting if you've viewed it on a map and you'll have a picture in your mind that a satnav alone won't give you.
Each to their own and all that. Some people like to be spontaneous on holiday and others enjoy doing their research in advance.If your satnav packs up, what would you do?
Get some good maps, plan your route and just use the satnav for your next destination.
Your journey will be more interesting if you've viewed it on a map and you'll have a picture in your mind that a satnav alone won't give you.
If you're one of the latter, driving to a preset route ensures you make the most of valuable holiday time and that you don't miss the best roads. Not to mention for many of us the pre-planning is a source of pleasure and builds anticipation for the road trip.
If you are a truly advanced level satnav user you will appreciate its co-pilot abilities in your peripheral vision, helping you to anticipate upcoming topography and the radii of upcoming bends.
I asked the very same question in my thread.
I ended up going with the Garmin Nuvi 57LM as I wanted to be able to set my own routes via TYRES.
I got mine from Argos at £79.99 but I believe the price has increased slightly to £89.99. Having used it a couple of times now I am very pleased.
I ended up going with the Garmin Nuvi 57LM as I wanted to be able to set my own routes via TYRES.
I got mine from Argos at £79.99 but I believe the price has increased slightly to £89.99. Having used it a couple of times now I am very pleased.
Get a Sat Nav that is compatible (most Garmin and Tom Tom are) with http://www.tyretotravel.com you can plan your route out using googlemaps and save the files to a sat nav.
A good programme for your phone is Copilot, you can chose a destination then drag the route to the roads you want to use between and it'll follow your choices, it's about £20/25 I think and the maps are downloaded to your phone so you aren't using data. It's a little fiddly at first but if you are somewhere and roads are closed etc you can change the route very easily.
I've used both on many trips, I normally use my phone as the main one with the Sat Nav in my glovebox as back up, which I needed traveling round Europe about 3 years ago when my phone decided to stop charging properly.
A good programme for your phone is Copilot, you can chose a destination then drag the route to the roads you want to use between and it'll follow your choices, it's about £20/25 I think and the maps are downloaded to your phone so you aren't using data. It's a little fiddly at first but if you are somewhere and roads are closed etc you can change the route very easily.
I've used both on many trips, I normally use my phone as the main one with the Sat Nav in my glovebox as back up, which I needed traveling round Europe about 3 years ago when my phone decided to stop charging properly.
Just a few of things to add about copilot, you can choose what maps you want and pay for them individually so the £20/25 might be different to what I paid when I got all of Europe.
When you have a route check it closely as sometimes it'll take you along a motorway and at some junctions take you off the motorway around the junction and straight back on again. The drag function gets you round this easily but it is one of the fiddly pains to sort. You just need to zoom in on your route along motorways which you're traveling.
You also need to make sure you've got enough space on your phone for the maps, GB and Ire is just under 500MB, France just over while Ger, Switz and Aust come together and are over 600MB etc
When you have a route check it closely as sometimes it'll take you along a motorway and at some junctions take you off the motorway around the junction and straight back on again. The drag function gets you round this easily but it is one of the fiddly pains to sort. You just need to zoom in on your route along motorways which you're traveling.
You also need to make sure you've got enough space on your phone for the maps, GB and Ire is just under 500MB, France just over while Ger, Switz and Aust come together and are over 600MB etc
I brought a new TomTom without knowing about the map upload function, thought I could program that myself using the TomTom software on a PC 
- i'll going to plot my route on paper too and take print outs, with option of using my wife's phone for data as its £2 a day unlimited usage if I have to
- i'll going to plot my route on paper too and take print outs, with option of using my wife's phone for data as its £2 a day unlimited usage if I have tomagpies said:
I've booked a trip away next monthe to Europe with Longers and he will supply the route (not sure how it comes yet .itn? whatever that is)
Don't worry Mick, I'll send the routes out to everyone in itn and gpx formats for Tom Toms and Garmins. Uploading to your device is easy - I'll tell you how nearer the time 
JapFreak786 said:
I brought a new TomTom without knowing about the map upload function, thought I could program that myself using the TomTom software on a PC - i'll going to plot my route on paper too and take print outs, with option of using my wife's phone for data as its £2 a day unlimited usage if I have to
You can download maps to googlemaps nowadays so you can use it offline and incur no data charges. Use the software I posted above to route a map and load it onto your Tom Tom. It costs nowt for the programme and it uses Googlemaps to plan your route. - i'll going to plot my route on paper too and take print outs, with option of using my wife's phone for data as its £2 a day unlimited usage if I have toGassing Station | Roads | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff