starvin marvin Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Can anyone offer advice on the above please? We're going on a driving holiday and wondering on what the better approach would be. The choice it seems is between these four options:- 1) Do nothing, just buy a map(s) and drive. 2) Buy a sat nav when we arrive in the US. Likely to be visiting regularly, min 3 weeks, up to say 6 weeks. 3) Hire a sat nav from the rental company. 3 week trip. 4) Download USA mapping to one of my 3 sat navs (don't ask)! or to a cell phone, and don't forget to take it with us, that's a clue to why we have 3 of the buggers! Many thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Forgive me for stating the obvious but surely the easiest way is to hire a car with built in sat nav ? Have a great trip - sounds like a wonderful experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will86 Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 I assume you mean by car, We did it by camping and car driving. This was well before Satnav of course. When camping we stayed at KAO sites, and when free driving we stopped when ever we felt tired or liked the look of a place, simple motels to the posh stuff, they are after your custom, and your language may treat you better than the locals. If you've not been before ... Please do your homework, particularly on distances between interests. A simple US map may cover 1,000 miles not 400 as it might in the UK, meaning that a page of driving can take two whole days. Plan your route so you can short-cut it at any time. We are not Satnav travellers and see far more by getting lost, we often chose a similar parallel road that was less used.to arrive at the same destination. Upon arriving in the State of Vermont (I think it was?) all advertising of commercial interests and the like (Museums) was banned so a Satnav would be useful there. (If the same laws still apply) The picture left is in New Hampshire. Knowing how commercialised the US is I can imagine all hire cars have fixed Satnavs with all the interests well documented. PS don't try to do too much its a big country. We've been to nine different areas and there's still 90% more to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agaric Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Get Copilot on a phone or tablet, it's the best sat-nav for money you can get. All the maps are stored so no downloading like Google maps and behaves like a normal sat-nav. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike88 Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 It costs as much to pay for the hire of a sat nav in the USA than to buy one here. The USA card can be purchased separately from Tom Tom. with a USA card. I bought a USA card to use with my Tom Tom and it worked a treat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanedwin Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 We took our own. You know how it works and, as stated, it is very expensive to hire them over there unless you hire a car with one built in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starvin marvin Posted June 20, 2016 Author Share Posted June 20, 2016 Tracker - 2016-06-20 2:01 PM Forgive me for stating the obvious but surely the easiest way is to hire a car with built in sat nav ? Have a great trip - sounds like a wonderful experience. Thanks for the reply, I've rented 4 vehicles in North America in the last 2 years, not one came with a sat nav, not even the Chevy Impala! Sure you must now be able to rent a car with it built, but at what cost I've no idea. I guess this should have been a fifth option! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 I've bought two satnavs for use in America, the first one many years ago - it died prematurely, but out of warranty. It had been useful enough to justify replacing, so I did. We go to the US most years and satnavs are cheaper there than here (dollars for pounds or better) so I was able to buy a Garmin Nuvi with lifetime maps for under $80. It was a basic Nuvi but it does the job. I bought that one from Best Buy (a chain retailer) but the cheapest deal would probably be to buy on line and have it delivered to your hotel. I've bought lots of stuff that way. I haven't bothered checking the hire rates from car rental companies for some time but some relatives are going this year and got a car rental deal which included a satnav so maybe they are now good value. Buying US maps for your UK satnav never appealed to me - mainly because I thought $80 was cheap anyway but remember that satnavs have base maps (which are factory installed and never updated) as well as detail maps which are updated, so if you add US maps to a UK device you might be limited on zooming out. I did buy a US Garmin Street Pilot 2820 once, to save money, and discovered that with UK detail maps installed it wasn't the proper job. I wouldn't do it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starvin marvin Posted June 20, 2016 Author Share Posted June 20, 2016 Will86 - 2016-06-20 3:03 PM I assume you mean by car, We did it by camping and car driving. This was well before Satnav of course. When camping we stayed at KAO sites, and when free driving we stopped when ever we felt tired or liked the look of a place, simple motels to the posh stuff, they are after your custom, and your language may treat you better than the locals. If you've not been before ... Please do your homework, particularly on distances between interests. A simple US map may cover 1,000 miles not 400 as it might in the UK, meaning that a page of driving can take two whole days. Plan your route so you can short-cut it at any time. We are not Satnav travellers and see far more by getting lost, we often chose a similar parallel road that was less used.to arrive at the same destination. Upon arriving in the State of Vermont (I think it was?) all advertising of commercial interests and the like (Museums) was banned so a Satnav would be useful there. (If the same laws still apply) The picture left is in New Hampshire. Knowing how commercialised the US is I can imagine all hire cars have fixed Satnavs with all the interests well documented. PS don't try to do too much its a big country. We've been to nine different areas and there's still 90% more to see. I've been to the US several times, and currently been to about 25% of the "lower 48", so pretty familiar with the distances involved. The only real difficulty I've had was trying to get out of central Washington DC, kept going into dodgy areas, with nobody able to direct me, until I asked a cop in a McD's drive thro', and she got us pointed in the right direction. We had flashing lights, the full works as we followed her car! That's when I could have used a sat nav. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starvin marvin Posted June 20, 2016 Author Share Posted June 20, 2016 Agaric - 2016-06-20 3:30 PM Get Copilot on a phone or tablet, it's the best sat-nav for money you can get. All the maps are stored so no downloading like Google maps and behaves like a normal sat-nav. Sounds interesting, I'll look into it, thanks very much h. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starvin marvin Posted June 20, 2016 Author Share Posted June 20, 2016 Mike88 - 2016-06-20 5:37 PM It costs as much to pay for the hire of a sat nav in the USA than to buy one here. The USA card can be purchased separately from Tom Tom. with a USA card. I bought a USA card to use with my Tom Tom and it worked a treat. Not sure I understand what you're saying, I know I can be dense at times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike88 Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 I've seen loads in WalMart out there from about $90. http://www.walmart.com/browse/electronics/auto-gps-units/3944_538883_1005539?cat_id=3944_538883_1005539&facet=brand:TomTom%7C%7Cscreen_size:5%22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 In the US I have prevoisly used my Nokia phone with here maps although this is coming to end soon pn Nokia, I now have a TT 5100 with worldwide maps, but as per other thread 3rd party poi only listed and not displayed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomsonjuk Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 If you have a "smart Phone" running ios or android then you might consider an ap like waze or scout. I have successfully used waze across Europe and some of the southern states TX etc - upside is its free and adless, downside is it does require a network connection so will incur data costs also not much use if no network coverage if you want to see map details check waze.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 Agaric - 2016-06-20 3:30 PM Get Copilot on a phone or tablet, it's the best sat-nav for money you can get. All the maps are stored so no downloading like Google maps and behaves like a normal sat-nav. Could not agree more, just completed a trip in America using this method, but to save data costs used a blue tooth device. only cost was the app and maps, which we use anyway. Sat navs in cars are very expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbo Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 Caroline - 2016-06-22 1:03 PM Agaric - 2016-06-20 3:30 PM Get Copilot on a phone or tablet, it's the best sat-nav for money you can get. All the maps are stored so no downloading like Google maps and behaves like a normal sat-nav. Could not agree more, just completed a trip in America using this method, but to save data costs used a blue tooth device. only cost was the app and maps, which we use anyway. Sat navs in cars are very expensive. Caroline, not quite sure why you needed Bluetooth unless it was to connect to a GPS device. As far as I know, the CoPilot maps can be stored on your tablet/smartphone providing you have enough memory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starvin marvin Posted December 14, 2016 Author Share Posted December 14, 2016 Post trip report. After speaking to both Alamo and Avis, they only have sat navs in their most expensive cars. A son of a friend has an Avis franchise and he told me that renting sat navs, like selling extra insurance is simply another revenue stream. So I downloaded from Garmin the lower 49, yes that's right..lower 49, it excludes Alaska, if you want that state, you get it with Canada! It cost approx £35 with a new 16GB SD card from Tesco which was on offer at a fiver. £40 quid job done and it worked a treat, got us in and out a few times in Miami and Miami Beach. Drove 1300 miles in the three weeks......loved it. The car was a Nissan Altima, which was a delight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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