Does GPS work well in Spain?
 

We are considering renting a GPS for our trip to Spain in March. The AutoEurope salesman told us that the GPS does not do well in Spain except the large cities. Does anyone have any personal experience with this?

Given the requirements for GPS I would expect it work better OUTSIDE of cities.

Personally I would think that the salesman is talking drivel as the whole point of GPS is that it is GLOBAL.

However if a salesman is trying NOT to sell you something there may be some truth in what he says

GPS works as well in Spain as it does in the States, as long as the system is set up properly.

"On Spanish Time" is also offering GPS units along with its cell phone rentals.

How well GPS works is a function of the map database, not whether you can see the sky above. If Spain outside the cities isn't well mapped then he could be correct.

I have no knowledge of how well Spain roads are mapped and in the database, so it's impossible for me to say whether the autoeurope salesman is right or wrong.

You really have very little use for a GPS outside of the Spain’s major cities as long as you have a good Michelin Map available. Regionales are best. Taxi drivers in Madrid even get lost what with all the construction that has been going on, but then a GPS may not be of much use if its database isn't up to date.

I wouldn't expect a GPS to work like in the U.S. unless you have Spain maps & such loaded. Those are not from the GPS Satellites; they have to be in your GPS Device.
If you set the GPS with the proper time zone, it can work for you: setting waypoints etc. and determining distance and direction from waypoints. Probably more useful for hiking (even doing the Camino de Santiago).
Our relatives in Spain use the Garmin GPS I bought for them to set a waypoint so they can find where they parked the car when they go hunting for wild mushrooms.

My boyfriend was using a portable GPS device when we were in Spain and it didn't work well at all. But I think that had to do with the device itself which was not picking up a signal consistently (he returned it when we got back to the states) and his difficulty downloading our needed maps in the Basque region. But come to think of it, it wasn't working in Barcelona either as we had a huge fight trying to find the rental car office to drop off the car.

Keep in mind that Spain is a 3rd (4th?) world country, which means unsafe water, frequent power dropouts, bad roads. Why wouold you expect GPS to work in such a place. And yes, the whole country is completely uncharted, no maps or mapping software available anywhere, you have to rely on yourself or on the AutoEuope salesman, who knows this all and only tries to help!

I would agree that it all depends on the accuracy of the database loaded into your GPS (and I would assume, perhaps incorrectly, that any rental place in Spain would be renting a GPS with an adequate data base. And if you do use one you will end up being amazed at just how comprehensive those data bases can be.

Using one makes things a WHOLE lot easier, especially for the person who was otherwise going to be saddled with the navigational duties.

I'm with Logos. How much wine could one buy for the cost of GPS?

I trust logos999 is making a little joke on people, as my amigos would say, otherwise it would be unwise to ever step foot on Spanish soil if he/she actually considers España a 3rd/4th world country.

No, the joke is not on Spanish people ;-)

Not as much wine as you could buy for the price of a rental car or even for a trip to Spain in the first place.

Wine can be cheap; getting lost can be expensive.

I'm looking at the Microsoft AutoRoute map of Spain. It shows all the highways between cities, and incredible detail of small towns as well as street-level plans of the cities and towns.

You can try it before you go to Spain and see if it meets your needs/expectations. All you need to run it is a palmtop or laptop PC and a GPS Locator (optionally bundled with the program). I've used mine extensively throughout Europe and North America and will never part with it.

I just bought Garmin's City Navigator Europe. Version 8.0 says the following for Spain: "Coverage for major cities with intertown roads." Germany, France, Great Britain, Benelux have "full coverage".

Your salesman IS CORRECT! You'll have no trouble getting around in the major cities but you'll only have major roads and major attractions. Unlike the mapset for the full coverage countries, you will not have every petrol station, hotel, restaurant or market in the smaller towns listed.

I now stand corrected myself. Garmin just updated their Spanish mapset and it now includes FULL COVERAGE:

"Spain: now with full country coverage, including full coverage for Balearic and Canary Islands. 726,147 km of roads and
32,412 POIs, of which 5,575 Restaurants, 4,105 Petrol Stations, 2,071 Hotels and 1,810 Parking Garage/Houses. Most
recent main changes include addressing coverage increased in 3.66 million inhabitants to reach 87% of country
population; the new addressing coverage comprises more than 493 cities; update activitied include the areas of A Coruña,
Palma de Mallorca, Valencia Province; addition of industrial polygons in A Coruña; addition of 54 kilometres of new
motorways in the areas of Zaragoza, Alicante, Cordoba and Jerez de la Frontera/Sanlucar de Barrameda; update in
progress for smaller built up areas in the provinces of Albacete, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Huesca, Murcia, Teruel, Zaragoza,
Badajoz, Caceres, Avila, Burgos, La Coruña, León, Lugo, Palencia, Pontevedra, Salamanca, Segovia, Soria, Valladolid
and Zamora; for the city of Valencia the updating activities comprise as well the new infrastructure for the America’s Cup
sailing event; Automobile Dealerships for Chryslers, Mercedes and Hyundai have been added or updated."

Who wants a Hyundai ???

Hyundai used to build wings for airplanes. Maybe you have been flying some of them, when you travel around in Spain.

Blackduff

I own a gps and carry it in between the ears of my mule when I travel to visit my relatives who live some miles away. The main problem is the weight of the electric generator I use to make it run, it is too heavy for my mule, so I usually have to leave all the food and presents for my aunt behind...

Well, no kidding, Spain is one of the most advances countries in the world and ALL roads are maped. I use a gps in my car and so far, no problems at all.

Zeus, I just purchased the City Navigator Europe Version 7.0 this past Jan/Feb, then found out shortly thereafter that they came out with Version 8.0. I decided to call Garmin this morning after reading this thread and talked with one of the software engineers. I found out that they are getting ready to come out with Version 9.0 shortly after the new year.

I put on my beg, plead, whiney tone/voice, and he is going to send me the disc to upgrade my 7.0 to 8.0, along with the unlock code. Good to know about the Spain coverage, because that's in the cards for a future trip. ((b))