To GPS System or not?
 

Has anyone opted for a GPS with their car rentals in Scotland and Ireland? If so, were you happy with the performance and did there seem to be all the addresses that you needed? Has anyone taken their own GPS system and downloaded another country onto it? How was that? And how did you download the country?
Thanks, Colleen

I have taken my own GPS to Euorpe several times.

Mine was preloaded with Europe maps, but I do have to update them. You just download the update from the vendor, start the process and it walks you through connecting the unit etc.. (at least mine did)

I won't go without it again if I am driving!

I added maps to my Garmin because I'm used to all the menus, etc. and the "voice". For chuckles, I changed to an Australian gent one day and, though really charming, had difficulty understanding him. I use the weighted dash mount, so when the car is parked, the mount goes under the seat and the GPS in the case in my pocket (and no suction cup imprint).

You still need a really good road map and a lot of common sense.

GPS can be challenging in rural Ireland, since you don't have "addresses" (i.e. street names and house numbers) outside of the major cities and towns. So if you plan to stay in rural B&Bs, it works best when you ask the hosts for the lat/lon coordinates before you leave.

Cowboy ia right and this is also true for many attractions.

Especially Garmin (which works excellently in North America) is pretty weak in finding addresses in Europe. In Ireland and Scotland (as well as in many other European countries), you will often get the name of a village or hamlet as an address for an inn or attraction and you will find that Garmin does not know this village (only the town the village belongs to, but this would not help you). Also, you will often have trouble with multiple street names within one town. The Garmin might lead to a completely different place, miles away from your real destination.

What I usually do when I travel with my Garmin in Europe:

Prior to my trip, I make a list of all my destinations and I try to find out the addresses, intersections or coordinates. Google Earth helps a lot in this process. And I enter these destinations into my Garmin when I am still at home.

I once had a lot of trouble to enter an archeological site into my Garmin. So I looked up the place with Google Earth and entered the next road intersection into my Garmin (or the coordinates).

I also strongly advise to buy detailed maps. Especially if you intend to drive scenic roads, a GPS will not help.

I looked into renting a GPS with our rental car in Croatia this May and then found that I could buy one from Hong Kong preloaded with all of Europe plus any other maps I wanted for around the same cost. So, of course, I bought one on Ebay. If it performs in Europe as well as it has here in Australia I will be very happy as we have major works on our Pacific Highway (between Sydney and Brisbane) at present and it's perfectly up-to-date on all of it so far!
But Echnaton, I take your point re adding in the coordinates of various places such as accommodation etc. before we go - good idea!

I have used a Tom Tom several times in the UK that was preloaded with Europe maps. I always put in the post code and have never had any problems finding the destination. It took me right to the gate of a B&B on a sheep farm that was down a one lane road out in the boonies in Wales. Keep in mind that post codes in the UK are much more specific than zip codes in the US. If you are going to use it for more than a week, you are probably better off purchasing a GPS rather than renting one.

The Tom Tom is a European-made system that works well in Europe.

However, in the U.S., Garmin is widely used which works perfectly in North America but which is weak in Europe, due to a completely different structure. I have bought a Garmin with preloaded maps of North America and Europe in order to use it on both continents, but I am thinking now if it had been better to buy a cheap Garmin for North America and a cheap Tom Tom for Europe.

Used our Tom-Tom in Croatia. In Split, we were forced to use a lot of detours due to construction and wound up parking in a small alley. Entered our hotel address and it got us thru little back streets to our hotel, no problem. Also used it in Dubrovnik with good results. If you plan future travel in Europe I suggest you buy a GPS.

Just a warning on buying used systems. With most of the vendors you have to register to even buy the updates. If the prior owner registered the unit you will not be able to register it.... so you may not be able to get the updates.

I bought a cheap TomTom before a driving holiday in France 2 years ago and it worked brilliantly.

I recommend you do the same. First, you'll have time to learn how to use it properly. You won't have that luxury with one that comes in a rental car.

Second, you can customize things... there are literally hundreds upon hundreds of extras I can download from TomTom free of charge from locations of different banks to hotels of various chains to routes for especially scenic drives. I can't see how you'd access all this extra stuff with a rental unit.

Finally, there's a free program called FYRE that uses Google Maps and lets you plan routes on your computer and input into your TomTom.

You can find a TomTom for as little as 100 bucks these days. Maps are either downloaded from the maker's site or available on memory cards depending on the model. I wouldn't travel without mine again but old fashioned paper maps are still needed, especially for planning.

Rob

Thankyou all for your useful information and suggestions. We own a Garmon and an Alpine, but neither has the Uk or Ireland on. So, we will purchase a preloaded Tom Tom.
Rob- what a great idea with the FYRE program, we have used Google maps often before, and have printed off a lot of maps for this trip.
CarolA- good tip of the registration for second hand users.
Ichnanton and Cowboy- I have the lat/lon for many of our B&B's so that is a good pre trip activity. And we will certainly be taking regular maps with us.
joode- you say you purchased yours on eBay. What did you look for specifically?
Again thankyou all for you time, Colleen

joode. Please post to let me know how your GPS works in Croatia.
I did read part of a post where someone had their GPS and tried to get to Motovun and the poor thing got confused. It interested me as I intend to visit Motovun.
So I would love to know how yours works.
Sher

Have used my TomTom several times in rural France and it was great. In fact, I got it specifically to use in southern France. I thought I'd hate it (I love maps) but I loved it. One really nice thing -- if you program in your hotel as "HOME" you can drive anywhere you want -- wander, take interesting side trips, whatever, and at the end of the day, tell it to take you HOME. I loved that part -- not having to keep track of where I was! It was very freeing. And if we found somewhere we might want to return, we programmed it in as a favorite. Ronda

Colleen, the GPS we bought was from a guy with the Ebay name of 'gomallgo' & if you do an advanced search for a member it should turn up his store, otherwise just search in Electronics for GPS.
The one we decided on is 4.3" Bluetooth GPS Speedcam with 128MB of SDRam with SIRF Atlas IV. The maps are on 4Mb SD cards and we paid $15 extra for USA/Canada as we intend visiting next year. There are also 4.8" models available for slightly more dollars - he also offers free postage so we thought it a pretty good deal. The advantage of getting one now is, as ParisAmsterdam says, being able to familiarise yourself with it before you go. But we are very happy with it and hopefully will still be that way on our return from Europe!

I have been following this and other travel websites for quite some time, and now I find out I bought a lemon when I purchased a Garmin GPS last fall. My Nuvi 375T worked perfectly for me in the United States and again this spring in Bavaria. I have heard and read nothing but similar reports on Garmin GPS in lots of other postings, but according to some of the postings here, I wasted my money. I will know better next time.

Thanks joode, I will go searching for gomallgo!