Using Google maps on phone
 

We will be in Corsica for 11 days in September. Rental cars with GPS are too pricey, so we wonder if we can use Google maps on our android phone and get the same results. Anyone have experience with this?
Winesipper

I'm sure it will work fine. The problem is that it may cost you a fortune unless your carrier has a reasonably priced data plan for use in Italy.

Is your phone unlocked? If so, you may be able to buy a local SIM card there and use it in your phone. (If not - get your carrier to unlock your phone before you leave - I believe they have to do it now if you've used the phone on their network for some minimum amount of time.)

Your may also have the option to pay for your mobile company's international plan, but it could still be pretty pricey. T-Mobile has the cheapest roaming plan, which is free and included with their Simple Choice plan: free unlimited data and texting, 20 cents/minute phone calls. But T-Mobile data may be only 2G speed - kind of slow for GPS.

This is something you can test out now before you go to Corsica, right? Try using your phone to navigate via Google Maps. How does it work? The only difference in Corsica is how you get mobile data (international roaming plan via your home carrier or local SIM card in Corsica.)

Have you driven using your phone as a navigation device? You don't have to wait for someone to tell you the experience. As mentioned above, you can experience it at home. If you don't like how it works at home, you will unlikely to get satisfactory results at the destination.

If you choose to use your phone as a nav device, the crucial question is, "How do you obtain the map?"

1. over the air method. This requires mobile data. A lot of them. You can get an idea by driving around with data counters on to see how much data your phone chews up. I estimate about 10MB/hour of driving. The data download need depends on the complexity of the landscape and whether you are constantly driving into new locations.

2. offline method. This requires you to download offline map before your trip. Android's HERE application has very good maps you can download at no cost. It chews up a lot of storage, however. With this method, you only have to turn on GPS hardware on your phone. No need for mobile data. However, navigating with GPS alone can take much longer time to lock in your coordinate. Sometimes maddening long time compared to AGPS with the triangulation help from cell towers. You can also test this offline-no mobile data method by setting your phone to turn off mobile data and see if you can stand how long it takes to lock in your coordinate with GPS alone.

And finally, you have to take the mounting hardware usable in different cars and a way to power your phone.

Thank you all for your comments. We will work on testing our phone maps with local directions. Your experience has been very valuable to us! We count on Fodors Forum and it works.
Winesipper

We always take one of our GPS units with us, and have excellent results. They've become so very inexpensive, and especially if you know you'll be going back - have you thought about just purchasing one of your own? It's also terrific when exploring cities, since you can use the pedestrian function to help navigate cities on foot - just be sure to return the setting to auto when you are driving. DH once forgot to do that, when we left Rome by train to Florence, picked up a rental car and headed (we thought) to Sienna. Pedestrians aren't allowed on the express highways, so the GPS took us into a "hiking" mode, through small neighborhoods, before my husband realized (after about 45 minutes) what the problem was - we still laugh, but at the time......
We own both Garmin's and TomTom's, both are able to be updated periodically on the computer so your maps are up to date, you won't have data charges on your phone, and the planning is so much easier! (we think TomTom works slightly better over there than Garmin, but it's a close call)

GPS devices in Europe suck. They are always outdated. We use the mapping on the iPhone, which is at no cost through T-Mobile.

While in France in May and June, I bought a SIM card and data plan from Orange for my unlocked iPhone for about $40 (cheaper plans available) and used Google driving and walking maps. In fact, it was often more accurate than the GPS we brought with us. (We bought the France maps and installed them before we left the US.) We did once lose our signal for both phone and GPS while driving through some small villages, which was a bit disconcerting. Be aware that it will be rather difficult to read the Google maps on your phone. You might have it read the directions to you. Good luck with your travels. We loved driving around France (2400 miles!)