Best Sat Nav for Ireland (with specific requirements)

evil-monkey

Hi all.

Thinking of getting Sat Nav for the car, but was wondering about a few things...

I want one that is very good for Ireland, not bothered about the UK or Europe too much.

I want one that has updateable maps. ie. new estate gets built, new map comes out. Do they all have this? How much this is cost for a map update?

It's also very important that it works well in the country. I do a lot of travelling outside the main cities and suburbs, and was wondering is there anyones out there would VERY good maps of the more rural areas.

One that could direct me to beaches would also be very handy.

I'd also like if I could save a location when there. ie. I'm at a nice fishing spot, I can save the location as a custom place for the next time I want to find the same spot...

Don't want to break the bank...maybe 180 - 280ish

Any ideas on a model that fits the bill??

coylemj

The Garmin units which use Navteq maps are by common consent (in this forum anyway) better at rural parts of Ireland than the Tele Atlas maps in Tom Tom units.

You can buy map updates when they become available but by not registering the unit until the next update becomes available you can get the next map update for free i.e. you but the unit in mid 2008, then an update becomes available at end 2008, you then register, say you bought the unit the day before and Garmin will give you the update for free.

Beaches are not a feature of Garmin unts, they only deal with places like hotels, restaurants and filling stations located on standard roads. You can mark (waypoint) a place when you're there and then do a 'go to' later and it will navigate you back there with voice directions.

As a minimum you will get UK and Ireland only on the Garmin Nuvi 200 and the 250 has all of Europe. Shop around on these sites for the best prices.


http://www.satnaveasy.co.uk/
http://www.expansys.ie/
http://www.elara.ie/

evil-monkey

coylemj wrote: »

The Garmin units which use Navteq maps are by common consent (in this forum anyway) better at rural parts of Ireland than the Tele Atlas maps in Tom Tom units.

You can buy map updates when they become available but by not registering the unit until the next update becomes available you can get the next map update for free i.e. you but the unit in mid 2008, then an update becomes available at end 2008, you then register, say you bought the unit the day before and Garmin will give you the update for free.

Beaches are not a feature of Garmin unts, they only deal with places like hotels, restaurants and filling stations located on standard roads. You can mark (waypoint) a place when you're there and then do a 'go to' later and it will navigate you back there with voice directions.

As a minimum you will get UK and Ireland only on the Garmin Nuvi 200 and the 250 has all of Europe. Shop around on these sites for the best prices.


http://www.satnaveasy.co.uk/
http://www.expansys.ie/
http://www.elara.ie/

And can I then save a couple of these "go-to" spots??

coylemj

Yes, they are classified as 'favourites', you give each one a name and you can optionally assign an icon from a large selection. You can later retrieve the location by name and change the name and/or icon. You can't edit the location (as in longitude and latitude) on the cheaper Nuvis (2xx series) unless you have some flavour of MapSource installed on your PC, this allows you to upload the favourites (waypoints) from the unit and you can then modify them (including the location) on the PC, you can also add more favourites and then download them to the unit.

evil-monkey

coylemj wrote: »

Yes, they are classified as 'favourites', you give each one a name and you can optionally assign an icon from a large selection. You can later retrieve the location by name and change the name and/or icon. You can't edit the location (as in longitude and latitude) on the cheaper Nuvis (2xx series) unless you have some flavour of MapSource installed on your PC, this allows you to upload the favourites (waypoints) from the unit and you can then modify them (including the location) on the PC, you can also add more favourites and then download them to the unit.

so with map source, i can upload locations if i have their longitude and latitude and navigate to them using this??

coylemj

Yes, you'l find them by looking in the 'Favourites' section when you select the 'Where to' option, then when you find the one you're looking for you just select 'Go' and it will tell you how to get there.

If you can get your hands on the Garmin 'Trips and Waypoints Manager' CD, that is the basic version of Mapsource with a crude map of the whole world with major highways in each country. After you install it you can go to the Garmin website and get an update program which will bring you to the latest version (6.14.1), then you can upload and download waypoints (favourites) from & to any Garmin unit.

Enda89

I'm in a similar boat to the original poster here so forgive me for hijacking the thread a bit (didnt want to have to make a new one).

I'm looking to buy my first sat nav in the next few weeks and have been advised to go for Garmin. I travel around Dublin a fair bit in the car but also make the odd trip down to the South. For this reason I need really good Irish mapping. I don't care about European maps etc, bluetooth, mp3 player etc. etc.

At the end of the day I want something reliable for under €300 that can guide me around the country with little fuss.

Could anyone point me in the right direction as to which Garmin models I should be looking at. I don't really have a clue when it comes to this stuff

coylemj

If you don't want Bluetooth or MP3 player then buy the Garmin Nuvi 255, it has maps of all of Europe and most of the mail order websites sell it, it's a bit more expensive than the 250 but can store more waypoints and has some additional features.