Rural navigation - which GPS?

Headless1916 · 09-12-2009 05:24PM #1

Hello everyone,
I'm an Irish citizen who has been living in the USA for the past few years, and am finally looking at returning home and seeing the places from my youth. I grew up in Cork, near Coachford and Macroom, and upon doing some research on the places I used to go, i've discovered that they are all fairly remote in nature. My fiance and I have booked tickets to ireland for next may and are looking at places to stay and where we will be going, and I'm thinking a satnav system would be well spent money for our trip. I've got almost no interest in city life (plenty of metro areas over here in the states) and really want to get out and see the countryside that pulls at my heart and makes me miss Ireland so much.

With this in mind, i went looking for satnav's. It looks like the garmin Nuvi 1210 is a reasonable price (~180 USD, pre-loaded with ireland and the UK), but noticed that the software that it comes with is listed as 'City Navigator NT'. Does this software also include maps of rural ireland?

The other option that I am considering is one of the new Colorado, Oregon or Dakota devices paired with the 'Garmin Eire Discoverer' software which seems to be quite high resolution, covering small portions of the country per microSD card. The problem there is that my cost would be at least 3 times as much as the nuvi - so if the nuvi will do what I need, i'd prefer to pick up one of those.

Any input from those of you who are living in Ireland and have day to day experience with the software in more rural areas would be much appreciated.

Cool Mo D · 09-12-2009 05:35PM

I think most GPS systems will have reasonable coverage of the country - but none are perfect. There could be a few missing roads. You are likely to encounter mislabelled roads, but nothing to stop you navigating by. The only advice I'd give you is to get a good printed map of Ireland to go withthe GPS if all else fails. I would recommend http://www.amazon.com/Ireland-Road-Map/dp/000725671X/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260376251&sr=8-6this as probably the most up to date.

Just remember to set your GPS to give you the fastest route, rather then the shortest route, or you could end up down some very narrow roads, with no easy way to turn around.

Headless1916 · 09-12-2009 06:00PM

Thanks for the response!

We've already picked up a map book that covers the entire country, 1 inch = 3.3 miles (vs 1 inch = 6.5 miles for the collins map you linked to), so we'll have a paper map as a backup - the main reason we're looking to have a GPS is in case we accidentally turn down the wrong road - one that isn't on the map - and end up lost. Having lived in ireland and been on the amusing side of being a local trying to give foreigners useable directions to a particular destination, I realise that getting lost in the middle of nowhere in Ireland can be quite the adventure

It sounds from your post like you're saying the city navigator software for ireland + the UK would include rural road coverage as well as cities, is that right?

Cool Mo D · 09-12-2009 06:38PM

As far as I'm aware - yes, all Ireland maps cover the whole country. I'm not the biggest expert around on GPS, but as far as I know there are two large mapping companies - Navteq and Tele-Atlas, that supply all the car GPS systems. You can check each companies maps on their websites. The differences between GPS maps are just the difference between these companies coverage. Newer GPS systems will have more up-to-date maps, but I really doubt that'll be a big deal if your driving in the back of beyond.

ScumLord · 09-12-2009 06:49PM

They used to be very bad but have gotten allot better recently I wouldn't expect them to have every road but will get to to most towns in the country. Google has very good coverage of Ireland, it's not often you come across a map with every road but google even has little boreens on it.

The best map of Ireland is http://www.osi.ie/ it's the most complete so you could maybe use that to make sure your map can get you where you want to go.

Overall I wouldn't be to worried about getting lost all those roads usually do go somewhere and will go back onto a main road again. You can't really get all that lost in Ireland at absolute worst you'll be adding an hour to your journey. Like you said getting lost is all part of the adventure when your on holiday, you should just throw out all the maps and use your inbuilt man navigation skills. Whats the worst that could happen. :pac:

mrmac · 09-12-2009 08:15PM

Hi Headless!
The 1210 is an entry level Garmin sat nav, with the bonus of bluetooth, (if that's important?). There is also the 1210T, with the "T" bit relating to a Traffic receiver, which plugs into the sat nav. This doesn't work over here, so don't pay extra for this feature.
The 1210 can be bought, ex. UK, for €100 approx.

The City Navigator is just a term used by Garmin, but it will include every road that they have mapped, and that's well up in the 90% area. If you decide to buy a Garmin, you are entitled to a free update to the latest maps, within 60 days of getting it's first satellite signal. So if you intend buying one well in advance of your trip, I'd only switch it on indoors and away from any windows. Then two weeks before your journey, get a satellite signal, register the unit with garmin.com, and download the new maps

The other type of GPS you mentioned, Colorado, Oregin, Datoka - these are great devices, and very expensive! I have an Oregin 400t myself, and find it very useful when out hiking. As a general purpose sat nav, it's not the best, as it doesn't have any voices! The Eire Discoverer series of maps are very good quality, and are produced using the Ordinance Survey information, so contain a lot of topographic detail. However, they are very expensive. So unless you plan a lot of hill walking, mountain climbing, etc., I'd stick with the Nuvi range.

Lastly, my personal preference is to buy a widescreen model. The 1210 has a 3.5" screen across the diagonal. A widescreen version has 4.3", and I believe is easier to view. That doesn't change the map, or the directions given, just a personal like.

I have the latest maps on my Nuvi, so if there is any road, or location, that you would like tested, to see if it's on the map, just ask.

Rural navigation - which GPS?

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