Bongo Fury

I currently have a TomTom one which is at least 6 years old but has been quite reliable. Recently though I had the pleasure of borrowing a friends "Garmin Nuvi 2595LM satnav" which was very nice indeed with real road displays - makes a 3d TV look like playing space invaders on a black & white TV !!

So which Sat nav would suit or future forays into France / Switzerland as since my brother has moved out there to work we will no doubt be making many trips out to see him and his wife.

We are just back from France and used a Garmin (our first sat nav). It was generally fine until we got to the Perifique around Paris where it kept losing satellite and switching off. Fortunately we knew where we were going and so that was not a problem. The rest of the time it found exactly where we wanted to go and some of those places were pretty obscure

I have a Tom Tom XL and I bought the Southern Europe Maps for it online. Loading them was a bit of a faff but it has been fine down to Portugal and through Spain and France.

Just used a Tom Tom via 125. Not the live version ( doesn't have enough onboard memory for the Western Europe maps) it worked fine. Comes with UK and Europe maps pre loaded. Cost 125£ ...... but if you want more maps be prepared to whack in a micro sd card. I think it does fit UK. Western and eastern Europe maps on its on board memory though.....

I have used a Garmin nuvi 1390 for the last couple of trips. Got me through France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and the Czech Republic without any problem. Loaded ACSI Campsites EU, Aire Camping, Archies Europe, Camping Card ACSI and Camping Czech Republic so at any stage of the journey I had the nearest campsite directions. This is my second Garmin unit.

Thanks everyone all advice really appreciated once again....

If you have a smartphone there are various satnav programs that can be had.
Just make sure that you have the maps on the phone though, not downloading all the time, or you will come back to one horrendous phone bill.

BTW. make sure that the camera warnings are off in France.

briwy wrote:If you have a smartphone there are various satnav programs that can be had.
Just make sure that you have the maps on the phone though, not downloading all the time, or you will come back to one horrendous phone bill.

BTW. make sure that the camera warnings are off in France.

I have Navfree for Android on my phone. Seems pretty good with regular updates to the OSM maps but the big downside is you can't import POI databases for campsites and other such useful things. Navmii did say over a year ago they would add an import feature but to date they haven't.

That is my problem - the free maps for the phone are basic but if that is what you need then great, but if you want to skirt round somewhere and call into Madame Boulais cake shop your pretty Faffed.....

I did say I will never shop in Halfords again - but some fool gave me vouchers for xmas and I may as well use them up to buy a satnav or maybe 2 headlight bulbs for my bongo, works out about the same !!!

Just to put a cap on this post - I eventually went for the "TomTom Start 600" After extensive research, reading in excess of 300 reviews the best quality satnav for the money was this one.
Although when I take it out of the box and actually use it I may have a very different opinion !!! Thanks everyone anyway.....

I use Ndrive..... full EU mapping across to East European countries.... £35 for android.... stores on you sd card..... no data traffic unless you opt for live traffic and use it out of blighty....
Another equally as good is C0-Pilot live.... just had a map update on that one....for FREE...

Hi Mike - I just noticed I have co-pilot already on my phone and I did not even know it was there I will get used to it though as I remember being in darkest cornwall once when my sat-nav literally just died on me leaving me with no idea of where to go.
How did I find the A30 - by the stars !!! I remembered being taught orienteering and star navigation in boys brigade It bloody worked too.......

Bogmonster40 wrote:Hi Mike - I just noticed I have co-pilot already on my phone and I did not even know it was there I will get used to it though as I remember being in darkest cornwall once when my sat-nav literally just died on me leaving me with no idea of where to go.
How did I find the A30 - by the stars !!! I remembered being taught orienteering and star navigation in boys brigade It bloody worked too.......

You'll be bloody lucky to see any stars nowadays, did they teach you how to navigate by rain?

I too had CoPilot on my phone when it was new. Only free for a month though then it locked up, had to pay if you wanted to continue using it.

I too had CoPilot on my phone when it was new. Only free for a month though then it locked up, had to pay if you wanted to continue using it.[/quote]

I would not have even thought of that !!! A real technophobe me.....I still play space invaders and asteroids !

Hi
Asteroids and space-invaders???.....NOW you're talking!!!!! ...mind you, I do like computer games
Cheers
Helen