GPS suggestion for France

Any recommendations for a GPS unit to use with a car rental in France? Or is it possible/cheaper to request such a unit when we rent our car?

I have really good luck with my iPhone. Usually better than in-car navigation in rental cars.

We used both. The nice thing about an in car gps is that you don’t use expensive international data. Probably not an issue for Eric who likely has a euro based plan.

Ours was rented right from sixt.

Buy one that allows international maps. Renting for more than a short period isn’t cost effective.

Thanks

Looks like the garmin 2559LMT is the best.
Any other suggestions?

I have an older model Nuvi that works well. The lifetime maps update is a great feature that mine doesn’t have; each update costs $89. Does the 2559 have speed limit and camera warnings (a great feature)?

If you have an unlocked and/or France sim data plan or are an American T-Mobile customer (free international data), an iPhone works very well, especially using the Waze navigation app.

We used Sixt as well, and rented a GPS from them with good results.

I use google maps which has an offline mode so you don’t need a data connection.

Brig, how much data is downloaded in order not to use the data connection? Is it enough to cover several hours of driving?

Does the native iPhone version do turn-by-turn voice directions in Europe?

Yes.

Yes. Apple Maps and Google Maps (and Waze, which is a Google owned crowd sourced overlay app of Google Maps), do turn by turn voice. As do other navigation apps.

Thanks! Only recently got a 6, and started using the Apple map voice directions, which (so far) has been amazingly good. I don’t know how the dedicated nav companies are going to stay in business, my old Garmin is history now.

We recently switched to T-mobile and took our phones to England a few months ago. Free data, as mentioned, and GPS worked well. Only disadvantage vs in-car GPS is the smaller screen.

I have this unit. No problems or issues. The lifetime maps was the selling point for me.

Peter see here.

50km x 50km is the max per map. For Costa Rica I just downloaded 4 areas which covered the route traveled since much was through the rain forests.

FYI turn by turn is not supported in offline.

More FYI from my Spain trip. Google maps does not support offline maps for the country.

Big news is turn-by-turn DOES work when you’re not connected which was a life saver in Spain.

Just start the navigation with maps in the hotel while connected to the internet. Bam!!! then off we go with turn by turn and no data connection. Did it all over Spain. Note: will not recalculate your route but I used it this way for hours at a time.

Specially to address no service and international travel.

Slate: Google Maps Will Now Give You Directions Even If You Don’t Have Service. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwqJyWsyg

I bought a sim card for my old Iphone 4 when in Paris this summer. Best $15 i’ve spent

Yup. Orange France now offers several voice/data packages, some oriented to visitors. Or 1GB data only for 10 Euros (lasts two weeks).