Need recommendations for a good GPS Navigation Unit while traveling in Italy and France. I have a dated Garmin Chart Plotter which is dual use for water and land that I have used for years. But the routing on it is tricky and requires a lot of advance planning on a PC to create routes and waypoints to load into it. And it is bulky and out of date. Does iphone work well or should I get something else?
They are pretty inexpensive now and updatable, time to buy a new one for your future use.
Used my older Garmin Nuvi in Italy last summer driving from Rome to Amalfi and it worked very well. It is really all about the maps as the hardware has been around a while. The maps can get pretty expensive. It is sort of funny to hear the computerized voice try and pronounce some of the very long Italian street names.
George
Google has worked well for me on android.
I would assume iPhone works well otherwise you’d have heard about it.
iPhone or other smartphones work perfectly well, but they rely on cellular data and the cost of data while roaming is usually very high. There’s always the option of getting a local phone and subscription if you’re planning to stay a while, but that would work only in one country (back to roaming charges if you go to another country).
The best option is probably either to buy a GPS in the US + the EU maps, or buy a local GPS as soon as you land (which will come pre-loaded with EU maps). That should only set you back 100 euros or so (and you can keep using it when you’re back in the US).
Yes to use a US based phone as a GPS in Europe would be very, very expensive.
George
Agree.
Renting a GPS with the car rental agency is also an option and quite cheap, iirc.
It matters how many days you are renting. at about $10/day here NOT worthwhile.
I thought you could turn off data and the phone would just be using gps tracking.
The last time I rented (and not brought one with me) was 2 years ago in Italy. 3 days rental and added $24 to my car rental cost. I agree that it could get expensive over longer periods.
A bit embarrassed to ask this question, but are those Garmin GPS receivers ready to go out of the box, no subscriptions to data service needed? They simply go off GPS satellite signals, with preloaded maps, correct?
last couple of cars rented in europe already had GPS built in. No additional but didn’t rent the basic car model
They are ready to go. They do not use data. You will probably need to do some set up.
There are 2 issues with this:
- your phone doesn’t have the maps pre-loaded, and relies on data to download them. You could kinda pre-download them on a wifi connection every day (so that they stay “fresh” in the phone’s cache) every day, but you’d have to know exactly where you’re going to go beforehand.
- a phone’s GPS usually isn’t very good. It usually relies on cellular info (triangulation, which would always be available for free) and even WiFi (in the case of my Google phone at least–Google mapped out all the Wifi hotspots names with the Google Car, and therefore can pretty much pinpoint your location just based on that)
We paid $6 a day for one in Israel. When we first started driving and it spouted directions in French, we were a bit confused. Then it turned out that the charger (cigarette lighter) in the car we rented didn’t work. As we approached Jerusalem (the place we needed it most), the GPS died.
For $6/day, what did you expect? 
I have a Garmin Nuvi, with updatable mapping, speed limit, and remote camera warnings that has been very good and easy to use throughout Europe; especially using web-based preloadable way points, hotels, etc. I also use my iPhone for shorter trips when I don’t feel like lugging my GPS along and taking it out of the car every time we park. Google maps is excellent and refreshes quickly on newer iPhones and uses less data than even a few years ago. Apple maps uses less data but is significantly less reliable, in my experience. I use unlocked phones with local sim cards, though, and don’t recommend using cell phones for navigation if you are roaming on a US carrier. European data on local (non-roaming) networks has dropped significantly in price and is very affordable. Built-in GPS units in rental cars are also a great option, when available (and they often aren’t). Most, but not all, have English command and voice options…
My husband and I have used the Tom Tom GO 2535 TM World Traveler on our 2012 and 2013 trips to Italy and France, and it worked great. The downloads of the European maps are free. Our only issue with this GPS is the time it takes to download the periodic updates. We didn’t need to update the GPS while we were traveling.
Marilyn
I bought a Garmin Nuvi for my last trip through Denmark and Germany. It came with North American maps on the memory and I had to buy the European maps, which came on a little SD card you insert into the device.
We used Tom Tom in England last year. Worked very well but the UK map package was $60 IIRC. Using iPhone on a US carrier should indeed cost mega bucks–data is typically (ATT or Verizon) $20/mbyte, tho I believe T-Mobile is considerably cheaper.