Google Maps as a Sat NAV in France (Data)

[garethEds]

Evening all,

 

Over the Summer I am driving the family to France for a three week caravan 'oliday. I have an old Tom Tom but my wife has an iPhone 7S which is bigger. I use Google Maps for local sat nav stuff in the UK but I'd like to use Google Maps in France because my guess is it will be more up to date.

 

Has anyone looked at the data usage of Google Maps? I've looked at downloading the maps but if I'm not using live GPS then surely I cannot use it as a sat nav.

 

O2 have just contacted me to say my data allowance in their Eurozone will be usable under UK terms and conditions - so that's handy.

 

Anyone done this?

 

Cheers me deers,

 

Gareth

[colacao82]

Hi Gareth,

 

You can download the maps and use them offline for navigation, that's not a problem. Also from June a new EU legislation comes in to action that will allow you to use your minutes, text and data allowance within Europe for no extra cost!

 

EU all set for free roaming from June - Consilium

 

Hope that helps.

 

Ant

[Disaster]

Weird, I just downloaded a google maps area for France last night. The area was around Bordeaux and up to a two hour drive East and a about the same North/South and the map was 500mb. I've used data roaming before on 3 and never had any issues with maps. As long as you have a couple of gig you should be A OK.

[ZeroHour]

Try here maps as well. It's very good and has offline mode and was designed for driving. You can login on their site to program places as well.

I love Waze but data can be an issue. I used here maps in Florida without issue and Waze as it's pretty light on data as I am with three.

[garethEds]

Cheers everyone - in that case I shall download the whole of France :-)

 

I was just concerned that you needed GPS and so data switched on for the map to know where you are. Gap in knowledge there. Will revise.

[Arthur]

I was just concerned that you needed GPS and so data switched on for the map to know where you are.

A-GPS relies on data + GPS.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GPS

[SpuffMonkey]

Try the "Here We Go" app - its free and works offline

[elsiegee40]

I use Google Maps for navigation both here and in France. I was watching my data when I used it heavily during our week in Wales recently and didn't find it particularly impacted my data use.

 

There's no reason for it to use any more data overseas than in the UK. And the traffic planning is particularly useful as you head south on busy autoroutes.

 

I use it on the default view - I guess using it in satellite view with the photographic images would up the data use.

 

Slightly off topic, but we have a Sanef Tag for the autoroutes. Worth its weight in gold for fast-tracking through the péages.

[dry]

+1 for HERE Maps- you can download whole countries for offline use. Literally a life saver when I went to Cuba (where, if mobile signal is available, data is something like £5/mb!!!!!)

 

If you're phone's got A-GPS (assisted GPS) it'll use cell tower triangulation to get a GPS fix faster (afaik), but if you've disabled data it should revert to standard GPS (but take slightly longer to get a fix)

[pow]

I use maps every time I go to Europe (free data roaming on 3) and it's perfect every time. Gets me where I need to be every single time

[3s-gtech]

Also have a look at Navmii with the OpenStreetMap maps. I have used it (and Navfree) for years - it is extremely impressive and fully offline. Used on both Android and iOS.

[TwistedHelixis]

I drive round France each year and have always used Google Maps and never pre downloaded the maps. When you create a destination the general route is always downloaded, its just never been all the map info, this is used for any dead spots. France has great coverage even in remote areas and its never been an issue.

 

I did try CoPilot and a good few others but they have all had their own little problems, and I have always ended up going back to Google.

 

Also GPS still does work even without wifi or data, its a separate sensor.

[tommej]

AS an alternative you could try Here Wego maps, i found them to be pretty good!

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.here.app.maps&hl=en_GB

 

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/here-wego-city-navigation-offline-maps/id955837609?mt=8

[Disaster]

Gets me where I need to be every single time

60% of the time