Alamo sat-nav

[selwonk]

Folks.

Can anybody share any experience of Alamo sat-navs? We're looking at a deal in Florida which will include the sat-nav for free. I've got a TomTom GO Live 120. Is the Alamo system any good or will I regret not taking TomTom?

Thanks in advance.

[saleen836]

Can't give any experiance of a rental satnav but, the little bit of research I have done for our California road trip tells me the units you get are very basic and usually well used.
I picked up an SD card pre loaded with USA maps for our TomTom for £26 so will be taking that with us when we go in September.

[egomeister]

A mate of mine downloaded a satnav for his Android phone before he went out to California (with downloaded maps rather than using data). I think he said it only cost him a few quid - could be worth looking into?

[selwonk]

Thanks for the replies so far. I hadn't thought of trying to get a cheap SD map. I'll have a look at that.

We were there last year and I tried nav on my iPhone but to be honest it was a bit crap. I guess I'm spoilt by having TomTom already. The only one O could get working properly neede a data connection so it was a bit of a non-starter. If I'm going to ditch the paper maps, I need it be reliable which is why I was going to lug the TomTom over.

[Matt Harper]

Just a couple of thoughts:

If you're doing the usual tourist stuff, you don't really need sat/nav - everything is very well sign posted here.

If you are doing the usual tourist stuff, do you need anything more than a basic rental car sat/nav anyway?

Although the prospect of lugging your sat/nav is daunting (it must be about the size of a fag packet, after all), unless it has US maps installed, it won't be particularly useful to you.

[selwonk]

There was a time when I used to drive around the country installing computers, and usually only needed a map for the final few miles. Nowadays, I'm afraid to say, I've become completely reliant on TomTom. I confess to being lazy, but I really can't be arsed with a map. :-)

Equally, my navigator is properly ste. She'll admit it freely. We will be doing mainly touristy stuff, but I did want to get off the beaten track a little, and the convenience of sat-nav is too much to ignore I'm afraid.