Which sat nav for a European road trip
Which sat nav for a European road trip
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Discussion

kambites

Original Poster:

70,823 posts

245 months

Monday 11th July 2011
quotequote all
We're planning a road trip to Bulgaria to visit in the in-laws and I want a sat-nav with good detailed maps of all the countries on the way. The route will be UK -> France -> Italy -> Greece -> Bulgaria. What's the cheapest decent sat nav with good maps of those five countries (and ideally the rest of Europe for future use)? I guess it's only Bulgaria and possibly Greece that's likely to be an issue.

I don't really care about other features.

redstu

2,287 posts

263 months

Monday 11th July 2011
quotequote all
What qualifies as decent?
I bought a garmin 1240 on eBay for 50.
It has European maps but has only been used in France and Spain.
I suppose it also covers Bulgaria and Greece.
It does all I need it to. Standard width screen (what is the point of widescreen?).
Bluetooth might be useful, but I'm not sure why!

kambites

Original Poster:

70,823 posts

245 months

Tuesday 12th July 2011
quotequote all
Features don't bother me at all - I don't want bluetooth or a wide screen or anything like that. I just want properly accurate maps of the places I'm going to and decent routing software both for picking general routes and for finding particular streets. Garmin don't even seem to claim proper coverage of eastern Europe unless you buy their City Navigator package thing, which is an expensive addon and/or only comes with expensive navigators... and I still don't know how good the maps actually are.

lescombes

968 posts

234 months

Friday 15th July 2011
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If you have an Iphone or Android phone.... Co Pilot live premium... EU version covers all you want...

karona

1,928 posts

210 months

Monday 18th July 2011
quotequote all
I used a Garmin Nuvi to get to Bulgaria, but the original maps of BG are very basic, major routes between cities only. http://www.bgroutingmap.com/ supply street level city maps, and show every settlement in Bulgaria, but only for Garmin sat-navs. They are supplied as a download, or buy them on an SD card from 'Germanos' phone shops in the larger towns. Buying the maps entitles you to download 12 free upgrades, using a registration key on the card. The maps are 'plug and play', simply insert the SD card and select via the 'maps' menu.