Driving in Florida/Sat Nav

[nickdrinkwater]

Hi all

Will be going to the Florida Keys in late Feb for a few days and hiring a car to stop at 2 different hotels along the Keys.

I would like to use a sat nav to get around since it will be my first time driving in the US and straight from a 10h flight. However I have been advised that renting a sat nav/GPS from the car rental company (Alamo) will be very expensive.

Bearing that in mind, what are my other options? I have a TomTom (UK maps only) that is about a year old and their website suggests that they can sell me a US map for £34.95. Presumably I'd still be able to recover my UK maps if I did take this option, but can't find confirmation of this on their site.

Anyone tried taking their sat nav with them or found a different equally cost effective way?

Thanks a lot

Nick

[Pothole]

Alamo's website lists the GPS Navigation as $11.99 day, $69.95 week up to $179.99 max for each 30 day period. Or you can buy one at Walmart for $60...

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Garmin-Nuvi-30-3.5-GPS-N...

[GoneAnon]

Buy a Nokia mobile and download their maps and voice file before you go - all legit and free.

No need for a data connection just a GPS signal. Screen is slightly small on older phones like an N95 but entirely useable.


Or but a satnav when you get to your first US supermarket and sell it again when you come home.

[Deva Link]

nickdrinkwater said:

I would like to use a sat nav to get around since it will be my first time driving in the US and straight from a 10h flight.

How far have you got to drive on arrival? I wouldn't want to be driving any distance.

I asked about satnav in a massive Walmart in Orlando earlier this year and was amazed they didn't have any at all. They said everyone has switched to smartphone apps.

You can rent one from various eBay sellers, or this guy crops up regularly on TheDibb: http://www.rentanav.net . Or you could probably pick one up with world-wide maps on eBay.

Having said all that, it is very easy to navigate over there. We had an Escalde last year with Hertz's NeverLost sat nav (even though the Escalade had its own, with the disc missing) and it was useless.

[nickdrinkwater]

Thanks guys, I have the car for 6 days so looks like it's cheaper to buy the update here and take mine rather than hiring one there. That or the Nokia option. I could buy one there but to be honest I want to minimise fuss and just be able to get in the car and go straight to the destination without stopping. It's about an hour's drive when we arrive, from Miami International to Key Largo. Despite the flight duration I think that should be doable. Given that the flight doesn't leave LHR until after midday I can hopefully get a good nights sleep and feel ok at the end of the journey...

[chrismcg1]

When I was in California last year we hired a car for 5 days from Carhire3000 - they included the SatNav for free..... might be worth a look at their website...I found them cheap and very helpful.

[Original Poster]

When I went to Florida in May I rented a sat nav from eBay UK for about £30, best way IMO.

[Mr E]

What phone do you have?

I found nav applications on the iPhone perfectly adequate in both florida and califonia. I'm sure they're also available for android.

Not much Nav required in the keys to be honest....

[durbster]

I took our Android tablet. We were going to buy a cheap sim card when we were there but I thought we could try using Google maps offline feature, so we just downloaded the maps as required and used them as a replacement for a paper map with the added advantage of GPS. It worked extremely well actually, and we had two phones with the same maps on for backup but they weren't required.

The only problem we had was charging the bloody thing. I'm not sure why (different voltage? cheap adapter?) but it took significantly longer than here.

That said, I found driving in the US very easy. The grid systems make navigation in towns and cities easy and everything was well signposted.

[audidoody]

I've done this trip and stayed the night at the in-airport hotel at MIA and collected the car early the next morning. Me and jet-lag and LHD cars and freeways don't get on too well when I'm numb from jet-lag.

[Deva Link]

audidoody said:

I've done this trip and stayed the night at the in-airport hotel at MIA and collected the car early the next morning. Me and jet-lag and LHD cars and freeways don't get on too well when I'm numb from jet-lag.

The OP is saying an hour's drive when he gets there (around 5PMish) and that wouldn't give me any concern - many arriving at Sanford are going to be driving for an hour to get to villas south of WDW. The drive home on arrival back in the UK after flying overnight is much more dodgy.

[Nigel H]

I paid for the US maps for my tomtom (£35 IIRC too). You install and then switch from the UK map to the US map and vice versa; quite simple. The advantage that I found in doing this was that I could load all my destinations as favourites before I went (and check them against Google maps to make sure there were no errors). The maps also come with loads of POIs including restaraunts, gas, shops etc.

While I baulked slightly at the cost, it worked very well and took lots of stress out of the holiday.

The only note of caution would be to take different types of 12V plugs and leads as the cigarette lighter may be in a place some way away from the windscreen

[saleen836]

I bought an SD card off Ebay for our Tomtom back in August ready for our roadtrip in California, it worked a treat and only cost me £21

[AndyD360]

saleen836 said:

I bought an SD card off Ebay for our Tomtom back in August ready for our roadtrip in California, it worked a treat and only cost me £21

This. Did the same with our Garmin and it works absolutely fine

[davepoth]

I did similar with my Garmin. Definitely a big help.

[Matt Harper]

To be honest, I'm at a loss as to why you'd even need navigational assistance. Essentially, the driving instructions are "Take State Route 1 south. The end". I'd go as far as to say you would really, really have to make a special effort to get lost, touring the FL Keys.

[GoneAnon]

nickdrinkwater said:

It's about an hour's drive when we arrive, from Miami International to Key Largo. Despite the flight duration I think that should be doable. Given that the flight doesn't leave LHR until after midday I can hopefully get a good nights sleep and feel ok at the end of the journey...

We managed fine with the drive from Miami International to Key Largo where we spent the night at the Bayside Inn and enjoyed a beautiful sunset from the beach. The diner next door was a treat for breakfast in the morning and we got to meet the local "crazy lady". The African Queen was on display along the road but there isn't much else to see unless you are into diving.

[Countdown]

Have you considered the Navigon App for your mobile phone?

[Vipers]

Downloaded Maps for my tom tom for states and oz, no probs.

Bloody sight cheaper than hiring a sat nav over there.

[oblio]

When we did a roadtrip around Florida, Georgia, SC and Alabama, I got a memory card and did an update on my Tomtom: it w0rked a treat for the whole trip so I'd certainly recommend that