Canadian GPS solution

Well, its getting closer to the Vancouver and rockies trip, and I promises the 'er indoors that I'd sort a GPS solution for Canada.

On a previous trip we did San Jose to Yosemite with a Hertz hire car, and the o/h wanted a (relatively expensive) satnav with the car. I was ok with this but was hoping to show that the Galaxy S satnavs would be good enough. We hit Modesto, had a slight diversion due to road signs, and the google map route setup at the wifi at the hotel (I have no mobile data in the US, and its probably very expensive roaming, I don't want to take the chance) went haywire, so we were reliant on the Hertz satnav from the 90's...

Unfortunately its detail lacked and the destination of Wawona road for the Wawona hotel was actually an hour and a half long, which it navigated us to the north side (one and a half hour from the destination, google got it right, coming in from the south).

So now, with Canada she's wanting to know that if we are relying on a phone satnav, that its good. I've been told good things about Copilot Premium, had the uk one for 15 quid (full maps download, so no net needed) and it worked fine.

I downloaded the US maps last night, which claimed to include Canada, and did the basic test of Vancouver to Banff. Well, it appears the Canadian maps are really just 20 miles across the border and it seemed to think we'd have to go down through the US border and back up. A massive fail for that. Still, it was only 6 quid, so not a great loss.

So, what I'm after is a good android (or ios, I assume that they've got to the point that multi platform is possible), satnav with downloaded maps, needing no net access, and has good Canadian maps. Otherwise its probably the price of a full satnav to rent one, which is basically a machine which goes "ping!" and personally no more trusted than the Copilot Premium.

I did look on amazon.co.uk for a tomtom with US maps, but the same potential fail and the world of satnav is ironically and weirdly, not very global...

Hi there.

I have got the TomTom US and Canada (purchased from the App store) App on my iPhone 5 and have just planned a route from YVR to Banff and it takes you through BC and AB via Kamloops.

It does not require data it just uses the GPS built into the phone.
There is an Android App available http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products/ca ... r-android/

Hope this helps.

Dominic

Having recently done this same trip, we downloaded the maps from Google they were spot on. We also ended up having GPS in the Escape although we didn't ask or pay for it, from Avis.

They were the cheapest rental for the model and £50 cashback from Quidco. It also depends on wether your doing any diversions we went through, Kamloops and Revelstoke. Any info on these places just ask. Linda

Hmmmn, Tomtom has come out for the ios/droid now (or the former?).

I'm not sure about them personally, I had my first satnav on a Palm Pilot, and they really liked making money out of updating the maps. Lost a bit of loyalty from me, when I'd paid about 180 quid for the software...

I assume it downloads the map to the phone?

Linda, what do you mean by downloaded the maps from google? You mean downloaded it over the wifi in the hotel? I had no problem with googles maps, I had problem with it deciding to recalculate when I didn't want it to (I think I can fix this, but I don't want to rely on it).

I suspect a roadmap would be fine for such a sparse area and only care about near the big cities...

Hi Smid,

Just from my home PC with routes and directions, it was actually better than the satnav in the end, as sometimes when we put the zip or name in it took us to the wrong place.

Getting out of Vancouver was a bit of a nightmare as they have recently opened two toll bridges and even with selecting no tolls, you've guessed it, so we had to use the hard copy maps in the end.

When you leave Kamloops the road goes down to single carriageway, still good but lots of Rv's, have a good trip the scenery is as they say is awesome. Linda

P.S. we also bought a road map at the petrol station as well $5 well spent.

Hi

The maps and software download to the phone and take up about 2gb.

I'm sure I only paid around £30 for the app 3 years ago and any subsequent updates have been free.

I always take a US / Canada road map with me too.

All my recent reservations with Hertz have included their neverlost system too.

Just go to a supermarket on 1st day and buy one. I am in USA - to buy a satnav with world maps or USA maps was over £200 in the uk. Bought one here for about £60 (there were cheaper). Free lifetime maps update on tomtom. That was less then renting one and can use it on further trips

Agree with Barnaby100. Bought a TomTom in the US and was able to keep it updated at home, much better value than paying out to a car rental outfit. y)
Just don't forget to pack it when you come back home, like what I did! :0

It may not be a useful answer, but when I came to choosing a Smartphone, I chose the Nokia brand for the main and simple reason that Nokia (uniquely, I think) have a downloadable Map & Nav application they provide and update free to users of their hardware - be it their own (Symbian) or Windows platform.

I have used it in the UK, in Europe and in the USA with unfailing success; I have no reason to suppose that Canada isn't similarly supported. You can choose by country (in most of the world) or state (in North America) which maps you need to download, and do so either before you leave or en route using any free connection available.