Will be using to drive from Lyon to Les Menuires on Saturday. Also need it to navigate to one spot off the route on the way. Want to avoid EE’s frankly ridiculous (still!) roaming charges.

I have navmii installed with France maps downloaded. Is this still the go-to for free navigation on the continent? I’m also downloading the area between Lyon and where I need to go for offline use in Google Maps. If I use GM to navigate offline, does it connect to the internet at all? i.e. will it require data roaming to be switched on to work in the first place? Or as long as I’m in the area, it’ll just use GPS?

In the case of nothing working, I have a 3 mifi dongle with plenty of data which is free to use in France, but want to save that for facebook/twitter/instagram/Pinterest/Posting 5 photos a day on STW activities.

Of course I’ll do all this and there’ll be a satnav in the rental car… 😀

I use maps.me for off line mapping. Excellent detail and easy to download regions. It has navigation too which seems to work ok. All for free

You should be abke to turn off roaming in your phone. That’ll make sure nothing connects.

I have Copilot for when abroad and its faultless but in fairness I use Google as much if not more.
Cache it before you leave and it’ll do the whole are of the route if you need to detour

I use Co-Pilot sat-nav installed on my phone (which is a purchased app… but not more that £25 from memory) which has maps installed on the phone.

Backcountrynavigator (only on Android) is good for downloading maps on the the SD card – (esp. OS maps in the UK – I know that’s not relevant) and I used it for biking in the Loire in the summer – doesn’t do nav though.

A Three PAYG Sim, and Google maps!

Having a three contract with unlimited data means we can just use our phones as normal.

Best thing Three have done is by making most of Europe the same as being at home!

http://www.three.co.uk/Support/Roaming_and_international/Mobile_roaming?content_aid=1214306374696

Try Here….free, offline

You should be abke to turn off roaming in your phone. That’ll make sure nothing connects.

Yeah, I’ll do that. Just wanted to know if there had to be some connection to the web to connect to GPS in the first place. I’ll have a look at maps.me though, cheers!

A Three PAYG Sim, and Google maps!

Having a three contract with unlimited data means we can just use our phones as normal.

Best thing Three have done is by making most of Europe the same as being at home!

Can’t be doing with swapping sims in and out of my phone. Also need to be contactable (by phone, wifi in chalet in evenings etc.) for work. And as I said above…

In the case of nothing working, I have a 3 mifi dongle with plenty of data which is free to use in France, but want to save that for facebook/twitter/instagram/Pinterest/Posting 5 photos a day on STW activities.

🙂

Just wanted to know if there had to be some connection to the web to connect to GPS in the first place

not on any android phone I’ve had.

Having a three contract with unlimited data means we can just use our phones as normal.

I was considering mentioning this, but didn’t want to appear smug and unhelpful. It’s bloody great innit! 🙂

Here – download maps required then data free when on the move, use it all the time when in France.

but didn’t want to appear smug

That would be a first. 🙂

And in any case…

In the case of nothing working, I have a 3 mifi dongle with plenty of data…blah blah blah…

I just downloaded MotionX but I haven’t used it yet. Anyone any experience to share?

I expensively found out that using google maps with roaming in france you just need data switched to cache the route at the start. The route loads up and if you turn data off there’s no issue but you don’t get live traffic data. So I found it useful to turn it on for a few minutes to get live info if doing a long drive.

Just a note on the law in France. It is illegal to carry a device capable of showing speed camera locations, which can include a number of UK sat nav devices or apps.

Though advice is you should disable that feature if it has the option or contact manufacturer about it.

Not sure if this also applies to ones that just alert you to the speed of the road.

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/radar-detectors-in-france.html

Just wanted to know if there had to be some connection to the web to connect to GPS in the first place

That’s called Assisted GPS. Almost every GPS device, if not all, can work without the ‘Assisted’ bit. All that does is use your data connection to download the GPS almanac, a list of satellite locations basically, which helps get a quicker fix. Without it the data is downloaded off the first satellite signal it can get, but it’s a slow download. Just means the fix can take a few minutes that’s all.

There’s a separate location fix phones use based on cell locations, but it’s a simple triangulation or nearest cell location. Doesn’t use GPS, probably uses data though, and accuracy is very poor. Fix to the nearest few miles or worse.

just one thing about your ‘one spot off route’. not sure if bog standard satnavs do this, but if you use google maps on your laptop the evening before say, you could ‘change route’ and drag the route to whatever stop off you want, then save that route to use the next day?

possibly just as easy to type in the postcode of where you want to go as and when, but didnt know if you knew this or if it would be helpful in your case. i often find satnavs want to take you the route you dont want to go for whatever reason, and this ‘make your own route the night before’ thing works well for me.

Weypoints and stops, some will do it. If not then you’ll just have to route to that point and when you get there, route to the next.

Double check whatever route it gives you before following it.

I made the mistake of getting a route online to Morzine to print out which went the sensible way, and then chucked in the location in my car sat nav and just assumed it would pick the same route… only to then be heading through Paris!

FWIW.

I’ve never done the SatNav by data thing. Instead I’ve always used a phone based system, with Map loaded into the phone.

Currently I have TomTom, Western Europe, down to street level, on the phone. So even without a phone signal, I’d be able to use the SatNav.

However, recently, I believe TomTom may have gone to a data system, ie, no map to download and store. So if TomTom was a consideration, then check first.
I’ve been getting update notifications, to update, but I have avoided doing so as I believe this will switch my phone from using the loaded map to using an online map.

IIRC my map was approximately 2.2Gb.

And to pre-empt the pitchforks. Yes, I know it’s terribly fashionable to use online maps, etc. But I don’t mind downloading and I prefer the advantage of being able to navigate even when I don’t have a phone signal/data link. Obviously the slight downside is that as time moves on, any map on my phone will slowly go further and further out of date.

Edit:
Phone OS is Android.

Here – download maps required then data free when on the move, use it all the time when in France.

Here is the ex-Nokia mapping service. Really good, with the option on the main menu to “Use App Offline”. Just download the country of interest whilst on wifi

+ 1 for (Nokia) Here Maps.

good routing and you download the whole of France to your device before you go.

Nokia had the sense to have offline downloadable maps way back. Could download entire regions without faffing about trying to cache an area.

Still can with any Windows Phone as they have Here maps and MS are embedding it into their Maps app. Same with any Windows 10 device, inc tablet, laptop etc.

No more EU roaming charges as of next year. Woohoo.

http://www.cnet.com/news/europe-to-kill-roaming-charges-in-2017/

But I don’t mind downloading and I prefer the advantage of being able to navigate even when I don’t have a phone signal/data link.

Yeah, me neither. I have plenty of spare memory on my phone anyway.

So far I have…

Google Maps with area between Lyon and destination downloaded for offline use.
navmii with France downloaded.
here with Rhone-Alpes downloaded.

I reckon I’ll probably get there. 🙂

antennae – Member
No more EU roaming charges as of next year. Woohoo.

http://www.cnet.com/news/europe-to-kill-roaming-charges-in-2017/

If we vote to leave the EU we might lose this though.

Plus some operators are running scams to get around this potentially. Just checked roaming with my EE account…

“Using data with 4GEE plans
•If you’re on a 4GEE plan you can’t use your data abroad unless you buy an add-on. This means there is no chance of running up an unexpected bill.”

Yeah, so what that means is while data may be capped and will be no more than UK cost per MB, you actually get no data access at all when roaming unless you pay a whacking fee for a roaming bundle 👿

OP if we leave the EU things like free roaming will remIn after seperate negotiation. Anyway as a 3 customer its free for me anyway, £18pm unlimited

On your origional query Google has always worked well offline with the caveat thatyou can’t re-route as that needs data / central server acess

PAYG sims inFrance are complicTed as you need a French address / credit card (AFAIK)

Many apps have speed camera “locations” its chnaged from exact to approximate, also in France if you have. Speed camera (zone controlle, radar) sign there is always a camea

Imho the best Sat nav app for France is WAZE, its a socIal network style app which is widely used. We rarely use our old style tom-tom

There is a good traffic website, will ask wife for url, which has actual and predicted traffic – you should be fine as its before school holidays

Good luck and drive safe

Yeah here is really good, works well and you can pick and choose maps before you go.

Only negative is it mullers battery (on iPhone anyway) google maps lasts a huge amount longer, we’re talking about an hour or so from 100 to zero using here, which isn’t an issue when in the car and plugged in but it still drains in the background. I drove thousands of miles across Europe last summer with no issue apart from forgetting to close the app when I got out the car and having no battery an hour later.

also in France if you have. Speed camera (zone controlle, radar) sign there is always a camea

That’ll be why I kept getting flashed 😀

I had no idea what these signs were that looked like a WiFi signal and blissfully cruising through. *flash* – huh, what was that? The cameras are hidden somewhere, not big bright yellow painted like UK.

But thankfully no agreement with the UK at the time so no fine through my letterbox 😀

Though I’d heard France was getting rid of the warning signs to “improve safety”?

Cheers all again.

Wonder if I could, say, use the GM offline maps but have the phone connected to the webnet via the 3 dingle for traffic alerts, faster route prompts etc…

And to pre-empt the pitchforks. Yes, I know it’s terribly fashionable to use online maps, etc. But I don’t mind downloading and I prefer the advantage of being able to navigate even when I don’t have a phone signal/data link. Obviously the slight downside is that as time moves on, any map on my phone will slowly go further and further out of date.

Having the maps offline doesn’t stop maps being updated via the app, the two are different; offline only means the app isn’t accessing the net for its mapping data, when there’s an update to any maps then the app will get that update the same as any other app, usually via wifi.

Cheers all again.

Wonder if I could, say, use the GM offline maps but have the phone connected to the webnet via the 3 dingle for traffic alerts, faster route prompts etc…
Not sure that’ll work, if the maps are offline, then any online data will not connect.
I use Here, having used CoPilot for some time; Here is better at giving several alternative routes to each chosen destination, and it just seems to work better generally. I’ve tried Google Maps, and Apple Maps, and neither are as good, Apple Maps really needs to be updated to give greater contrast between the roads and background.
The only odd thing with Here is the voice guidance, which has some rather… idiosyncratic pronunciations of place names, and does have the irritating habit of giving instructions at upcoming junctions/roundabouts and not mentioning the next town, ie ‘at the roundabout, take the second exit towards…’, and that’s it.

Tried Google Maps offline but my phone crashed due to overheating and then left me in the lurch with no data and no route 😕