Best GPS for Eastern Europe/Morrocco?

[Devon]

Hi Everyone. This is my first post on this site. Pick up my red 1200gs 1st March .

I have spent the last 2 weeks seaching various web pages concerning various GPS, and, being new to this GPS malarky seem to get more confused by the day! (probably something to do with getting old )
There are some pretty knowledgable people using these pages: can anyone give me guidance on the best GPS for my needs?

Here are my requirements: this summer I intend to ride up to Denmark
( friend's got me a ticket to see the Stones there Hopefully none of them will die of old age before June ) then I hope to go into Poland and travel through the eastern european countries to Romania, then head homewards north to include Austria and France.

I also hope to get the ferry from Plymouth to Santander and cross Spain for a week in Morrocco (Wifey permitting )

I could do with a GPS that can navigate the main roads and cities in the above mentioned countries. Blue tooth to work my 'phone (where there's a signal) would also be nice. Plus a warning for fixed speed cameras in the UK: don't want much do I?

I can surf the internet and use word to write letters but otherwise I am not particularly computer/gadget oriented so something easy to use would be good.

Does such a GPS exist? Garmin 2610, Quest 2 and Tomtom Rider seem to get good reviews but are any of these capable of satisfying my requirements?

Thank's in anticipation. Devon.

 

[mike6631]

Hi

I have just been through the same sort of exercise as you are about to. The main constraint is not the hardware as any of the 'machines' you quote will probably do, its the mapping availability that might be the problem. If you visit the garmin home site (www.garmin.com I think)you can see what sort of coverage is provided and at what detail it is. For example most of europe is covered in some detail but parts of Spain are not. Former eastern bloc like Poland etc its probably just the main roads. same for Morocco.

As far as the hardware is concerned I have just bought a 2610, which comes with mapping for europe included in the price. The quest does too I believe, but AFIK the Tom Tom rider only comes with UK mapping so you have to buy additional maps for other countries.

The real expert on this subject is Pan European and if you do a search on this particular forum you can spend the next few days happily reading up on all the pros and cons of the subject

Mike

 

[Taff]

All being well, I will be going to Poland via Denmark and possibly Sweden in May - as the Harwich - Cuxhaven route has been ditched.

For beginners GPS is intimidating, but for me at least I will be sticking with Garmin. I know there are alternatives eg TomTom Rider but I believe you have to pay extra for maps of the continent. My feeling is why bother, when there is no price advantage, I have been very happy with Garmin, the 2610 / Quest comes with the latest City Navigator maps of Europe anyway and Garmins support is excellent?

Although I can operate programs eg Mapsource, Word, Ecxcel etc ok once they have been installed, believe me there is no-one thicker than me to install programs on the computer - which is why I asked a friendly local GSer who knew what he was doing, to do it for me. I felt obliged to give him a good bottle of wine for his efforts. In your case, if you did not feel up to it yourself, I'm sure there would be someone local to you who would be willing to spend 30 mins or so installing Mapsource for you. Don't forget the good bottle of wine? Once the program is on your computer, it is pretty straightforward, but as with everything don't expect to be an expert within minutes. Play with it - to create small local routes, waypoints etc at first. Take wrong turns etc on purpose then use the GPS to set you straight etc. Once you've mastered that (it took me a week) Western Europe (ie the area covered by City Navigator) is your oyster.

By May I will have bought a 2610 (to replace my previous Garmin SPIII) which will come complete with City Navigator Version 8. These are the maps which you download to your GPS unit. If you look at the details of City Navigator however, they do not cover Poland in great detail - which is why I will probably install GPMAPA 4 at 732 polish zlotys (about 180 Euro) or £120 in real money. It isn't cheap, but as I intend travelling to or through Gdansk, Warsaw, Krakow and Katowice I am pretty sure I will be getting my wallet out. I went to Germany last year, and with GPS I went through cities with ease, which I'm sure I would have avoided if I was relying on paper maps alone. Can't help you on Morocco or Bluetooth I'm afraid.

Do yourself a favour - press the Search button (2nd from the right on the site toolbar near the top of this page) and enter PanEuropean in the User Name field and Poland in the Key Word field. Then sit back and enjoy. If you have any questions stick them on here.

 

[Kritou]

To both TAFF and DEVON, why not delay a decision for a couple of weeks. There is a well qualified school of thought that believes a major upgrade of the Baltic States will come with City Navigator v8

We too are going round the baltic in May/June through Denmark, the ferry from Stokholm to Estonia and homeward through Lithuania etc

If by any chance you intend stopping in northern Poland I have been advised of some interesting accomodation - see this thread http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60148

 

[Tim Cullis]

2610 would be fine. Quest 2 maybe even better as it can be battery-powered for off-bike use. Garmin Worldmap would add to the functionality,

Tim

 

[Taff]

To both TAFF and DEVON, why not delay a decision for a couple of weeks. There is a well qualified school of thought that believes a major upgrade of the Baltic States will come with City Navigator v8.

I hope you're right Kritou. I am holding back from buying a 2610 at the moment, as I want to make sure that it comes with the very latest Version 8 maps - due out any day now I believe. If these maps also include good detail on Poland (even if it's only the major cities for now) I will be well chuffed. After all Poland is in the EU now.

Thanks for the details of the accommodation, I'll enter it as a waypoint and see how close my travels take me to it.

 

[mitch]

No point in waiting to buy 2610 all the one's in stock and for a while will still come with V7. Just buy it and don't register it with Garmin untill after V8 comes out then you can get a free V8 update.

 

[Devon]

Looks like it's better to wait then.

Many Thanks for all the info. Looks like I might as wait until April and then decide. Expect to have better discounts available then (specially on the newer stuff). Looking at previous threads on the site, eastern Europe is not well catered for yet: and what is available costs. Will possible be relying on maps for the East: suppose I've managed for the last 25yrs without GPS, another year won't hurt

 

[Garry H]

I use a Garmin 276c...I use mapsource cityselect 7 for western Europe ans world map for the rest ...World map has got quite a bit of road detail for Morocco on it compared to the Michelin map..I have used it in Slovenia and Croatia and Chek rep ...Not as good as a map but still very usefull