Today’s post will be a discussion on the differences between a couple of navigation methodologies, specifically Garmin GPS and Google Maps.
We have owned a couple of different Garmin GPS units that have both North American and Europe Maps loaded on them from the factory. Currently, we use a Garmin Nuvi 2559. In addition, there is a navigation tool for the computer from Garmin called BaseCamp. We utilized BaseCamp on two of our Transatlantic Cruises where we stopped in Cherbourg, France to drive to the D-Day beaches of Normandy, and for a port stop in Le Havre, France where we visited Etretat and Honflour via rental car. We also utilized the GPS for a port stop in Toulon, France where we toured the surrounding area via rental car.
BaseCamp is not the easiest tool to use to pre-plan routes, but with a little perseverance, we were able to plan out our driving routes for each of these port stops prior to the cruise, and load them onto the Garmin GPS. This allows us to customize the route based on specific sights we may want to see.
Unfortunately, in almost every instance, the GPS routes selected by the Europe Map software loaded into the Garmin BaseCamp program left a lot to be desired. We constantly found ourselves on very narrow roads during all these various drives. We tried selecting fastest route over shortest route, but without much more success.
Since we will be doing several days worth of drives on this upcoming trip, specifically around the Tuscany area, we decided to give BaseCamp another try. We also have become aware of using Google Maps on our Android phones for navigation, specifically their offline map feature. We learned about offline maps from a couple we met on our last cruise. On that trip, we knew that we could not use our phones for typical Google Map navigation since we were not on any phone data plan while in the various cities in Europe. However, with the offline map feature, if we download the map while on internet access ahead of time, as we were while on the ship for that cruise, our phones would use GPS navigation along with the pre-loaded offline map without any data connection requirement. We had not considered that the phones GPS capabilities were not dependent on having wireless data access. The biggest downside of being offline is that you do not get real time traffic alerts with their automatic re-routing benefit, but most everything else is the same as if connected.
For this trip, we started the process of planning out GPS routes to the various cities we will visit in the Tuscany region by utilizing the BaseCamp software, and the downloaded Europe Maps that Garmin allows you to put on a computer for this purpose, in addition to the maps being loaded on the GPS itself. We then did the same routes using Google Maps on the computer, and were surprised at the difference in the directions. In almost every instance, the Google Map route was more direct and faster than the route selected by the Garmin GPS through BaseCamp. This prompted me to do some internet research on the differences between using Google and Garmin mapping routes. I was surprised to find out that these discrepancies are clearly apparent from several postings I read from others having the same issues Apparently, the Garmin algorithms that the GPS uses to plan routes are not very complex as compared to Google Maps, even though the Garmin map software itself is constantly being updated. The Garmin GPS apparently does not do as complex of calculations to find the most efficient route compared to Google Maps. Who knew….
The consensus from the online discussions was that Google Maps is much better for navigation than Garmin GPS routes, and after our experiences in Europe with being routed by Garmin on small, winding roads in the past, it is certainly believable. There are still some benefits to the GPS, it does provide real time routing around traffic stoppages, and also provides some images of upcoming directions, especially at interstate level exits.
We are planning on trying out both methods for navigation, we have not ever used Google Offline Maps for anything other than walking directions in some larger European cities, so we don’t want to rely on that as our sole method of navigation, at least not on this trip.
In order to try and utilize the better Google Map routes, I was able, with some coaxing, to manually adjust the BaseCamp GPS routings to mimic the directions for the Google Maps routes. It was apparent on several routes that I was manipulating the Garmin route off of a smaller winding road and onto a faster road/route generated via Google Maps on the computer.
We have also downloaded Google Offline Maps for most of the regions we are visiting, some for experimental utilization when driving, and some for for general directions we may need in order to have good walking directions in larger cities, such as Milan and Rome. Hopefully by the end of the trip, we will be better acquainted with both methods of navigation.
One last note. We are planning on trying to purchase Italian SIM cards and pre-paid phone plans for our trip, using tourist plans offered by either Vodophone or TIM, two of the largest cell providers in Italy. Most of these plans include data, so we may be able to utilize online Google Maps at times for navigation. However, there may not a significant advantage over the offline map other than if we run into real time traffic issues and need to be re-routed. At least we will have the option, although the data plans are somewhat limited. We have not been able to purchase cell phone plans easily in the past to try them out since we were travelling in several different countries where we would be subject to roaming charges. On a side note, on cell phones. there have been changes in at least the countries in the EU where roaming is now included across those countries, free of charge, at least for phone calls, data may be a little more complicated.
UPDATE: Apparently, there is a way to import some of the Google Map routings into BaseCamp, so we will do a little more research on that possibility. It was very time consuming to try an manually manipulate the Garmin route to match the Google Map Route, especially in larger cities.