GPS abroad, Apps etc. and data usage limits?

KosherCowboy's Avatar
When it comes to finding places to go and getting what I want in my travels I seem to be on top of things except in one area that being anything technical. It took me 3 years to finally download the app for the German trains so I can skip the fare card machines each time I now take the train or the trams and I also avoid the foreign transaction fees this way

Now it is time to figure out the best way to use GPS. All the rental agencies offer GPS usually 6-7e a day and cap it at 60-70e a week or more which is a joke, the car I reserved is thru the Alamo/Enterprise-Delta agreement so it is only 35e for the week which isn't bad but..

several of the clubs I will be going to do not appear on these GPS offered and you need to plug in a place like an auto tyre shop, a McDonald's, a Turkish Doner stand etc. near the club(s) and take it from there on your own. Not sure it is even worth it to use this GPS from rental agencies, even the taxi drivers seem to use not only Mercedes cars but an app on their phone and they hook their cord in to the cars USB port and they can listen to the voice ( in German or Turkish usually) direct them around but most keep it on silent as they know the city.

I will be up in the Dusseldorf-Dortmund region and need to use some form of GPS as least till I know my way around. It seems most of the guys up there either already know their way around by memory and the others are complaining about the GPS and use their own phones, many apps to choose from seems some from Asia and N America even use different ones, as well as the guys in Europe. I am not buying one of these TomToms if I can use my phone.

It seems this Waze App seems to be popular and a friend up there now has said it works for the clubs and recognizes the addresses for all the filthy scumbag clubs as well as the popular megaclubs and leads you to all the RLDs up there as well. He said he also got police alerts but that is almost useless as the Germans hide cameras in all kinds of places and Waze can't find them, at least German tickets are only like 10e... It did help with rerouting around accidents though.

I have an iPhone ( old version) and am going to get a new phone and might go with an Android this time. I think there is an apple app now with GPS Nav? Anyone know if there is one for Android phones probably the Samsung? I think these apps also will find you gas stations, hotels and restaurants etc as well a tad more advanced than Waze. I am hoping to avoid using a nav from Alamo and using my own phone but someone is telling me Waze may eat up more data than the ones the phones have now built in that also talk to you thru the car speakers. Anyone out there know how these apps work on the newest versions of iphones/Androids and if they are better than using Waze or is there another program out there..I plan driving cars in to Austria, the Netherlands as well and in Spain this upcoming year as well so looking for some ideas on the best NAV to get and perhaps base my phone purchase on such as well.

I am going to use it here first in Texas and see how it works and hopefully when I am there I don't get stuck trying to get the voice to talk English ( or even Spanish would work) to me because the only German I know are the vile, filthy and nasty words.

Danke! ( Clean word)
Zollner's Avatar
Always liked Garmin.
The best GPS for Europe is probably the Garmin Nuvi 270.

https://www.kemwel.com/travel-ideas/...ps-for-europe/



Bitte
KosherCowboy's Avatar
Bitte Originally Posted by Zollner
LOL
First time I heard that word was in a tiny cheap FRA area club and had no clue what it meant, the girl wasn't the friendliest but ( ' alles gut' now that she has been pumped full of Amerikaner DNA and Euros many times) and I thought it meant ' fuck you' or something in German due to the fact we couldn't communicate and I thought I underpaid for services, until a ISG/ECCIE member filled me in she was actually being grateful.

The complaint I hear of the Garmins is some of them aren't updated and they have some of the same issues not all of the clubs will show up on the GPS and it doesn't recognize the addresses and sometimes land you at some factory or industrial complex.

I'll look in to buying one of these, the more toys the better! I'd say if it doesn't work for me I would trade it in to a girl for services but they already all drive around in BMWs and Mercedes often lined up at the clubs at closing time when their Turkish boyfriends/pimps/loverboys all pick them up. Bastards drive around in luxury while their girlfriends and wives blow and fuck 10-20 men a day ( some more) to fund those cars but I am sure they already have GPS!

Muchas Gracias
Zollner's Avatar
What I like about Garmin, at least in the USA and Canada, is you get free lifetime updates and 4 updates/yr but you have to do the updating which can take an hour or two. Other than that Garmin works fine, is accurate, simple to use and can be used in any vehicle you drive. Garmin's 800# tech support is very user friendly and helpful.


De nada
StephanieHepburn's Avatar
Google maps: the app!
It is international and works on any smart phone