Having a reliable GPS Unit while traveling seems old fashioned these days because of our cell phones. However, they can save you a lot of money and frustration because a GPS unit does not need an expensive mobile phone data plan or wifi signal.
You just need to have the right maps, turn it on, switch to the right map and it just works. This is why I always bring my old and reliable Garmin GPS unit when I travel.
Read on to see why I purchased a Garmin GPS and how I learned to switch the maps on my Garmin Nuvi GPS. Learning how to switch maps on Garmin is a crucial step to do before your trip to Europe. Why did I buy a Garmin GPS?Printing my driving directions from the internet was always very easy and more than enough for meuntil recently.
We recently had to plan for a long trip to Europe and driving in several foreign countries was scary enough, so having a GPS with me helped ease my anxiety a lot. The need for a GPS system became very clear and as a result I purchased a reliable Garmin GPS unit. I really like the Garmin systems because they work well everywhere and they are inexpensive.
That being saidI got lost one time in Italy as wellbut we found our way soon enough after asking around. Other than that our Garmin has worked perfectly.When traveling to foreign countries, having a GPS system is the best solution when compared to printing directions or using your cell phonesimply because you still can’t rely on finding a good and affordable Internet connection.When looking purchased my GPS unit, my purpose was simple. I wanted a GPS system that works both in Europe and California for driving everywhere.This way I can have two maps on my Garmin GPS.
My made my life so much easier while in Europe. Why would you ever want to switch maps on your Garmin GPS?It’s true that the Garmin GPS supports multiple maps, but the internal memory that it ships with is not enough to hold two maps. So I had to buy an extra 4Gb mini SD card and store the Garmin Europe map on it. This way I can have both maps installed at the same time.But when I came back home, I could not figure out how to switch maps back to the US Map. I knew I had done it before, but could not remember.So, I tried all the combinations of the settings until I finally found it buried way deep in the “Tool” menu.
How do you switch maps on your Garmin GPS?To change maps on Garmin GPS is simple if you know what buttons to press. Here are the steps you need to perform to switch your current map:. Access the Tools Menu. Access the Settings Menu. Access the Maps sub-category. Press the Info button at the bottom of the screen. This was the tricky one I couldn’t remember.
You should see two mapsor more depending on what you have installed. Select the map you want by checking the respective check box.While abroad it’s also very important to know especially if you are traveling to multiple countries. Another great feature of Garmin GPS units is before starting your trip. This is a big time and frustration saver.In order to make sure you can charge your Garmin GPS unit (and other devices) you have to have the right plug adapters.Read more about. My best resources for your Garmin GPS.
Just pop it into your Garmin Device and you’re ready to go. Getting the map on an SD card is the best way to go as it saves you the time to download and install it yourself. This map is compatible with most Garmin devices from older Nuvi models to the newest Drive models.If you are looking to buy a GPS unit so you don’t depend on any Wi-Fi or data plan while traveling, take a look at this. Make sure you also buy as the unit comes only with the US map pre-installed.If you don’t have time to order your maps on the SD card and already have a Garmin GPS unit, to update your unit’s software, purchase and install maps directly from Garmin.Get the right plug adapter for. Durable, dual input plug adapters that work with grounded and non-grounded plugs.This article is part of my series called: Maximize your Garmin GPS. How to switch maps on Garmin GPS System.
Free Map For Garmin Gps
Patit’s difficult to know exactly what happens. Here are some possible clues: the map you are using might be outdated and the road has actually changed, especially in areas with lots of construction (I had this happen in England with a 4 years old map). Another possibility is that there is not enough satellite coverage to give the GPS unit the required precision. You can find the precision by holding your finger pressed on the top left corner for a few seconds, until you see the satellites it picks upit will also give you the precision it’s working with. Hope this helps.
There is a Smartphone app that doesn’t use cellular data called “Here We Go”, by Nokia,It’s free, and the way to use it is get the app installed (I downloaded mine on Apple app store) and once installed, before you leave home, use the apps feature to download over wi-fi the maps for your destination region or whole country. The maps and app are free. The maps can be large so you need space on your Smartphone.They will use the GPS feature of the Smartphone, which relies on a satellite signal, to position on the fully downloaded map your location, etc. The free maps are quite detailed.This will also work on an iPad, as long as it is the model that has optional cellular data.
It uses the GPS in that model of iPad.good luck! At the Garmin website you can buy the maps either 1. For download or 2. Sent to you already installed on a Micro SD card. Having just tired the former, I suggest the latter.It took me many tries and several days before I got a clean download. And each download took hours. And I had to buy the Micro SD card.Delivery time for the card with the map already on it is not swift, maybe quicker from Amazon than from Garmin.
But next time that’s the way to go.By the way, do not forget to register your Garmin unit and supplemental maps with Garmin – that way you will have lifetime free map updates. Dianeyour Garmin will work fine in Ireland. You just need to buy the Map for it.
Garmin sells the map of Europe for 99$ last I checked. Go to the Garmin site and click on maps and buy the Europe map.
If you want to have both the US and Europe map on the device you need to buy an extra 4gb micro sd card.Once you install the map use my instructions on how to switch the map.Alsowhen you arrive in Ireland and switch your Garmin onbe patientit can take a while for it to find satellites and get its bearings. Just give it at least 5 minutes or so.
We use open source maps downloaded to our Garmin GPS. A friend taught us how to download free maps to our GPS when we were in Mexico. We are forever indebted to him for showing us how to do this. It saved us lots of money since we didn’t have to purchase the maps from Garmin and the open source maps are updated more frequently. I have passed on the how-to steps to individuals along the way and wanted to share the information more broadly.