greetings, I have purchased the OSI road atlas for Ireland but have been "pricing" the individual discovery ordnance survey maps for the areas we are going to visit. I can rent a GPS for $40 for Ireland and the price for the various OSI discovery maps will be pretty close to the same price. Please share your experiences with GPS for autos in Ireland and let me know if you think the GPS will be a better option than 4 or 6 OSI discovery maps. I am aware that after my holiday is over I will have the maps to sell or gift to someone, but the GPS will be gone once my trip is over. We drove around Scotland with OS maps and no GPS and had no real trouble. We basically will be driving to/around Dublin airport, Cong, Doolin, Dingle, Kenmare, and then bck to the airport in Dublin. No Dublin city driving on my plate! We wont have smart phone/phone connected Ipad for direction either. Thanks Dave
Posted by
Colorado Springs
2829 posts
On our last trip we used a Garmin GPS with European maps installed, backed up with a Collins Road Atlas for Ireland, and it worked just fine. I was frankly impressed with the level of detail provided by the Garmin - navigated us thru some very rural country lanes without a hiccup. Individual OSI maps would, I think, be overkill.
Have seen used Garmins (and other brands) on Amazon for less than $100. If you do go that route would suggest using it at home, ie before you set off on your trip, to familiarize yourself with the device.
We also had good luck using the Google map street view feature to preview our route each day. Helped to have seen intersections, turnoffs, signage, etc. before we had to tackle the route for real. Might work for you too.
Posted by
OP
bedford, indiana
459 posts
thanks Robert, i actually have a garmin, checked and the UK map including Ireland is $69, I may go that route. I used the google street view prior to a trip to scotland and skye and you're correct it was really helpful. Thanks for the input, enjoyed peeking at your blog/photos, you get around!!
Posted by
California, USA
69 posts
We are going in June and have also rented a gps unit from Auto Europe for about $50. We also got two OSI road atlas books from Amazon for back up. These were used and cost about $1.00 apiece. They were shipped for another additional $5 so they were a bargain.
We have been to Ireland before and used only maps and it wasn't fun. That was 10 years ago so things have changed and we are looking forward to using the gps. We will have the maps just for back up.
Good luck!
Posted by
Pantego, NC, USA
1014 posts
I have a Garmin with Europe chip. Probably saved my marriage several times. We also took an atlas with us to see what was around us where we were staying.
Posted by
York, PA
300 posts
If you have a Garmin GPS (I don't know whether it works with other brands) you can download and install free open-source maps that will work as well as the Garmin maps that you might pay $50 or so for.
We toured in 2015 using Garmin maps and again in 2016 using the free maps.
Follow the instructions here:
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/05/download-garmin-705800810.html
with the following exception: In Part I, instead of selecting Routable Bicycle maps, choose Generic Routable maps (this will prevent the GPS from trying to send you down a bike path).
As per the instructions I copied the .IMG file to an SD card and selected those maps from the GPS menu after sticking the card into the GPS.
The map files are not large. Maybe 100-120 MB for all of Ireland and N.I.