We are going to Italy and renting a car.
Is there a way to load the addresses into the unit before we leave. I have a Garmin. I tried to do it, but it does not work. We live in canada.
Thankyou Irv.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32353 posts
Irv,
You might try loading the addresses into the "My Locations" menu. I also use a Garmin GPS unit, and that's the method I'd use.
When you arrive in Italy, you'll probably have to perform a "View Map" operation so the unit can realign to being in Italy.
Note that to drive in Italy you'll need the compulsory International Driver's Permit. You can be fined on the spot for failing to produce one if requested. This must be used in conjunction with your home D.L. and each driver must have an I.D.P. You can obtain this at any CAA office for very reasonable cost, and it's valid for one year.
Also, be aware of the dreaded Zona Traffico Limitato zones that now exist in many areas. Should you drive through the automated Cameras, you'll receive a nasty surprise in the mail a few months after you've returned home. Check other posts on the HelpLine for further information on these (use Kent's search method to find the previous post on this subject easily).
Happy travels!
Posted by
Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA
606 posts
I pre-loaded all my destination addresses into my Garmin before leaving home and it was great.
I had a hard time figuring out how to do it. I finally got it to work. In settings I took it out of "live" mode and put it into "simulator" mode.
Then I went to the map, zoomed it out to show the world, drug it to Italy, zoomed down on Rome, and selected to set that as my current location.
Then it would let me plot routes to destinations in Italy from Rome. To enter destinations, I entered city, then street address of my hotel. If I didn't know the exact address, I'd look at Google Maps, find a street in the center of a town, and enter that as the destination. That at least got me close to where I was going.
After finding each destination, I'd add that to my Favorites.
Once I got to Italy, the Favorites would sort on the list with the Favorite closest to my current location at the top of the list, making it easy to pick my next goal and go there. So you don't have to name your Favorites so they'll sort alphabetically for easy finding. They sort automatically, based on how far they are from your current location; at least that's how they do it on my model.
It worked flawlessly, but there sure ought to be an easier way to pre-program addresses!
Posted by
Coraopolis, Pa, USA
1018 posts
I used my Garmin nuvi 260w this past summer and I bought the sd card maps for all of Europe from Amazon. The gps was invaluable, but not foolproof. Sometimes it told me to turn when there was no street. I inserted the sd card and pre-loaded addresses before I left. On several occassions I was unable to enter an address or find a central point. When we were in Castelgandolfo's main piazza I used the "where am I" feature to mark the spot and then I saved it to favorites. Also, using the the feature "near a city" found locations we wanted to visit. Listening to the garmin pronounce the Italian names was amusing.
My neighbor allowed us to stay in his house outside of Napoli in a remote hilltown, but I needed the gps to find the place.
Buon viaggio,
RB