Using GPS systems from the US in Ireland?

Any GPS will work anywhere in the sense that it can tell you your longitude and latitude. If you want a street location or routing information you'll need to make sure that your device has maps for your location (Ireland in this case.)

Some US GPSs have European maps as standard, some have the ability to add them later, at a cost, via a download or by adding an additional smart card and unfortunately some will only work in the US.

If you post your model number someone might know which type you have.

Melissa - someone I know downloaded maps of Ireland recently to their gps and took it with them and I think that they have a garmin - I have a very old TOMTOM and am going to have to investigate this myself...when are you going?

My sister bought a new Garmin before our trip and downloaded maps for Ireland. A word of warning, though, I've posted this before, use maps as a backup. Have a ballpark idea of which highways you're going on before you head out. The GPS sent us down some tiny roads which were NOT fun and resulted in a big scratch on our car. Remember, just because the GPS tells you to turn down a little road, you don't have to. It'll recalculate.

I use a TomTom 920. It comes with Euro maps installed. I've found it has an affinity for bigger roads unless I program it differently. If I have no idea how to get somewhere, I know it will get there. With local knowledge I'll drive a different way; it recalculates and eventually goes my way.

Martha, unless your TomTom came with Europe maps you'll have to buy maps from the TomTom website. Even if it came with maps, you'll want to update them if the GPS is, as you say, very old.

Hi Melissa,

We used the Garmin 270 in Ireland and it worked great. Nothing over there has distinct addresses so we would look up the town and select a resturant or a gas station and use the GPS to get us to the general area, from there we were able to easily navigate to our B&B.

The one thing we noticed was when we arrived in Kilkenny is that we would be on one street, then it would curve a little bit and we would be on another street, plus it was hard to read the numbers on the buildings and we are a younger couple so our eyes are pretty good!

We just got back from an 8 day trip in Ireland. We drove four of those days and used a Garmin Nuvi 720 (going on ebay this weekend). It was the best thing we took for the driving aspect of Ireland. We had back up paper maps as well. While the GPS did send us down some very narrow back roads, it was a blast to drive. We even ended up finding some very cool place to see all because I mostly went where the GPS told me.

The little back roads have some true gems......

Melissa,

I used the TomTom One on my trip last year and it worked well. I had to buy an Ireland map and download it to the unit. If you do this, double check that the map is on the unit before you head over.

If you have a GPS already, I'd check with their customer service to make sure you have it set to work in Ireland. If you don't have one, you can borrow one from a friend (which is what I did), or you can rent one with your rental car. The problems with renting one are that they are very very expensive and if the rental car company screws up and doesn't have one waiting for you then you're kind of stuck.

Another vote for Garmin. We used the 270 in May, and it was great. It had some difficulty with places in Ireland that didn't have a "street" type address (like they like to do there), but once we found the location we could always get back to it.

We did some serious/hardcore back country driving looking for family sites, and there was not a single one that the GPS did not have in it. Seriously impressed.

I've been using my Garmin on foot (and bus, train, etc.) in Ireland, England, Wales, and Scotland. Occasional weird routings, but otherwise good. I bought 2010 European maps just before I left, and loaded in waypoints.

Whatever GPS you buy, make sure it has European maps already installed and then update the map before you leave. If you buy a (Garmin) and then buy the European maps separately, it will be quite expensive and a hassle to install. I wouldn't leave the country and drive without mine. You should learn how to use it and program it before you leave.

I am using a friends Garmin streetpilot c330.
Do I just go to the garmin website to download ireland maps?
Also if I need to charge it what do I need besides a plug adapter to do so?
Sorry I just use my navigation system in my car, this is all new to me.

Melissa, you just use the "cigarette lighter" plug that the Garmin comes with to charge it. They are the same in Irish cars. As for Irish maps, the last time I checked, maps for Ireland and the UK cost about the same as those for all of western Europe (including Ireland the the UK), so if you have plans to travel to other places in the relatively near future, the western Europe maps might be a better choice for the money.