Off road Sat Nav / GPS?

[wendyj]

Sorry I'm completely green to this.

I would love a Sat Nav for my car but also be able to use it for walks and bike rides as well (actually following a route as opposed to just knowing where I am / how far I've been.)

Does this exist? To make it doubly complicated, I'm in France and would need French maps on it...

Thank you in advance for any help.

[robertn]

The requirements for in-car are quite different to walking, hence any solution is a compromise.

The most common solution would be a PDA, running somthing like memorymap for walking/biking, and Tomtom, destinator or similar for in car. The major comprimise here is you need a university degree to use PDA's, they have poor battery life and are not robust.

A high end Garmin handheld will do street maping (CSx60), but has a small screen and no voice guidence.

That alternate, and current recommended solution, is one device for the car and one for outdoors, each designed specifically for the task.

You have not indicated a budget - this will largely determine you final solution.

[wendyj]

Thanks for your help

Just out of interest, I found this:
http://www.magellangps.com/products/product.asp?region=emea&segID=391&prodID=1851

I now can't work out if I have to buy additional maps for the biking / walking bit or if road and outbound type stuff are all included!

[robertn]

It looks quite good. It appears the detailed maps will need to be purchased - check out the cost and avalibility before committing to one. I would see if you can make your own maps, incase the detail is not avalible where you are going. The IP rating is only IP4x, so it's OK in the rain but don't drop it in river, or leave it wet for days on end, probably more than good enough if you are careful or a fair weather only person.

For my outdoor use I would not buy it; when the batteries go flat you cannot put another set in. If you are comfortable with a nominal 8 hours, go for it. My experiance is when you need these devices the most, is when things have turned to custard and the planned 6 hour trip has turned into 8-10 hours..... Oh dear...., lucky I always have the good old paper and compass. I mostly leave my GPS device turned off unless I want to look at it, and I always have spare battries, so the 8 hours would be enough most of the time.

[philpugh]

I agree with what robertn has already said. Go for a competent in-car solution and a simple hand-held GPS for cycling/walking and use this with good paper maps. PDAs are really a pain - especially on a bike - they are fragile and battery hogs - you can fix both problems but they then become a bit large and user unfriendly. You may find you can buy both for the cost of a single solution that almost does what you want. Of course - if your bike rides are on roads then an in-car PND may suffice for the bike.
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Phil

[Captain_Eric]

Being a convergence advocate, I will weigh in too.

I use a AT&T Tilt (HTC Kaiser, HTC TyTn II) loaded with TomTom Navigator 6, a suite of VidaOne "training" products, and Microsoft Live Search Maps.

For your specific use, Microsoft Live Search Maps set on Satellite view might work (I use it hiking all the time; incredible resolution).

The device costs less than $300 (plus a contract), TomTom Navigator 6 is about $125, Microsoft Live is free, Vida One totals maybe $60, including a bundle of MySportTraining for Windows Mobile, VidaOne GPS for Pocket PC, and VidaOne Diet & Fitness for PC.

With the VidaOne products you can view your uploaded routes on Google Maps and another site which also acts as a place to record your hikes and bikes as well as to share routes with others. It also tells you how many calories you burned! (and lots of other training/health stuff too, if you wish).

Together this device and software gets everything done for me.

[alix776]

to be honest the htc artimis with a battery pack like the U2O external battery will provide the device with enohg for atleast 10 + hours usage on with both in onroad and offroad gps usage combine this with an otter box and mount or an aquapac as its cheeper is an other choice
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currently using aponia truck navigation on windows phone. Good bye IOS don't let the door hit you on the way out .

Oh the joys of being a courier.
device Lumia 950 xl

[philpugh]

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