Sat nav in the USA - iPhone app or standalone TomTom?

[Mr_Sukebe]

Question for you chaps.
At the moment, I'm being regularly sent to the US for business and to date have hired a SatNav from Hertz. At my company pays, never really cared before. Well that was true until I see how much they charged. Was absolutely astronomical. I think I could buy a brand new TT for the price of hiring one for 2 weeks.

Based upon the above, is your recommendation to buy a dedicated standalone unit (any recommendations appreciated), or an App for my iPhone6?

 

[mrk]

The upshot of having the app on your phone is that you're not limited to the inconvenience of whipping out a standalone unit whenever you need it and thus carrying it around surely?

Both Garmin and TomTom make good quality standalone units but because of the way satnav has shifted into the smartphone market, you will likely find that the app just does more for your money and offers the best convenience and integration, especially as a business user.

Stuff like clicking on an address from an email and it loads in your nav app directly without you having to input a destination.

 

[acemastr]

Google maps on a phone, get a sim card. I did this before I moved here.

 

[matthab]

If your on Three I would use Waze. I used when i was over there and it was easily the best Satnav I have used.

It automatically reroutes round incidents, works from others reporting stuff and is based off Google maps. Google own Waze btw.

 

[swain90]

+1 Google Maps.

You don't necessarily need the Zip / Post code, search company name and it'll provide the address.

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

Pretty unanimous so far. Thanks guys. Guess I'd better grab a sim card and plug in charger next time I'm out there.

 

[TripleT]

Just as another option you can hire ones from people off eBay for around £30 for 2weeks.

Yes it's not the most cost effective way but it's very easy so I had no issue doing it.

Some people say just to buy one and then sell it but I couldn't be bothered and the phones were used for taking pictures etc.

 

[Janesy B]

Took advantage of Three at home and used google maps, it works well.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I exclusively use Tomtom on my phone for navigation in the USA. Google Maps is great but I can't be bothered with having to rely on data especially as there are quite significant portions of the country with zero data coverage.

TomTom is offline and costs £15 a year. Job done.

 

[traveyb]

Used TomTom on my iPhone when in Canada, worked flawlessly

 

[Antony101]

HERE maps is great for offline maps, I leave it on my phone as a just in case.

 

[Joe T]

I exclusively use Tomtom on my phone for navigation in the USA. Google Maps is great but I can't be bothered with having to rely on data especially as there are quite significant portions of the country with zero data coverage.

TomTom is offline and costs £15 a year. Job done.

Does it have verbal lane guidance?

 

[nutcase]

I just bought a US map for my UK tomtom. Every 5 years or so I update the map.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Does it have verbal lane guidance?

I can't actually remember, I assume it does? I'm pretty sure I remember it saying things like 'Take the left lane' or whatever.