Tom Tom Sat Nav coverage of Majorca
 

Hi

We're out in PP in late June and this time I'd like to try more excursions in our rental car.

I was considering upgrading my UK only Tom Tom Sat Nav to get the Maps of Western Europe so that we can take the gadget with us to help navigate round the island.

However, before I spend the money, can anyone confirm that the coverage of Majorca is accurate and detailed?

Thanks

I used mine a couple of years ago but I can't confirm whether it has all the new roads on as I was mainly using it to get GPS co-ordinates for restaurants & trying out a few trips. We know the area pretty well so didn't use it a lot of the time. We normally get on fine with an up-to-date road map! See Books, Maps, Travel Guides on Majorca

I very much doubt that the sat navs are anywhere near up to date at the moment after all the new road systems being only just completed. Even the maps havent caught up yet, or Google!

Certainly very detailed and about as accurate as everywhere else.

You will have 'mystery tours' occasionally but all part of the fun of sat nav :)

On our visit in February we had some fantastic days out to little villages and towns we would never have gone to with a map.

With a map you tend to stick to the main roads, with Sat nav you explore the country route, not always by choice :)

A good trip with tom tom is to go from Pollenca/Port Pollenca to Randa monastery, a lovely cross country drive once you leave the motorway near inca.
Some very narrow country lanes with stone walls and small towns and villages that look similar to Pollenca.


I would pay for the tom tom map update service so you get quarterly updates, new map every 3 months usually.

TomTom, portable GPS car navigation systems - Map Update Service?

Mark.

My daughter and her husband visited PP for the first time in April and she borrowed my TomTom. They said it had been indispensable and that it gave them confidence to go all over the island. Even drove into Palma and used it to find car parks (I thought they were very brave:confused:). Just make sure that you get the version with Majorca on (think it's the Spain/Portugal one).

I know its a little bit off subject but I half heard a report on radio yesterday that reception of GPS data may be under threat in the future.

Apparently the US Govt provide the satellites for GPS. There are currently 31 satellites doing this at the moment!! wow. Apparently the minimum for complete coverage is 24. But about half of the satellites are coming to the end of their useful life and could shut down at any time.

The US don't have plans or money to rectify the situation at the moment so reception may become hit and miss especially in mountain/canyon areas where signals may not penetrate if any of them shut down.



Anyone else heard this?