Using my mirror in a rentacar

Magnetometer or GPS will give you north with a "compass" app. There are apps that use magnetometer, and ones that use GPS. GPS tells you which way you are going while in motion but will not tell you which way is north when standing still.Magnetometer gives you north reference even when not using, but can be affected by external magnetics.

Every european car rental I have used offered a GPS rental with the car. I didn't need it because I had Euro map on my TomTom which I had with me.

That's good enough. When I'm not moving, I really don't have to know which way I'm (not) going.

Good point. So we're back to "in the car" problem, what makes it so hard to set the compensating magnets on early car compasses.. Maybe my rear view mirror one works so well because it's up high, away from speakers, and surrounded by glass. (And in my car the roof is mostly canvas.)

So I'm better off with the GPS, which works out since I don't have a magnetometer.

It only showed 20 apps when I looked the first time, but now it shows more than 100. I'm sure I'll find some that say they use GPS. I just checked and the phone itself has A-GPS.

That 's a good idea. And it won't be the summer, which I think is their busy season, so they might have extra cars. (To be fair, I had a teeny car the last time and it was big enough for me. I think it was a Fiat Panda. ) Still this time I might have 2 passengers.

I don't do that. It's stealing.

Ask them if they gave a GPS or can borrow one.

Just to be clear, any GPS app on a smartphone, whether built in like Google Maps or one that you download, will require cell service. It not a like a standalone GPS that uses the GPS satellites.

That is the issue that I ran into out west. No cell service, no routing information.

Yah, I'd definitely have some paper maps but I'd also have a tablet (14" min) with built in GPS and offline maps and wireless data capable.

You are going for 10 weeks? Spend $159 and sell it for $75 when you return. For $7.50 a week you have excellent navigation, points of interest, gas stations, etc. You may even find it to be handy around town when you get back.

Really a small add-on considering the total cost of the trip, not to mention the convenience that comes with it. Especially in the cities where finding street signs is not always easy and when you do, they have

No way would I go to Europe without one these days.

One thing I forgot to mention. When you take your own GPS you can enter the places you will be going to ahead of time at your convenience, not in the airport parking lot. That alone is woth something.

And it is only accutae to "about" 45 degrees. It says n, nne,ne e, se, sse, s,ssw, sw,w,nw,nnw. and N.. Accuracy to even 5 degrees is almost impossible with the cheap mirror compasses.

Not true. They use the GPS satelites. If you have downloadable maps you don't need a data connection. The GPS will aso give you direction of travel and precise location co-ordinates without a data (or even phone) connection.

There are downloadable map apps available for almost all smart phones

- but your storage may not allow much area to be covered, or much detait. depends on the phone.

Going into the settings menues you can almost always get the actual GPS co-ordinates in raw form. Apps like Speedview give you groundspeed and heading, as well as elevation when in motion.

snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca has brought this to us :

That's strange, usually they are four, eight, or 16 point IME.

It wasn't that cheap. I think it was $150***. And it doesn't even have nne or ssw. Just ne and sw. I was a little disappointed about that, but only theoretically, because like many guys, the cooler the better.

In practice though S vs. SW is enough for me. My major goal is to not go north when I think I'm going south. Or anywhere between NE and NW when I t hink I'm going somewhere between SE and SW**.

Because the roads don't go straight and rarely point exactly north etc. so it doesn't matter exactly which direction I'm going. That I know the general direction is enough.

It's not like I'm doing orienteering, or searching for hidden treasure.

When I lived in Indiana, I didn't need a compass. All (but southern Indiana I hear) is flat and the roads and streets are almost always NS or EW, and without even trying, I keep track the number of turns I've made, so I always know which direction I'm going. Even oblique roads are not a challenge because all the other roads interset them at the same angle, unless the road changes direction, but I know what direction the intersecting roads go, so I know what direction I'm going.

?? They let you in ahead of time because you have a GPS? I can see that for the GPS convention, but why do others care?

No, you enter addresses of the places you plan to visit into the gps before you leave the comfort of your home. Hotels, airports, museums, whatever. Makes life easier on the other side of the pond as you can easily set the destination.

Nowhere did I mention it's price. I didn't say low-priced - I said CHEAP. At any price, a compas with only 8 points is a "cheap" compass

In which case a magnetized sewing needle and a piece of string will do you just fine - - -

A lot better to know what road you are on and where it goes. So the MAP is more important than the compass. I generally use my GPS to tell me where I am, not necessarily where I am going.

We sit down with paper maps for a month before we go, marking them up and creating Plan A, B, C and then we may do something completely different. Nav is really only handy when we are finding the hotel my wife just booked on her phone and the phone does it all.

You are correct, I was rushing and had a brain fart. Smartphones do indeed use GPS.

As far as downloading the maps for use offline, that works fine if you know/suspect that you will need the offline maps before you leave.

Aside from the limited space allowable for downloaded maps (I think mine is about 1750 MB) you need a data connection in order to do the download. In the case of my trip out west, I had no idea that I was going to lose Google Maps's routing capability until it was already lost. I guess I could have backtracked until I had a signal again and then used a bunch of data to download the area but that wastes time, gas and data.

Since I still have my Garmin 350 with lifetime map updates, I'll keep it updated from now on and be sure it's with me the next time I head out into the more rural areas of our fine country.

The main point of all this was to let micky know that a GPS with the proper maps is probably his best option. The "buy and sell later" seems like the best strategy if he really doesn't need one for the long term.

snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca posted for all of us...

I like this solution as the best. Others are pale in comparison. Then you can relate the points to your paper maps.