Remember the good ol’ days when we actually had to use paper maps to get around? My, how times have changed! What would you do without your beloved GPS or Google Maps on your phone? You’d be lost without it (yes, yes, pun intended).
When you’re on the road, do you use a dedicated GPS or a mapping app such as Apple Maps, Google Maps or Waze on your phone? All certainly have pros and cons, so it usually just comes down to a personal preference.
Please vote in the poll and leave a comment with your favorite mapping apps (if you use any). We love learning about new ones.
We can’t always rely on solid cell coverage in the areas we like to travel, so definitely a dedicated GPS for us, and we always carry an old school road atlas as well.
I pre-plan the trip on a RV planning app, but DW likes to have a paper map on her lap. It’s not that she doesn’t trust me, but having a paper map can sometimes find something worth looking at. And the phone app gets us back on course quickly.
What does DW mean? When I looked it up in the Urban Dictionary the only thing that seemed to fit was Dim Wit, but I don’t think that’s what you meant.
Dear Wife. DH would be…. Dear Husband.
Thanks
Not Dat Woman… or Dat’s Him?
Dear Wife 🙂
Stay safe, Joe
We plan it on a paper map, program it in the gps, and double check it on the phone. GPS programs are so inaccurate that paper is still the most reliable.
My latest hearing aids are blue tooth enabled so the spoken directions go straight to my ears. What an incredible feature!
All 3
We use both, the GPS and my phone. While we are driving the GPS will guide us. While we are exploring a new city, we use the phone to guide us while we walk around.
Use laptop with Google maps and MS Streets * Trips (2013).
use GPS, phone and paper maps. but i love paper maps the most as it gives a better visual of where we are to where we are going. i remember being so excited when i learned how to read a paper map, i could now sit in the front seat of the car and be a navigator. silly as it sounds it was a big deal to sit in the front seat!
Both at the same time ! Have gotten in some tight jams using just one. We’re in St. Augustine right now and Google maps had a shorter way to go that my GPS (which I didn’t have on….short trip). It led us down a road and if I hadn’t seen the height sign that read 8’6″ due to low hanging trees. Well you can imagine the rest of the story…..
My wife and I use a combination of Google Maps and paper maps. She is always looking ahead with the paper maps because, no matter what we have used, the GPS occasionally take us down the wrong road.
We also use Google Maps along with traditional maps. My wife enjoys navigating as we travel along. Good to get a heads up as we approach major route changes.
You’re lucky, my wife is a complete passenger unless I ask her to watch for something specific, otherwise she is happy to sit in the passenger seat with her iPad and play her word game. Lol
My wife could not tell a map from wall paper but, she is one hell of a cook and pleasant to be around. I will drive and navigate just to have her with me.
We use CoPilot
I have a GPS that I bought for my motorcycle. I also have software on my computer to plan the trip and then send it to the GPS. One great feature of both is the ability to enter the route using “truck” mode. That keeps us on roads capable of semi travel.
When I drove truck over the road I only had a commercial carriers atlas and never had any problems unless my directions into my destination were bad. Since using a GPS in the motorhome, that natural blonde they install in each one has given me wrong turns in more than one situation. Lol
My husband and I were truck drivers for 20+ years. He always preferred the atlas because of the bad directions the gps can give. We use all three types for direction depending on where we are going
I use a combination, night before a map, day on an RV GPS, and close to destination combine GPS with wife’s Google directions.
We use paper maps from AAA and we use our phones..
I plan most of my trip on http://www.furkot.com sometimes looking at a paper map then put in the legs on my dash mounted GPS.
We always plan trips using the Gazetteers for each state we will be traveling through. I have a TomTom GPS that is pretty good, as long as I can get it updated (which currently is presenting a problem). My 2016 p/u has GPS built in but I just don’t trust it. Side by side, the TomTom proves to be more accurate even though I spent the big bucks to have the Ford GPS updated. My wife sits with the Gazetteer on her lap and lets me know what’s coming up or what’s out there beyond what we see on the GPS map.
Going north out of Las Vegas last year, my truck-GPS told me I needed to turn off of the highway and onto a gravel road. Although we chose to stay on the pavement, that electronic map showed us driving out across the Nevada desert. We had a paper map that was more accurate.
All three. Paper first then program trip in Google maps. Cross reference back from Google maps to atlas once verified. I do a lot of printing and put those pages from Google maps in the atlas. Plug everything into GPS and hit the road AM. This works out great as discussion starts on where we would like to stop between A and B.
I use paper maps including the large format Trucker’s Atlas, the truck GPS and my wife’s cell phone GPS. I’ve seen way too many problems with GPS routing. Updates always fix some problems and cause new ones.
I plan the route at home on Google maps and print out the route at various levels of detail. Many miles if we’re on interstate but closeups of the route off the main road into the campground.
If any roads are questionalble re: narrow and winding, I look them up in the trucker’s atlas to see if they’re rated for semi-trucks. If still questionable, I fly down the road using Google maps Street View.
When driving we have our print maps, state maps, and with both the truck and cell phone GPS running. When we get confusing directions, we pull over and sort it out.
Retireing from the aircraft maintenance world gives you a unique perspective on dash board displays. I prefer stand alone displays. Multifunction displays, when one functions fails, you lose the rest of the displays when you go to get it fixed.
The GPS and a large spiral Rand McNally atlas works for me.
We use maps to plan trip, RV GPS on trip that shows traffic problems
The Rand McNally RV GPS that is in our RV has our dimensions and weight. Theoretically it will not put us on any roads with overpasses too low, or bridges too flimsy for the girth of our RV. However, we do sometimes question our route and use the map application or Waze application to check things. Paper maps, too, get consulted, but usually when planning a trip and not on-the-fly.
21′ camper van here, so pretty much anything works fine. Enjoy using a GPS, but have no need for specialized RV functions.
We were going from Mount Rushmore, SD, to the Wind Caves, SD, we became lost. The phone google maps told us to turn off onto a strange road which we were very suspicious of and didn’t go far on it before turning around. Of course it was a truck and travel trailer totaling 50 foot. Always exciting to attempt to turn it around in a two lane road without going over rocks and other things off the side of the road. Finally hopelessly lost we called Wind Cave who told us to TURN OFF our gps as it is particular inaccurate in the area and just keep going down the road and we would get there. After leaving the wind cave we headed for the Wooley mammoth Pit, but again was being sent through a neighborhood and a roundabout way. Again lost we stopped and ask an individual doing yardwork for directions. The thing we learned was to always use a printed map of the area to verify anything and everything our google maps or gps tells us.
We use a Rand Mc. 7″ GPS – verified with a paper map! The GPS’s Lolla attempted to turn me down a road which a rising lake (Devils Lake, ND) had taken over a few years previously. Fortunately, it was daylight so I had eyes on before leaving the hiway! The lake has also taken over a campground which was east of the city and along US Hiway 2. Lesson learned! I Always pre-plan with a paper map!
For me, using a GPS on long trips is the better alternative since there are very few places it can not see a satellite. Phones on the other hand are dependent on cell service, which is sketchy even on Interstates in many States. If my GPS tells me to turn down a non-paved road, I don’t do it. My next move is to pull over and check to see if my phone or map tells me something different. Check your GPS settings to see if it will keep you on roads compatible with whatever you are driving.
We have 2 GPS units we use at the same time. And yet we still get lost once in awhile.
We use paper maps for longer distances while in the vehicle (but plan out our trip at home using Google maps on the computer). When close, if we’re uncertain, we’ll use Google maps on the phone.
I use Co-Pilot on an Android tablet and back that up with a laptop running either Streets and Trips or PC Navigator Free (while in Mexico). I do not ever rely on having Internet access while on the road hence my tools have off-line map databases.
We never plan ahead, but it’s a good idea! We use my phone and paper maps for different reasons. Very few problems.
My GPS is marketed towards truckers, it lets us put in the parameters for height, width, weight and etc of our class A. I also keep a written copy of these in feet and metric in the dash area. Driving our car around town and on trips we use a cell phone.
I use RV trip planning software that has the size and weight of our coach. Any routes other than interstates get checked with a large RM Truckers Atlas. Then I plot the trip on our RV’s GPS and compare that route. If everything matches, we drive. If there’s a variance I go to Google Maps satellite view and check out the different routes. I also use Google or Waze to track traffic and turns when we are approaching or going through cities.
Lots of good advice in these comments
I use both. For around town and short trips I use my phone. For longer trips I have an older Garmin GPS unit that I keep updated. For trip planning I use online resources, maps, and I stop at travel and visitor centers to collect maps and see what is interesting.
We have planned using paper maps and google maps for years. We took a trip from Washington to the Maritime Provinces, down to Florida and back along I-10 to California and back home using Google maps on the phone. Google is set to give the shortest route and that isn’t the best solution when towing a 36′ fifth wheel. Took us on a road that had a 3.75 meter bridge (Moncton NB). We had to turn around, thankfully the local RCMP helped us. That was the point that we decided a dedicated GPS was in our future. We had a few other surprises during our 17,000 mile trip. We got a Garmin 770RV. Now we can add height, length and width to allow the GPS to avoid tight squeezes. In the 3 years since we have not yet been sent wrong (yes there will be a first time some day). My wife still follows GPS with her phone and that can be useful if we change route for food or fuel or sightseeing!
Only time I use phone is when Garmin does not give correct location. I use Microsoft Street and Trips to make gpx file and load to GPS. Sometimes no GPS system will work to give a hard to find location.
I have a Rand McNally GPS in the MH but it hasn’t worked for a year. Can’t seem to get it serviced anywhere so I use RV Trip Wizard and download the route to Goggle Maps. I have an appointment with the MH manufacturer in May in Indiana. I hope the RM GPS get fixed. It was very convenient while it worked.
I generally use paper maps to plan my overall trips and then check for brochures, maps, etc., at visitor centers. I also use Internet sources from my computer to get more detailed directions. I like the bigger screens!
Having dumb phones, we use a Garmin & paper maps.
I use Waze on my ATT phone, and run the CoPilot App (that I pay for the truck/RV upgrade) on my Sprint phone when we go on routes that are outside our normal drives, like our trip to the LA area pre-Covid. We used to have a ‘stand alone’ GPS unit, but as weekenders that tend to go to the same State Parks, it just wasn’t worth replacing when the screen went out.
That said, when we go on road trips, I map out our route weeks before we leave the house, using Google Maps and the Street View feature. It is very helpful to see how I should approach a rest area, Costco, Walmart or PFJ when it comes to refueling or stopping for the night.
We use Gamin RV770. Has worked well for us. Only got us lost once, but took us to an identically named road and address 25 miles from our destination. It knows our height and length and weight to keep us on acceptable paths.
We unusually look at a paper map before we leave, put the route in the GPS and check the paper map if needed.
We use paper maps and Google Earth to check locations and park layout.
Use the map in the Ford Sync system, which does have gps and trip routing. With Travel-Link also has weather radar in addition to the satellite music.
I look at mapquest and carry a roads atlas.