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Please help us prepare for a long-term trip to CR.
What navigation system works the best? Is it better to buy one in CR? What brand, where to buy it?
Garmin or Tom tom? How many rental cars have navigation system in it?
Thanks in advance…[quote=”lavemder”]Please help us prepare for a long-term trip to CR.
What navigation system works the best? Is it better to buy one in CR? What brand, where to buy it?
Garmin or Tom tom? How many rental cars have navigation system in it?
Thanks in advance…[/quote]Garmin has maps for Costa Rica, but Tom Tom does not. I emailed Tom Tom, as I already own one, and they replied that they have no current plans to offer Costa Rica mapping.
There’s an outfit called NavSat that’s said to have excellent maps of Costa Rica. They’re a domestic company here. You pay your fee and download the maps from the Internet. It appears that their maps are specific to Garmin.
[quote=”DavidCMurray”]There’s an outfit called NavSat that’s said to have excellent maps of Costa Rica. They’re a domestic company here. You pay your fee and download the maps from the Internet. It appears that their maps are specific to Garmin.
See http://www.navsatcr.com/%5B/quote%5D
That is right David. I brought my garmin, had navsat put the CR maps on it. It works really well but costs 115.00. I tried GPSmaps on-line in the states for CR. It only cost 50.00 but barely worked when I arrived. Buy maps here in CR.
My wife and I also are planning a two-week trip to CR in January. I have a Garmin unit so I searched for compatible maps. I found a fellow on eBay who sells customized maps for Garmin, three Central-American county maps for $39.99. He claims they are locally created, and that they are routable. His eBay id is globalzulia. The maps are supposed to arrive by DHL from Venezuela tomorrow. I’ll post again in a day or two to let you know if they seem any good and if the seem legit.
I should have added . . . NavSat’s website indicates that you can purchase a short-term license to use their maps — ten or thirty days, if I recall correctly — at a considerably less expensive rate.
I bought the maps for my Garmin locally via Navsatcr.com. Wasn’t cheap (around $90) but the maps were good quality with points of interest, one way bridge warnings etc. Also had a free update.
Here’s their ebay listing: http://stores.ebay.com/NAVSAT-COSTA-RICA
Was it worth it? Yes.
[quote=”wseverin”]… I’ll post again in a day or two to let you know if they seem any good and if they seem legit.[/quote]
The map card arrived this morning. This afternoon, before I’d even had a chance to plug it into the GPS to see if it’s any good, I received an email from eBay saying that they’ve removed the product listing because they have been informed that the product is counterfeit. As I believe in upholding copyrights, that’s 40 bucks down the drain.
Be very careful about buying your maps on eBay.
They should be legit. If EBay said they removed the product listing, they are wrong, as it is still up and running. Shows recent comments too. So something is fishy there. If in doubt, try their website directly navsatcr.com
[quote=”dboy”]…So something is fishy there.[/quote]
I’ll guess what happened is that navsatcr.com is legit and has legal copyright, and the outfit that I bought the map from was selling illegal counterfeit copies.I’ve had guests do both – bring a Garmin GPS they brought from the states & I’d say that they were accurate LESS than 60% of the time. The NavSat IS more $$ but ain’t your vacation/ease/life/YOU worth a few $$s more to not have all that frustration/wasted gas/potential situations, etc.?? Driving/navigating around CR is tough enough!!!
[quote=”CRResourceGuide”]I’ve had guests do both – bring a Garmin GPS they brought from the states & I’d say that they were accurate LESS than 60% of the time. The NavSat IS more $$ but ain’t your vacation/ease/life/YOU worth a few $$s more to not have all that frustration/wasted gas/potential situations, etc.?? Driving/navigating around CR is tough enough!!![/quote]
Huh?
Anyone with any sense of direction should be able to navigate Costa Rica with a map! GPS is, in the context of time, a very recent utility and as the start up screen on most GPS road units (and all seafaring units) states “sould not be used in place of tradition navigational tools and skills” – i.e., a map (in a car) and celestrial or dead reckoning (in a boat).
The masses depend far too much on technology that most do not know how to use and even fewer understand how unreliable it can be. Just get a good road map, learn how to use it, forget about the computer voice telling you to “turn left in 300 meters” and go exploring!
If you want to read a facinating book on navigation, try “Longitude” by Dana Sobal
http://www.curledup.com/longitud.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Longitude-Genius-Greatest-Scientific-Problem/dp/0140258795Take an hour or so to get into it, then let me know if you can put it down!
And don’t get lost depending on GPS, LORAN, RDF or directions from a local – read your map and read the road signs, they are surprisingly good in Costa Rica!
crbI’ve decided that my primary source of navigation will be whatever paper maps I can pick up at the airport.
Where do you go around Costa Rica Bill – San Jose to Jaco & back??? Sure there are some easy routes but then you’re not really EXPLORING Costa Rica!
I don’t know WHERE you’ve seen many “road signs” here – let alone a DECENT map to navigate you around???
For those not familiar with CR – there aren’t a lot of street signs & when we do, it’s OFTEN SUDDENLY – AT the exit (like the one taking you from Escazu to the airport – oh, & it’s like 16″ wide & 4″ tall with NO lights around it) – heck – we don’t even have ADDRESSES!!
Good for you! I always snicker when people say they’re going to do that but I preface it with, if ya don’t have the time of your life, if something gets stolen, you end up at war/ready to divorce your spouse of 15+ years, you get stuck in a pothole or ditch, ya end up on a dirt road (which is NOT covered in your “full insurance” plan as that’s considered wrecklace behavior so YOU’LL get to pay for that front end!!) – don’t EVEN think of calling me as I’ll just LAUGH!!!!!
Hey – I drive like Mario Andretti & I don’t see myself owning a car in this country as the first week I’d have an ulcer & KILL someone. I’m ALL about ease/joy these days!!!
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