Letitride3c

We have Copilot (extra offline maps loaded ahead while trip planning) on the WiFi only iPad and it works great as a freebie - does turn-by-turn navigation w/o benefits of real-time traffic. Full voice-guided 3D Nav is optional @$10 USD & optional maps available for other regions - Europe (all) Maps @$27 with the upgraded 3D Nav. Even the basic Apps have plenty of features that rival the old Garmin that's retired to a shelf. Had Sygic's App on the iPad but deleted it a while ago as Copilot is far better & rather "powerful" with its features.

Nowadays, I used Google Map/Nav that meet 95% of my needs while traveling, last time I got an upgraded Hertz rental upgrade with free Nav - didn't even bother to use it. Preloaded maps do help conserve the use of mobile data - roaming - on the go, although it does burn a lot of battery power on an extended drive so I keep it juiced up with 2 amp vehicle charger. NAV with live Waze on the smartphone is really nice & useful, however - especially in unfamiliar cities & countries abroad.

BJ, you might want to download it for a test run locally. Google Map tend not to use a lot of data - as others said, keep other background & non-essential Apps from running and those data allowance should be more than enough for a week+'s worth of turn-by-turn navigation.

Buzz53

You could try Navfree GPS Italy, which is free. Presume it covers all of Italy
If it's the same as the Australian version which I have, the map and POI are local to the phone, so I suggest you download and install at home via wifi.
Australia was ~500 meg in size. Seems to work ok.
It will not find street numbers, but can link into google maps which does. Uses OSM as the data source.
It will use the mobile network to help the gps find your location, but as far as I know, that's just using tower info and should not use any data (or minimal at best).
Route calculation is fast. There's some user reviews on-line, google search will find them.

boltjames

Update:

(Apple Maps) to work: 28 miles, 40 minutes, used 3.6 MB (Thursday)
(Apple Maps) to work: 28 miles, 40 minutes, used 0.3 MB (Friday)

(Google Maps) to home: 28 miles, 40 minutes, used 2.1 MB (Thursday)

The first test (Apple Maps Thursday) I did not shut off push email which likely clouded the numbers. Either that, or not having used Apple Maps to commute it had a one-time download of map data, thus the 3.6 MB reading.

Today, same identical drive (Apple Maps Friday) with push email turned off the identical ride was only 348KB which is insanely tiny.

Google Maps did the identical ride yesterday and came in at 2.1 MB and that was with push email turned off- we'll see today on my ride home if it was also the first-time map download that put it over the edge.

At this point, both mapping solutions would be well under the 120MB international data plan I'm purchasing, and I'll test it again but Apple Maps looks to be so efficient with data that the need for any type of offline GPS in Italy might be nill.

BJ

boltjames

(Apple Maps) to work: 28 miles, 40 minutes, used 3.6 MB (Thursday)
(Apple Maps) to work: 28 miles, 40 minutes, used 0.3 MB (Friday)

(Google Maps) to home: 28 miles, 40 minutes, used 2.1 MB (Thursday)
(Google Maps) to home: 28 miles, 40 minutes, used 2.0 MB (Friday)

Okay folks, I'm going to try this one more time next week to make sure I don't have any dirty data but it does appear that Apple maps is significantly easier on the data than Google maps and my clear choice for my trip to Italy.

I will post back in case someone in the future comes across this thread.

BJ

pricesquire

What a coincidence - I literally just got back from this trip.

9 days in Sicily, rented a car, and needed to use my phone for GPS.

I have an unlocked iPhone 5S.

My advice: get a Vodafone SIM. 30 euro, comes with 500 texts, 500 minutes, and 2 gigs of data.

Used the data daily for navigation....after a whole week, only used 1 gig.

As for changing out SIMs, it's not that hard. I was in the same boat as you (needed my normal ATT SIM for work, needed Italian SIM for driving). Changing out SIM on an iPhone takes under 60 seconds....bring a paper clip for removal.

boltjames

My phone is locked and I don't want to go the same route although I understand, especially from your experience, how useful that can be.

What GPS app did you use on your iPhone? That is a lot of data based on what I am seeing here using either Apple maps or Google maps for navigation.

BJ

wco81

You can get an offline app. for about $30.

Silver Fox

Upgrade to Android and get Sygic.

javabytes

I'd rather consume the additional 1.7 megabytes of data than rely on Apple Maps to get me anywhere.

Mountain Trader

A second vote for NavFree. We used it for 3 weeks in the north UK and Scotland in June and we did fine. Low tech, low hassle and free.

boltjames

Yeah, that was 2012's narrative, Apple maps now trumps Google maps on iPhone 35 million to 6.

Like any startup product, Apple had hiccups, problem is now solved. Not sure of its capabilities in Italy, but everywhere I've used Apple maps the US it's been great.

BJ

boltjames

Question: With NavFree, once you've downloaded the map for offline use, do you have to turn off 4G data in order to avoid the app from using data anyway?

As I drive around, I need 4G turned on, need to be able to get emails, iMessage, etc. NavFree would be a contender if you could leave 4G 'on' for data but be comfortable knowing that NavFree wasn't actually using data.

I see it has ads all over the place, really not digging that.

BJ

Silver Fox

To be honest, 120MB is such a trivial amount for work, navigating, all the other stuff you do, and if you are going to rely solely on GPS for navigation and, poof, it all gets blown then what will you do ? Yes there will be places for wifi but the law of sod says that it will run out when you most need it.

javabytes

Your figures are wrong. There are about 60 million Google Maps users, not 6 million. Yes, it's down from a little over 80 million. However, you're omitting a little company called Waze, which has 50 million+ users and growing. Google owns Waze.

You get notified when you're running low, at 20% and 5% remaining. You can buy another 120MB before you run out, or any time you're connected to wi-fi. If OP is truly only using it for navigating, and not for work or anything else, he should be fine on 120MB. If he'll be doing email and other things, then not a chance.

boltjames

Your figures are wrong. As I said, I was referring to iPhone usage and on the iPhone Apple maps now trumps Google maps 35 million to 6.

I own an iPhone, I don't care about stats for Android.

BJ