Iphone app or satnav for France

[rainbowinthesky]

Hi
Going to France camping for first time this summer. Do I need to buy a satnav or has anyone successfully used their iphone and a satnav app to get round?

My experience of using a Tomtom in France is that it's a bit dodgy. It sends you down farm tracks.

If you plan your trip before you set out, you will get roughly to the right place. You can use your iPhone if you get lost.

We always managed to find obscure campsites in France before satnavs and smartphones were invented.

Thank's Claire. I like the idea of using maps with dd as part of the adventure and using iphone satnav offline as a last resort.

the old fashion michelin maps are great, never gotten lost or not able to find something!

It is illegal in France to use a satnav or other navigation device which tells you where speed cameras are, so you need to make sure you know how to disable those features if you have them.

When we were in France we hired a car through Hertz and the SatNav they provided was excellent. although we did end up going round the peripherique 10 times due to our own stupidity
I had a tomtom app on my iphone which was brilliant in Ireland and the UK but I never used it in France.
Most of the time I use AA routeplanner as I find them more reliable and they seem generally to be more up to date than satnavs.

Sat navs round here are rubbish, they always send you the long way round and will not accept that just because it isn't an A road doesn't mean it isn't a good road.

I would suggest using the viamichellin website and routeplanner. It is more up to dat for France than the AA one.

Be careful - we have found that the satnav app on my Galaxy eats data like nobodies business! Do you have to pay extra for data abroad?

You should be able to change settings to make sure you avoid unsurfaced roads.

We use a combination of TomTom and Michelin maps. Never have any problems.

if you have a tomtom the automatic updates will remove the radar from the french maps - tested it last wekk and it is fine. Definitely recommend using in conjunction with a map, it did 'send us down a farm track' and I became one of those idiot people you wonder have half a braincell - I should have cross checked with the map and taken the alternative route

it did 'send us down a farm track' and I became one of those idiot people you wonder have half a braincell - I should have cross checked with the map and taken the alternative route
I've been there on more than one occasion