European Caching?

[ornryactor]

I'm taking a vacation to Europe in a couple of weeks, and I'm going to try and do a little bit of caching over there. I've been caching for a good while, but I've never left the US and tried to do it. As I understand it, my Legend's built-in basemaps only cover the US, correct? If so, how would I go about getting basemaps for Europe? Is there any way to get them without buying another piece of software?

[spexmaniac]

Bad news I'm afraid, your are correctly informed, US units have the Americas base map, european units use the Atlantic base map, so you will only have very minimal detail. The only solution is a copy of either Garmin worldmap, which contains all the base level maps, and is quite handy or a copy of roads and rec europe, which has more detail. I'm in England and I buy american units because they are WAY cheaper the european ones, but I have most of the mapsource discs to support them. so the base map is not really an issue for me.

Your unit will still work though, just low quality maps if any.

where abouts are you visiting?

[+sTeamTraen]

Most European GCers to whom I've talked use mapless GPSr devices - the Geko 201 and basic eTrex are very popular. I just print out an appropriate zoom of the Mapquest map from the cache site and take that along. I've yet to have a DNF that was due to inadequate mapping.

 

If you're going to be in France, there aren't too many caches (!), but the maps at http://www.ign.fr (click on "Géodésie") are extracts from the national 1:25.000 series, including most forest paths.

[+welch]

Is there any way to get them without buying another piece of software?

Not a good one. Buy some map software, buy another gps there (which will be more expensive then back home), just don't worry about maps (and get a paper map when you get there) and just have fun caching.

[+haggaeus]

If your trip includes Czech Republic, you can download free Topo and road maps at gps-maps.info.

[ornryactor]

where abouts are you visiting?

England, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany. It's a tour, though, so I won't be able to do non-urban caches...

[UK_Explorer]

I have a Garmin 60CS, and I bought City Select North America for $120. I'm heading over to the UK in a few weeks, and was horrified to see that the best price on City Select Europe is $300!

 

Is it not possible to buy just the unlock code for the UK portion of the European maps? I really don't want to have to spend 75% of the cost of my GPSr on software I won't use most of.

 

And how come the European version is so much more expensive? Europe is smaller than North America, right?

 

Does anyone know if I can buy the UK-only maps, or do I have no choice?

 

Thanks.

[+welch]

And how come the European version is so much more expensive? Europe is smaller than North America, right?

Different laws and government bodies? I mean NA has what? 3 countries, while Europe has dozens of them.

(I also heard its something like 'in the US much of mapping is governement funded, ie spending tax dollars, and is thus public and sold at cost. While in UK the mapping is funded by the crown, and is considered property of the crown and your not entilted to it, so its sold for whatever they want'. Not sure if thats totally true, but it sorta makes sense to me.)

As for just buying part, have you tried contacting Garmin?

[UK_Explorer]

'in the US much of mapping is governement funded, ie spending tax dollars, and is thus public  and sold at cost. While in UK the mapping is funded by the crown, and is considered property of the crown and your not entilted to it,

I was, to an extent, being ironic. I assume the cost is as you said down to the amount Garmin has to pay to obtain the source data. As for your point about the data belonging to the crown - exactly who's tax pounds are they using to pay the folk to create the mapping data in the first place?

 

BTW - I'm British, currently living in the US, and am *so* jealous you managed to get rid of the royal family over 200 years ago. We're still stuck with them!

 

I have emailed Garmin to see if they still sell partial unlock codes, but as they don't seem to be advertised on either their site or any 3rd party seller's sites, I remain doubtful.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, and apologies to all for the anti-royalist rantings!

[+welch]

I was, to an extent, being ironic. I assume the cost is as you said down to the amount Garmin has to pay to obtain the source data. As for your point about the data belonging to the crown - exactly who's tax pounds are they using to pay the folk to create the mapping data in the first place?

 

Hey you're the brit, you tell me

 

ps- would garmin have to pay like export/VAT whatever you call it for mapping info?

[UK_Explorer]

It was a rhetorical question.....

 

I'm guessing, but I'm pretty sure it is simply that Garmin have to buy the map info from whoever owns it, and in Europe that would be each of the individual governments, or private companies who've surveyed the countries themselves. As there aren't many to choose from, I guess those who own the source data can charge whatever they want...

 

It's very frustrating to know how much I was getting ripped off with every purchase I made in the UK. I simply couldn't afford a 60CS if I were in the UK, even with out the nosedive the dollar has taken recently to help, I'd be paying $750, instead of $400 + tax.....

 

So is it too late to join the revolutionary army? MAny of them were Brits too, I believe!

 

BTW - this is getting rather off-topic, isn't it....?

[+Brenin Tegeingl]

The situation regarding map data in the UK, is that the OS is now a commercial company, who charges a large amount for all map data they release (don't forget they sell maps themselves). Magellan have just released a topo map cd, using OS map data, Garmin have yet to agree commercial terms with OS. And no hint yet of when they will. Also don't forget vat is charged at each stage of the supply chain, adding considerably to the cost (when you consider that 3/4 of the cost of a litre of fuel in the UK is tax, that bumps up delivery costs, which has to be passed on to the end customer).

Dave

[+sTeamTraen]

And how come the European version is so much more expensive? Europe is smaller than North America, right? 

Different laws and government bodies? I mean NA has what? 3 countries, while Europe has dozens of them.

There's also a question of economies of scale. They probably sell loads more copies of the US data, because /a/ the US has more GPS's per head of population, and /b/ many Europeans will only buy their own country's data rather than the whole of Europe (most people never go very far beyond their country's borders, unfortunately).

Edited June 11, 2004 by sTeamTraen