Navigation

Monday, January 27, 2020

Navigation system for road trip

What kind of car GPS navigation system is good for a road trip?

In my home country I use only my smartphone and Google Maps. There is no need for a car navigation system. When going to another country, only a smartphone might not be enough. And especially when the route is planned in advance, the easiest way to reach the daily destination, is a car navigation system. It's not fun to get lost on a road trip!

The problem with having only a smartphone is that the smartphone depends on internet connectivity and battery power.

Some important features for navigation system:
  • Route planning and way points
  • To get you to the destination
  • Traffic updates
  • Offline maps
There are navigation systems with more features than others. We have a quite basic TomTom and will use smartphones too on our road trip. TomTom has been travelling with us in Estonia, Great Britain, Sweden and Denmark. And it has usually taken us to our destinations. Sometimes with the help of smartphones if the GPS signal has been lost.



There are features in this one, that could useful:

  • accurate traffic information (routes can be planned around traffic)
  • Lifetime World Maps (with road changes and revised speed limits updates)
  • Smartphone Messages
Another nice one could be:
Garmin DriveSmart

This one has:

  • Driver alerts for dangerous curves, speed changes, railroad crossings, school zones, speed cameras, fatigue warning and more
  • Live parking information for on and off street parking at your destination.

Well, our old TomTom will be just fine. 


TomTom car GPS navigation system
TomTom on the road

Winter road in Finland
Driving home today.


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Monday, January 20, 2020

Equipment for road trip

There is equipment for the car, that can be useful on a road trip.

I took a step outside my comfort zone to find out about the equipment. To be honest, the first time I heard the word "dash cam", was last Summer. My brother in law bought one for his road trip.

To be honest, usually hubby takes care of the car equipment. It doesn't matter. I guess I can learn these things too?

Challenge accepted!

Dash cam

A dash cam is relatively inexpensive. It records a variety of data and stores it for a period of time. The camera is mounted on the dashboard of your car and it records sounds and images while you are driving. The data can be used later to prove that you're not at fault in the event of an accident.

That's why we have already bought a dash cam for our road trip. Our camera is an inexpensive one. Now I will test the image quality.

Testing the HD Car Camera

Reading the manual
Dash cam ready to go


Watching video from computer



Test results

It was really easy to use the camera. All I needed to do was to insert the charger end of the car charger into the car's power socket. The dash cam started recording immediately when the engine had started. 

The quality of the video was ok. I tested it at daylight, wouldn't count on this one for nightlight. No GPS tracking in this camera,  


Best dash cams to buy

8 Strong Reasons Why Should You Consider Buying A Dash Cam

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Other useful things:
  • USB and Triple Socket  (when you need many devices; navigator, dash cam etc.)
  • Multi-Device Car Charger
  • First Aid Kit
  • Compressible Pillow
  • Blanket
  • Sunglasses
Navigator

Let's take a look at navigators next week.

Monday, January 13, 2020

Road trip plans

Life is an adventure.

We decided to buy a Mercedes-Benz (320 CLK Cabriolet) that was available in Spain. This car is owned by my brother-in-law and his wife, who live in Spain. They don't need it anymore, so now it's (almost) ours. We only need to drive it home from Spain.

Instead of buying an all inclusive holiday, we will do a road trip in Europe. We will cross about 10 countries on our way home, and our two kids (age 5 and 9) will see changing views from the windows. On our way home we try to find interesting places where to stop for a while.

We have already booked flights to Malaga for next Summer. The route will be something like Spain-France-Italy-Switzerland-Germany-Poland-Lithuania-Latvia-Estonia-Finland.

Now it's time to start planning!

Starting from next week I will write about things, that are good to know when planning a road trip.

They are:

- equipment needed in the car (dash cam)
- speedlimits in different countries
- comparing navigators
- emergency numbers, police
- payment methods
- roadworks
- road trip route
- travelling with kids
- facts about the car
- car maintenance
- attractions

I will post the route plans when we now more about them.

Do you have any tips or suggestions for the road trip route in Europe?





Monday, January 6, 2020

Sledding in Finland

I wish it would snow! This Winter we haven't seen much snow. So it was good to drive a bit north to visit relatives. We enjoyed the snow and the kids wanted to go sledding.

The first sled hill was in Pieksämäki. It was a bit icy, still good for sledding.

sledding in Finland

sledding in Finland

The next day our sled hill was in Jyväskylä. My personal favourite. I tried it too, and it was fun!

sled hill in Jyväskylä

sledding in Jyväskylä
sledding in Jyväskylä

Now the holidays are over. I'm starting to write about our road trip to Europe next week.

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