Is GPS a necessity?
 

Hello,

I am planning on riding from Ghana to the UK, leaving late Feb and travelling over about 4 months. I’ve never undertaken such an extensive trip and with this in mind, I have some questions I am hoping people might be able to answer/give advice on:

Is a GPS unit essential kit for this kind of trip? With services such as Google Maps (offline downloads) and Maps.Me, I was planning on using a phone as a GPS (charged from the bike battery), rather than buying a GPS unit. Am I being naïve in thinking I can do it without a GPS? My plan was to also buy SIM cards in each country to ensure I have internet access when required

How much foreign currency (US dollars / Euros) is it worth carrying on my person as I travel through West Africa?

My route is hopefully going to be; Ghana > Cote d’Ivoire (avoiding the South West corner) > Liberia > Sierra Leone > Guinea (avoiding the Mamou to Nzerekore road and surrounding area) > Guinea Bissau > The Gambia (assuming the current problems do not escalate) > Senegal (avoiding the bit between Guinea Bissau and The Gambia) > Mauritania (along the coast road only) > Morocco > Spain > France > UK.

Any other advice / thoughts are welcome.

Thanks

1. GPS offline is a must? Maps.Me or OsmAnd are very good but the nice thing about loading maps on the phone why not just download every one you can find?
Because some will be better than other depending on the country/area.

2. Just because you have a sim card don't guarantee you will get a signal.

Sorry, to clarify...

I would download offline maps (using a number of different services) and use the phone as a GPS throughout. However, should I also have an actual, specific, separate GPS unit? Or, is the phone a good enough substitute for a GPS unit?

Thanks

Opinion are like assholes everyone has one?

Some will say a GPS unit is best and some will say just download apps maps?
As a backup, I've taken a Garmin etrex 20X.

The best of both worlds


http://i1360.photobucket.com/albums/...pszxaaq0lx.jpg


link.......http://thelongwayhome.simplesite.com/428679943

Well you can do without GPS many people have dont it before but GPS is a very nice thing to have (specially when searching for an embassy in a big city or to find your way back to the hotel) im using it every day and wond go further then 2 km away from home without it Cheap GPS navigation systems for motorbikes + free maps

My vote is for smart-phone ... or two :thumbup1:.

Good vote ???? :clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink it?

GPS for primary navigation
Smartphone for phonecalls, email, web and backup navigation.

Just my 2 cents

We have been about 95% Maps.me in Africa and have found them about 95% correct. When it fails, it fails spectacularly -- usually on the last mile or two, or at a complex intersection (or at a fork it didn't understand was a fork) -- so be skeptical generally. Also maps.me has an annoying habit of "cutting the corner" in towns for a shortcut, and tossing you onto some seriously lousy side-streets, when the extra 0.5km would've saved you 10 minutes of bouncing through the washed out piste, the dark alley, or the goat trail it thought was a reasonable travel road. We've had it dead-end us twice (it wanted us to drive through a walled army compound once, and a private palm orchard once -- both serious non-starters), and it was rough trying to undo the mess it put us into.

Use it to get you to the town, and then self-navigate from there. Zoom out a lot to see the big picture and avoid the "shortcuts" which can put you in some sketchy situations.

You will spent a LOT of time not being near the road as-depicted. Don't freak, just zoom it out a bit and see the "big picture" to make sure you're trending the right way. This will happen in Guinea a lot, but we've had it in Cote, Senegal, Mauri, and even Morocco when not on the main roads.

We have both T-Mobile (USA) and Google Fi phones, and between the two, we felt the need for sims for data in Senegal, Guinea, and Cote due to ours being terribad and worthless for data. We did Orange in those three and found it great and cheap, being between $1.50 and $4 per GB at high speed and with very good coverage. A bonus is that several hotels have wanted to register our local number and would not book us in without one, so that was helpful to have.

It is annoying that you have to buy the new sim at a proper Orange/Mtn/Moov/Whoever agency, and show a passport -- once you do that, you can buy credit all over the place -- but finding the company store can be a headache. Bring an unlocked phone, as the $20 itel junk they sell, while cheap, are sold permanently locked (looking at you Orange). Lesson learned.

Hope that helps?

- Mike

I've travelled all over the world using only my phone with offline maps as gps. The only problems I had was my iPhone constantly overheating because of the waterproof case I had it in. I suspect that the iPhone 7 (being already waterproof) would be perfect for you.

I use a Samsung Note4 with Backcountry Navigator. With a 5.7" screen, it is so much easier to read than most of the dedicated gps units.

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

You will be using the phone as the GPS.

GPS units used on motorcycles are waterproof and should be fairly rugged, is your phone?

Maps.Me, OSMAnd and other off line map apps use OSM data .. while free the quality is patchy ... and relies on people helping to improve the data. There is a reliance on people, such as schmookeeg, improving things they find wrong ... this works if they can be bothered to improve the data.

Some GPS units have maps created from other than OSM data ... for a fee. That can be a good thing ... if that data is better or there is more of it.

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I'd not travel anywhere without a GPS, a Phone (with various apps including GPS mapping). They are very handy, for any trip where I'm driving/riding I also want a paper map too.

When touring in first-world countries, you can live without some form of position-determining system and rely only on maps (old-fashioned paper, or displayed on an electronic device) because road signage is continually present to tell you what road you are on, and where and when roads diverge. If all else fails, you can stop at a gas station or other public facility and reasonably expect to be able to get directions from another person who has experience driving in that area.

In lesser developed countries, road signage is not present or not well maintained, and a much smaller percentage of people you might ask for directions are drivers.

For those reasons, I would suggest you get a waterproof GPS navigator (meaning, a Garmin, or Tom-Tom, or whatever) suitable for motorcycle use rather than relying on your phone for position determination and off-line maps on your phone.

Most smartphones can determine position without needing a GSM (phone tower) signal, and there are many offline map packages that are just as detailed as what is offered on motorcycle navigation devices. But, phones generally are not waterproof, and the size of the text, control buttons, etc. on phones is a heck of a lot smaller than that on a vehicle navigation device that has been designed to be used while the vehicle is in motion. The vehicle navigation devices - especially those designed for use on motorcycles - are also a heck of a lot more robust than smartphones.

Considering the overall length of your planned trip, and the budget it will require, I think you would be setting yourself up for unnecessary headaches if you set out with only a smartphone for navigation... especially if your smartphone breaks (due to water exposure, an unexpected tipover, etc.) along the way.

My recommendation is that you use a purpose-built motorcycle navigator as your primary navigation aid, and use your smartphone with internal maps as your backup device.

With respect to your other question about 'how much cash to carry', my answer would be 'no more than you are prepared to lose or have stolen'. There are ATM machines almost everywhere these days, and you will always get a good rate of exchange if you withdraw cash from an ATM (except, of course, in countries with government-imposed artificial currency exchange rates). Take along an ATM card from your home bank (a debit card), and two different credit cards (for example, one Visa card, one MasterCard), and once every 5 days or so, withdraw enough cash from an ATM to keep you going in the country you happen to be in.

Michael

I'm with those who have said bring both, the dedicated motorcycle GPS units are tough, waterproof, glove operable, and reliably sunlight readable. The smartphone is a great backup should the GPS fail or should the maps you have on it be unreliable in some way.

Not many smartphones are waterproof out of the box, the ones which are not are a pest - many will overheat when put in a waterproof case and left switched on. They're also not very tough, particularly the USB ports - charging on the go will be essential and rough terrain (and vibration, particularly on a thumper) will destroy your USB port eventually. Then you can't charge and you are lost. This only phone I know which gets around these problems is the Sony Xperia range, which is waterproof and can be used with a magnetic charger on the side. The mag charger falls off sometimes but that's a damn sight better than a broken USB.

Personally I consider my Garmin to be primary navigation, my smartphone has the same way points and one or more offline map loaded into it for the appropriate areas. If the GPS died I would be comfortable using the phone, but I would replace the GPS once I got home - it is that much better when on the bike.

The phone is better for finding services, helping work out where you are and for using alongside paper maps, which you should also bring. One unlucky off could kill both phone and GPS...

A GPS isn't a safety device unless you plan on doing any serious trans-saharan routes.

A big downside of a GPS (or a hard-mounted smartphone) is that it's one more expensive-looking thing that must be removed and secured at every stop.

I have never used a GPS or smart-phone for navigation while travelling. This is more difficult but much more fullfilling. You are forced to rely on and interact with the local culture dozens of times each day. All my memories around the world... almost none of them would have happened if I had any sort of navigation. Being lost is a good thing.

So whatever you choose, I encourage you to turn it off from time to time. Insert worn out travel cliche here.

Let's you and I be "bothered" together then. I have roads in my notes, particularly in Abidjan, which were depicted on maps.me which do not actually exist. How can I report these roads so that they are removed for future travellers?

The other issue I've run into often is the actual road as-depicted being off to one side or another, but not accurately placed. One segment in Guinea in particular was mapped at the base of a mountain, but the actual road went over it.

I would love to help correct these. Show me how. :)