Satnav in Malta

Tom Tom, mine worked very well. Obviously, get the right map. Alternatively I now use my phone's system which works just as well.

after a while you wont need one - its a very small island and you will soon learn the landmarks.... plus "point and drive" works well LOL

toonarmy9752 wrote:

after a while you wont need one - its a very small island and you will soon learn the landmarks.... plus "point and drive" works well LOL

Very true, it's difficult to get lost but if one does, it's fun!!

as am sure you have found red - all part of the malta experience without having to pay for it.

toonarmy9752 wrote:

as am sure you have found red - all part of the malta experience without having to pay for it.

Oh yes and sometimes we do it deliberately. Ended up in several places we probably should not have been at.

Tom Tom is the best that i have found but as is mentioned above "Point and Go" the streets even on Tom tom are fun to find

Julian

Basically most of the GPS devices use Tele Atlas or Navteq maps. Tomtom uses Tele Atlas, Garmin uses Navteq... and you can even find devices that let you choose what map provider to use. It seems that nowadays both Tele Atlas and Navteq offer the map of Malta but which one has the best Maltese map (most updated, etc.) is the interesting thing to know.

Malta isn't big enough to use a satnav!  You won't need it.
If you get lost the locals will help x

Check your phone as I have found that a smartphone with built in nav is the best option as it is more frequently updated and cheaper. Even in UK it is better than TomTom so much so that I gave my TomTom away.
Just use it when you really have to.

Naz23 wrote:

Malta isn't big enough to use a satnav!  You won't need it.
If you get lost the locals will help x

Seriously, you ask a local where a certain street is and they will look at you dumbfounded, you need to know where the nearest bar is to the street, whether there is a grocer on it, what the nickname of the grocers dog is (Just incase there is 2 grocers)....This is not a moan as it makes it really interesting and you will get to meet some real characters...

I have TomTom on my iphone does the job

Can't say I have found that at all. You must be asking the wrong locals haha.
I agree if your going to get one do the smartphone apps costs less and it's not another thing to think about!

does tom tom show the english name of the streets?

I really hate it when I go to Cyprus and the map shows some weird translated street names which I cant find anywhere but the mobile.

My new car has a SatNav included and I am pretty curious how that will work. My other Car which I brought from Switzerland couldnt show any Map and you couldnt buy a Map Pack either. I was very happy to have bought a nice Audi which not even had a Malta Map Pack available.

Cheers.

Tomtom street Names are in Maltese.

J.

Well we bought a map... and are enjoying getting lost at least twice a day!  We will probably upgrade to a Tom Tom shortly (our old one doesn't have Malta maps )

Thanks for your help guys

Just a hint of caution from experience if I may?
I bought a new TomTom a year or so ago and experienced so many issues when trying to update it that I gave up.
I used 3 different PC's with different operating systems, (I'm PC competent and went through a lot of attempts under various conditions, no result)sent the device back, got it back: no better.
I then found that my phone was much more accurate, always updated and hassle free.

I have the Tom Tom App for my Iphone but I dont like it very much. Maltese roads are just too narrow to pick the signal (just kidding).

But as I recall from using it last year the street names are in Maltese which is a bit annoying for my taste.

I have a sat nav app in my smartphone(android) which i used previously in other countries and it always been very reliable. It's called Sygic and it's very similar to the Tom Tom. I installed it free from the internet and you can download any maps you want via wifi from mostly every country. I have the map from Malta downloaded but did no used it yet coz I don't have a car here as yet.

Thanks mantona... will check that out

michael78 wrote:

But as I recall from using it last year the street names are in Maltese which is a bit annoying for my taste.

What did you expect them to be in? German? C'mon now!!!

You think German roads are going to be in Spanish when they visit Germany and use their satnavs??????

I expected english

i.e. when you have an english address like: St. Ursula Street in Valletta then in Maltese it is Triq Sant'Orsola

This is really difficult to find from my point of view as it is written completly different.

michael78 wrote:

I expected english
i.e. when you have an english address like: St. Ursula Street in Valletta then in Maltese it is Triq Sant'Orsola
This is really difficult to find from my point of view as it is written completly different.

I'm sorry but the language of Malta is Maltese, spoken and written.
I think your expectations are unrealistic; you expect the  translations to be the wrong way round.
Can you imagine the impact upon their proud cultural heritage if they changed everything to English, including maps and satnavs?

I think you will find that all Maltese speak Malti and many speak English but not all.

Found this:

The current national language of Malta is Maltese/Malti, which along with English, is one of the official languages.

Having been governed by many different countries in the past, the Maltese population carry linguistic imprints from many places. Almost 100% of Maltese people can speak Maltese, 88% of the Maltese people can speak English, 66% can speak Italian, and nowadays more than 17% of the Maltese speak French. This shows a recent increase in the fluency of languages, since in 1995, only 98% of the population spoke Maltese, 76% English, 36% Italian, and 10% French. Surprisingly, it also shows an increase in Italian fluency compared to when Italian was an official language of Malta.

Dated 04.05.13

Official Language ist Maltese and English so there should be at least an option to switch it.

Nevertheless when you are drving around i.e. Valletta then you see steet signs saying "Republic Street" ... and sometimes you see " Triq il-Republika" which i personally havent seen yet.

Google Maps nowadays show both Maltese and English street names.

mantonas wrote:

I have a sat nav app in my smartphone(android) which i used previously in other countries and it always been very reliable. It's called Sygic and it's very similar to the Tom Tom.

Good choice. Best GPS navigation app for Android IMO

redmik... thanks mate, made me giggle!

Another vote for Sygic. Haven't used it much in Malta but it worked great elsewhere.

Lusco wrote:

Good choice. Best GPS navigation app for Android IMO

I think so too Lusco, even though Tom Tom has been my favorite satnav for quite a long time. I got the Sygic one, coz previously, there was no Tom Tom version for the Android phones.

Hi I use Garmin with update to dat europe maps - I have lifetime update works very well and has pretty comprehensive maps.

It knocks our Land Rovers system into the dustbin as even with very expensive upgrades Malta seems to be one big blank space.

I hav used Tom Tom and Garmin both privately and Professionally and Garmin comes out tops,

Hpope this Helps.

Bob

I bought a European tom tom for the drive down which I use if going somewhere I don't know

Only thing is, mine thinks you drive on the right here!!


Re street names, most of the street signs are Maltese so no problem with tom tom and streets matching, what I find harder is when they used to use English names and still do in adverts etc but when you get there it's Maltese  ( it's not always obvious)