Satellite Navigation or “Sat Nav” seems to be a little like Marmite – you either love it or hate it. If you don’t want to spend £100 or more on a sat-nav system then you could use one of many free route planners on the internet. There are several route planners out there, from reputable brand names like The AA and RAC to ones that just install spyware and viruses! However, I tend to use a mixture of 2 different websites to plan my routes.
The first is Google Maps maps.google.co.uk. If you clickon the “Get Directions” button on the left hand side of the page you can type in a start and end point destination. This could be a postcode a road name or business. The best feature on Google Maps is the ability to go into street view. By clicking and dragging the little orange man onto the map you can see
exactly where you are going. This is a real advantage if you travel around and like to know what landmarks to look out for. You can print out the directions and map and even save your map if you have a Google account.
The second I only recently learnt about. TomTom the leading sat-nav manufacturer has a free route planner on their website http://www.routes.tomtom.com/. This route planner has a similar feel to Google Maps but with the added bonus of current traffic news. It even calculates how much time the delay will add to your journey.
This is ideal if you can plan your route just before you travel.
Happy planning
