GPS Question

[Tigger7570]

Hi:
Thanks to help on the Transportation Board we bought the Garmin nuvi 55 LMT.
We are not taking 95 as we want to go 84, 81, etc. AAA has set up a TripTik for us. We want to use the GPS as well. However, a friend who travels quite a bit and has gone cross country said the only way I can set the GPS to go other than 95 would be to use longitude and latitude. I wondered if anyone knew a way to do this other than longitude and latitude. Is there a way to program so that it doesn't direct us to 95.
Thank you.

 

[joelkfla]

Hi:
Thanks to help on the Transportation Board we bought the Garmin nuvi 55 LMT.
We are not taking 95 as we want to go 84, 81, etc. AAA has set up a TripTik for us. We want to use the GPS as well. However, a friend who travels quite a bit and has gone cross country said the only way I can set the GPS to go other than 95 would be to use longitude and latitude. I wondered if anyone knew a way to do this other than longitude and latitude. Is there a way to program so that it doesn't direct us to 95.
Thank you.

The 55 has a Trip Planner, which allows you to select multiple waypoints on your route. You should be able to browse the map, adding waypoints along the major highways. You may have to fiddle around with the exact locations of the waypoints so that Nuvi doesn't send you into wild gyrations (U-turns, exiting and re-entering highways, etc.) to hit them on the nose when you're close; or you can just ignore the superfluous directions at the waypoints and stay on the major highways.

 

[nacho113]

I don't think there is anyway to set the GPS to avoid a particular road. I know that there are settings that you can enable to "Avoid Toll Roads" or "Avoid Freeways" but these will typically take you onto the side roads which will be further and slower. If you just pick WDW as your destination, the GPS will pick the most direct route which will most likely be straight down I-95 to I-4 in Florida and then on to WDW
If you know the area and head out using your preferred rods I-84 and I-81, the GPS will object but will recalculate. When you get far enough down I-81 and you are past all the big cities Philly, Baltimore, Washington) then the GPS should settle on a route that will be more agreeable to you. You will still probably end up back on I-95 as you pass through Georgia on your way to Florida but you should have avoided all the nasty traffic up north (which is what you are trying to do, I would assume)

 

[Ladygoldenhair]

GPS are nice, but now that I have a smart phone and use the WAZE app I find it more up to the moment for traffic delays, accidents, road hazards, police or detour It is live action reports from other WAZE users on the road, It has saved me a ton of misery avoiding stand still interstates when an accident or heavy construction is going on.

 

[Yellowjj]

I don't think there is anyway to set the GPS to avoid a particular road.

That's incorrect. The Navi 55 LMT has a trip planner built in as alluded to by joelkfla. He can select his waypoints and save it and the gps will follow the preset route regardless of shortest distance/fastest time.

 

[nacho113]

That's incorrect. The Navi 55 LMT has a trip planner built in as alluded to by joelkfla. He can select his waypoints and save it and the gps will follow the preset route regardless of shortest distance/fastest time.

Thanks, I stand corrected. joelkfla's wasn't showing when I posted my reply, sorry for my mis-information.
That's a great feature, wish my Magellan had this option.

 

[Tigger7570]

Thank you for all the replies. Hopefully, we will be able to set it right. I am going to use the suggestions given here.

 

[OKW Lover]

An alternative for those with a GPS that doesn't have the way-point feature is to load the address of the 1st night's hotel into the GPS. Don't have a 1st night hotel picked out? Just guess which exit you'll be getting off at and search for a hotel there. Enter that for your driving directions. Once you're almost there, switch the GPS to your next night's destination.

 

[jec6613]

The Garmin can also avoid a road, so if you want to avoid a segment of the trip it's calculated, you can select it and avoid it. Unfortunately only once you have the destination put in already, but it's a feature I used all the time when I drove around for a living - GPS systems have a thing for I-95.