Do you use TomTom on your iPhone? If you do, then you’ll have recently had to download quite a large update to the app – including updated maps as well as some other updated/new features.
One of the features has been included for people just like me. People who’d rather not take the route everyone else takes. People who are as interested in the journey as they are in the destination. People who ride motorbikes.
Added into the route options alongside fastest, shortest and avoid motorways is a new type… winding roads.
Yes please!
As an example I did a very quick route from the centre of Lincoln to Newark. This is very straightforward trip along the A46, which is dual carriageway all the way once you’re out of the city. TomTom said on Friday lunchtime (using IQ Routes) it would take 26 minutes and I would travel 14.8 miles. Changing the setting to “winding roads” I ended up with a much more scenic route taking 39 minutes and taking me 18.7 miles through some of Lincolnshire’s villages.
Okay so the chances are that if I wanted to go to Newark from Lincoln I would always use the A46, but thinking about holidays and Saturday ride-outs this winding roads option is going to get well used. It will be lovely to take a relaxed biker-friendly route through the countryside taking in the sights and lolloping around the corners. A very nice addition to the application, thanks TomTom.
Actually I haven’t mentioned it on Splodz Blogz before but I really do like the TomTom iPhone app. It’s an excellent navigation system. I don’t use sat nav on my motorbike, I tend to pre-plan routes and memorise them, but I do use the TomTom app to help with the planning before I go. The app works brilliantly on iPad too which makes planning even easier with the bigger screen.
In the car and for planning it beats my Garmin Nuvi (bought because our very old TomTom burnt out and it was the best spec option for the money we had at the time) hands down. And I don’t have to take a separate piece of kit in the car or away with me. It is draining on the battery though so an in-car charger is a must if you don’t have the proper TomTom cradle.