SatNav: Discovering local places by car or bike

Moneymaker

I've had my "TomTom ONE" satellite navigation aid for only a few weeks but already it has provided hours of amusement. Ignoring its attempts to take me up a 4 foot wide bridle path, a one way street (the wrong way) and across a school playing field, it has mostly got the route right.

Although we've lived here for 20 years, we are still relative "newbies" and there are places within 10 miles that we've never seen. So this week we tried something different. I looked for the nearest filling stations selling cheap petrol on http://www.petrolprices.com (you have to subscribe but it's free and you don't get nuisance emails).

The site lists petrol prices at all filling stations within a radius that you specify (I chose 15 miles). You can click on any filling station on the map to get its postcode.

I put the postcode into my sat nav and set it to calculate the shortest (not fastest) route. Then we simply followed the route along (mostly) "A" roads, knowing that we could buy cheap petrol at the destination. Along the way, we discovered roads and places that we'd never seen previously. I drove slowly, stopping every mile to let traffic pass, so we could get a good look at the attractions. My wife made notes so we could return later, saving it "for a rainy day" (or more likely for a sunny one).

I recommend this game to anyone who is tempted to go out for a "Sunday run". We covered only 24 miles in total, so it wasn't too expensive or environmentally unfriendly. (Well not compared with most "Sunday runs" that could take us 100 miles or more).

It can also be done on bicycles as most Sat Navs will run for over two hours on their internal battery.

Dependent on your stamina, you could pick any local destination, such as a farm café. Look up its postcode on the Internet and off you go!

vikingaero

I found that Sat Nav was brilliant on holiday in Cornwall. It allowed you to anticipate bends in the narrow roads and we found loads of wonderful coves by following the screen and driving down dead-end roads that ended up on the coast.