Necessary POIs?

You will not need all of the POI's listed here, as a lot of them are city or state only. If you travel much then you could use the Rest Area combined poiand the walmart poi as the main two. Then all the others would be depending on where you are going and what you want when you get there There is so many that it is hard to name all. Good luck and have fun on the site. ( the pois that are already in you gps could very well be outdated, the custom ones from here in most cases will be more up todate.)

the file in my Garmin has some large gaps. We have a large grocery chain in this part of Texas....one of their largest stores is 5 blocks from my house but does not show up on the list. This store has been at it's current location for almost 8 years!

As you use your GPS...I think you will determine what is, or is not neccessary for your driving needs.

Some of them are just fun to have!

When you browse through the seemingly endless number of POI files, you have to wonder "WHO would be interested in THAT???". C'mon there's a Bigfoot POI?

Then you decide to head out on a vacation and find the Offbeat Tourist Attractions file... and you learn that the Idaho Potato Expo is right on your route! Or you check out the Scenic Drive POI and find out there's a beautiful drive just ten minutes from where you were planning to stay.

It's all in what you find is important! And the built-in files of a Garmin or TomTom do not know what YOU think is important. I love the POI files that people have painstakingly put together because I get to chose which ones I want to install.

Did you know that the Roswell UFO crash site and the Trinity site (the first nuclear explosion) are less than 50 miles (and five years) apart? I will be checking that out this summer!

When I bought my 205w and did the "where am I" and then hit Police, it didn't list our local police or sheriff, but the one 50 miles away. Couldn't get the locals to pull up even by name etc. Granted I live in a smaller town but I learned to put the necessary ones in manually. Yes 911 works and I know where they are located but I put them in anyway for addresses non-emergency phone etc.

I've visited the Trinity site and McDonald Ranch House driving in on my own from the north. Note: the Trinity Site is open to the public twice a year--on the first Saturday in April and October between 8AM and 2PM.

I suugest reading Lansing Lamont's Day of Trinity (1965) before your visit.

http://www.wsmr.army.mil/wsmr.asp?pg=y&page=576

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory VLA Telescope is nearby and worth a visit as well:

http://www.vla.nrao.edu/genpub/tours/

Guided Tours of the VLA
Twice per year we offer guided tours to the general public. These are timed to coincide with the opening of the Trinity Site.

My list of needs when I travel in no certain order are:

Rest Areas Combined
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/6643

Red Light & Speed Cams
Click Red Light Cameras Tab

North American Breweries
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/21733

Starbucks US & CA
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/12311

101 Tastiest Places to Eat
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/26942

And I am always looking for good Hot Sauce Stores to add to my Hot Sauce Store POI
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/15578
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/27902

For the rest I use the built in POIs or the Google Local search on the 1690.

POI factory are more up to date.

As others have stated you will get more update information with the custom pois.The problem that results to obtain a more updated file is a large amount of duplication on the gps.Looks like there could be a solution for this.Like being able to edit existing points of interest.

As things in our areas close we tell the person what is closed and they update their POI. That way you don't drive miles out of the way to be at a closed place.

As DanielT mentioned, whether a POI is "needed" depends on your tastes and interests. I downloaded a POI for wineries in NY for a trip I took near Canandaigua last summer. It came in handy! It's really nice to have a lot of these seemingly niche POI files when you travel and plan a trip.

Never know what you might find!

And as mgarledge mentions, the POI Factory files are often more up to date and accurate than what you got when you first bought your gps.

Charlie the only problem with the editing of the native POI file, is that you can't do the edit until you have already wasted your time with closed up locations or even vacant lots.

Try searching for Wal Mart with the internal POIs, then try with custom POIs... Much faster with the custom POIs, and much more accurate as this site keeps things updated.

Larry

A lot of time is also wasted making files that 80 % of the data is already preinstalled.The new phones are really getting my attention as well as the Garmin 1690.This statement I copied says it all with the new phones.The last sentence is a little troubling.

Google Maps Navigation pulls its points-of-interest (POI) information from Google search, rather than from a fixed POI database in memory, like many dedicated GPS devices. That's mostly a plus, since POI databases become quickly outdated (there is an estimated 20 percent turnover of new listings each year). The app also downloads maps on the fly, again good for staying up to date. However, you are without maps if you drive for an extended period outside of range of cell phone signals (this can and does happen and may be when you most need navigation services).

As I mentioned in a related thread, I've got nearly 600 POI files with 670,000+ individual POIs from POI Factory loaded on my 1490T. And as long as it has the capacity to hold that many, I'd rather rely on the accuracy and recency of the hard work that the many folks here have put into them that makes my life much easier and more enjoyable.

Also, as others have pointed out here, sometimes those little surprises are real bonuses when you're in an area and find that something else you'd like to visit is nearby.

There are always going to be some files that you may want to save that you just don't find in the layout you prefer.Hope all these new devices make it simple to add the custom poi files.What I have been reading with the Google maps phones using voice command to select a point of interest sounds pretty simple.As more users start using them hope to get some real feedback on what the user thinks.

What I like about this website, besides the great people, is the different POIs. I can load what I want or not. I have loaded quite a few and I have no complaints. Keep up the great work.
Thanks,

I agree that you can manually look up a store but it is much faster to just go to your POI and select Wal-Marts or McDonalds and they all come up closest to farthest. Much faster than typing in the name an wondering is there a - in Wal-Mart or is it just Walmart!!

Yes, there are some 6 million built in POIs, but there are not as up to date as what you would load from POI Factory in the week before your road trip.

Also many user like to complement their POI files with "alerts" and "icons" for their favorites.

It is interesting to know that you can employ a technique called "TourGuide" to give you alerts for nearby Crackerbarrels. They are almost never on a highway - rather off the road a ways. If you like Crackerbarrel then it is nice on a trip to hear the GPS say, around suppertime, "A Crackerbarrel is nearby".

look at this site for information on alerts and icons
http://home.comcast.net/~ghayman3/garmin.gps/index.html

The direct answer to your questin is no, not every Walmart or McDonalds is included in the built-in POI files. Garmin puts a sampling of data for each establishment. You may be lucky and find that most of the McDonalds in your area are indeed included. But the next town over may be missing ten McDonalds. So its hit or miss.

I travel the back roads of America for 1000's of miles each year. My old Magellan did not help me much when I wanted a mid-morning cup of coffee at McDonalds. A tip of the hat to Mahoney & his hard work on the McDonalds file. I love to help out when I find one that has been missed.
I have several motel chains copied also. I find the built-ins have changed owners sometimes.