Since I had such wonderful luck recently in Italy using my GPS to drive right to my accommodations and points of interest, I'm becoming amazed in planning my Cotswolds vacation to see that most places there don't list a street number! In Italy, I just entered the street number and the GPS took me to the front door...every time!
I've traveled all over UK and Ireland in the past, but not with a GPS, so I never thought about street numbers there before. I guess it's just a British tradition. I'm finding a lot of website directions to downtown B&Bs that just say things like "turn right onto Victoria Street and we'll be the third building on the left". They don't list a street number anywhere on the website, and I'm seeing this more often than not as I look at downtown accommodations.
How do the British folks use their GPS or Google Maps to pinpoint a location? Or maybe it's just that close is good enough in the Cotswolds?
________________ When life gives you lemons, make limoncello.
Post codes (if you have access to them) are usually accurate enough for both GPS and Google Maps. Except in rural areas where houses are scattered, a post code usually pinpoints a spot to within 50 yards or so.
In Ireland, however, where they don't have post codes it can be quite difficult to locate specifc addresses.
Posts: 962 | Location: West Sussex, England | Registered: 08 February 2007
Ah! Thanks, WSB. Yes, all the sites give postal codes. I'm just used to entering a street number, like "413 Park Street". I think my GPS has a place to enter postal code instead. I'll check.
We have postal codes in the USA that, with all 9 digits, will define the location of a specific single mail box within the whole country, but I'd never thought of using it in at GPS. Always used street number.
Live (and travel) and learn!
________________ When life gives you lemons, make limoncello.
Each UK postcode generally covers about a dozen addresses, so it's pretty precise. After I enter a postcode into my TomTom GPS it prompts me for a house number so the result is (usually) spot on.
When I enter a UK postcode (lower-case letters are accepted) into a Google Search box (or into my Chrome browser's address bar) Google usually shows a small map at the top of the search results. This is one advantage of having postcodes in such an unusual format that Google can recognise them for what they are. I can click on the little map to see the usual zoom-able and pan-able map; however, the miniature map is often all I need. I don't know whether Google will be as helpful if you access it from other countries. Perhaps you need to use google.co.uk rather than google.com.
Posts: 962 | Location: West Sussex, England | Registered: 08 February 2007
Or maybe it's just that close is good enough in the Cotswolds? Smile
Yes. I share my postcode with about 20 other houses. We have house names, not numbers and I do confess to living here for nearly thirty years without the house name being displayed (but I have one now!). But everybody in the road knows where everyone else is (and what they are doing ) so you just have to ask when you are lost.
The landlords of the cottage I stayed at in rural le Marche include the GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) of their property. I got the impression that many property owners were doing that.
Originally posted by Marian: The landlords of the cottage I stayed at in rural le Marche include the GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) of their property. I got the impression that many property owners were doing that.
Yes, I'm surprised that hasn't caught on more than it has, with businesses of all sorts. Of course, the coordinates are a rather cumbersome set of numbers to deal with, and that doesn't help.
I was wanting to put some of the sites around Rome into my GPS so I could more easily find Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, etc., but those places don't exactly have a mailing address, so I went to Google Earth, put the mouse pointer over the various sites, and took note of the coordinates displayed at the bottom of the screen. I input these into my GPS as "Favorites" before my recent trip there, and it worked great...except that it's hard to keep a satellite lock at walking speed among high buildings, but the concept worked, at least.
________________ When life gives you lemons, make limoncello.
Postcodes are usually a very good choice when using GPS in the UK but I was surprised recently when looking at hotels in Liverpool to find this page which tells you to use L74 4AA with your GPS rather than the "real" L3 4FN code. Very intriguing ...
especially since Googling it reveals it to be the postcode for an office of HM Revenue and Customs.
Posts: 301 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 08 August 2005
Originally posted by Robert D: ...which tells you to use L74 4AA with your GPS rather than the "real" L3 4FN code.
I guess you have to be a bit careful with business postal codes since they point you to where the business receives its mail, which may not be at the same point as the business itself.
For example, once I discovered the magic of UK postal codes yesterday, I was using them, from the "contact us" pages, to check the locations of some apartments. After a few cases where I was sure the postal code didn't take me to the actual apartment, I realized that in some cases the contact address was for the home of the apartment management, not the location of the apartment.
________________ When life gives you lemons, make limoncello.
Most houses do have a number, but there are many places, especially in rural locations, where they have a house name instead.
Dunroamin is the cliched one, but perhaps my favourite was in Sheffield 'Wuthering Depths'.
It's aso worth checking www.yell.co.uk as most commercial operations are listed and will tend to have full address listed (plus IIRC Yell has a map option).
regards
Ian
Drink coffee, do stupid things faster
Posts: 306 | Location: UK | Registered: 20 September 2008
Originally posted by Robert D: The only other country that I know with such specific postcodes is The Netherlands
The postal codes in the US are absolutely specific. When you add the "plus four" to the five-digit town zip code, as in 98765-1234, you locate not just a town or neighborhood, but a single mail box.
In fact, I'm sure you could address an envelope with just 98765-1234, listing no addressee name, street, city or state, it could still get to the right mail box.
I say "could" rather than "would" since our postal system delights in refusing to deliver mail unless everything is in perfect order.
________________ When life gives you lemons, make limoncello.
This is true, Patrick but I am married to one so I know all about this little foible of male human nature. "Drive on, drive on, - I am sure we will find it....."
But, speaking as one who gets lost very frequently and ASKS, it is a very good way of getting to know the locals. It works particularly well in Ireland - no house numbers in the country and sometimes even no house name either - just 'Mrs Hughes's' or 'the Raffertys' or even just 'the farm'. Here, stopping to ask directions, much time can be passed and you may end up with an entire history of the district to boot.
Originally posted by felicity: But, speaking as one who gets lost very frequently and ASKS, it is a very good way of getting to know the locals. It works particularly well in Ireland...
You're sure right about Ireland. Once (just once) I finally gave up, swallowed my pride, and asked for directions in Ireland, and the guy said, follow me and I'll show you. He then got in his car and led us to the place we were looking for! I've never seen hospitality to match the Irish.
________________ When life gives you lemons, make limoncello.
) so you just have to ask when you are lost.
Obviously, felicity, you are not a man! 
