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What is a POI? POI stands for Points of Interest. These are locations, typically business storefronts, that exist in auto GPS devices. A POI could be a gas station, a hotel, a restaurant, a shopping mall, or a historical location. So how is this important when looking for a GPS, how many are enough, and why are they so often wrong?

Garmin POI Loader on 32-bit and 64-bit PCs. This download is licensed as freeware for the Windows (32-bit and 64-bit) operating system on a laptop or desktop PC from mapping without restrictions. POI Loader 2.7.3 is available to all software users as a free download for Windows 10 PCs but also without a hitch on Windows 7 and Windows 8. Many thanks for all the GPS POI downloads for both TOMTOM and Autoroute 2010. However I have become unstuck with autoroute as the long and lat coord are in decimal. When I try and marry the decimal coords with All the aires France that are in mins secs then I am getting confused!!!.

Data Collection

The data for the POI databases is collected from a variety of sources. In some cases the mapping companies collect it, sometimes the data is provided directly to mapping companies from larger chain locations, and other times the information is gathered by companies who specialize in creating business directories. (Think Yellow Pages.) The data typically includes the physical address, name of the location, category of the POI, a phone number, and the geographic coordinates.

How Many POIs

Aside from “why isn’t my street in this GPS?”, the second most common question we receive is “Why isn’t that big box retailer down the street that opened last year isn’t in my GPS?”. Often, it comes down to an issue of capacity on the device, or simply the price of purchasing larger databases of POIs.

Unlike the road database, GPS companies don’t cram every known POI into their devices. In many ways, it makes sense. If you have a database of registered businesses, many of them might not want to be listed as a POI. People who run businesses from their homes, and businesses that are strictly offices and have no “storefront” are examples.

But there are also many “storefront” type POIs that are not listed. In many cases it is a matter of capacity. Several current GPS models only come with 1 GB of memory. After installing the operating system, application, and maps there is often not much space left over for millions and millions of POIs.

In other cases it is a matter of cost. There are a few (though rare) GPS companies out there who sell identical GPS models with different amounts of POIs at different prices. Otherwise the models are exactly the same. So there is an element of cost associated with the size of a POI database.

I’ve also always wondered if the GPS companies might hold some sort of ransom over inclusion of POIs into their devices. Perhaps saying a big chain “We’ll list all of your POIs into our devices for a cost”. Just to be perfectly clear, I’ve never seen a shred of evidence that is the case, but it crosses my mind from time to time.

How many should I look for?

That depends on your own unique needs. Some people find that they almost never utilize the POI database in their GPS. They plan out their routes ahead of time with enough certainty that they never really need to find a location by type, spontaneously. Other people have travel types whereby they constantly need to locate nearby hotels or their favorite restaurant chain.

Some devices come with less than 1 million POIs, or just over 1 million. This is on the slim side. For example one company where some GPS manufacturers gets their data from has a database of 14 million USA business locations and another 1.5 million on Canada. So if your GPS covers the USA and Canada and has 750,000 POIs, that only represents less than one out of every every twenty POIs, or 5% coverage. That means you might find 19 POIs not in the database for every POI listed.

GPS devices with 5-6 million POIs are on the high side of the number of POIs despite still having only 30-40% coverage based on many estimates.

GPS companies, listen up!

A disturbing trend of late has been the unwillingness of GPS manufacturers to disclose how many POIs they include in their devices. Many of them are giving us generic answers like “millions” or not making any reference at all. This is a huge disservice to those consumers who are looking to make meaningful comparisons of models, even models from the same company that might have different amounts of POIs.

I still can’t believe company XYZ isn’t included!

That is true. You will find that what the GPS company decided to pick for inclusion doesn’t match what you would have picked for POIs. If there is something specific you are looking for, you still can’t quite match adding the locations yourself. Most GPS devices offer the ability to load “custom POI” databases that you add yourself. Some of them offer utilities to help convert lists of locations you have, and in other cases other people have already created them and share them online. The process isn’t always that simple though so you might need to seek some help from others who have done it. But that is another topic for another time. 🙂

In order to make my life easier I’ve moved all download links to this page. All downloads here should work and are free to download, any problems please contact me.

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The main hosting costs for this site are due to the downloads, so I’ve removed the main banner ads and added this message as well as added the ads here. Ad revenue covers these costs (just!) If you anticipate buying anything from the following companies, feel free to use the below links. Did you know, Google “pay per click” which is very nice of them – and anything you buy from Amazon (going via the below link) gives me referal comission at no cost to you. Every little helps! 🙂 Graphic for mac shape library.

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Garmin Gps Poi Downloads

Below are the list of downloads. To download the file you want, simply click the appropriate DOWNLOAD link. Some files are ZIP and need to be expanded. I recommned 7-zip – see here to read about compressed files

Caravan Club GPS POI 2012

The latest (April 2012) edition now available, see here for details

• TomTom Format: DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2010 Format: DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2011 format: DOWNLOAD
• CSV raw format (for Garmins etc): DOWNLOAD
• Google Earth single file: DOWNLOAD
• Google Earth individial files: DOWNLOAD

Camping and Caravanning Club GPS POI 2012

At last! Full details here

Garmin Poi Downloads North America

• TomTom Format: DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2010 Format: DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2011 format: DOWNLOAD
• CSV raw format (for Garmins etc): DOWNLOAD
• Google Earth single file: DOWNLOAD
• Google Earth individial files: DOWNLOAD

Aires, Bordatlas, ACSI & Camping Cheques Camping data 2012

For details of this download click HERE. This is our most popular download

• TomTom format: DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2010 format: DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2011 format: DOWNLOAD
• CSV raw fomat (suitable for Garmins and others): DOWNLOAD
• Google Earth single file database: DOWNLOAD
• Google Earth individual KML files: DOWNLOAD

My Wild Camping spots

For details on this download, click here

• Autoroute 2010 format DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2011 format DOWNLOAD
• TomTom format DOWNLOAD
• CSV raw format DOWNLOAD
• Other formats: *EXPERIMENTAL – please advise success or otherwise* BITMAP Icon ; Garmin (csv) ; Navman (csv) ;Navigon (csv) ; CoPilot (xls) ; MioMap (csv) ; Destinator (csv) ; GPX Format ; Google Earth ; Nokia LMX (info) ; Garmin direct POI upload (info) ;

Municipal campsites

For details on Municiple sites see HERE

• TomTom Format: DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2010 Format: DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2011 Format: DOWNLOAD
• CSV Raw Format: DOWNLOAD
• Other formats: *EXPERIMENTAL – please advise success or otherwise* BITMAP Icon ; Garmin (csv) ; Navman (csv) ;Navigon (csv) ; CoPilot (xls) ; MioMap (csv) ; Destinator (csv) ; GPX Format ; Google Earth ; Nokia LMX (info) ; Garmin direct POI upload (info) ;

LPG / Autogas station GPS POI

For details of this download click HERE

• TomTom Format: DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2010 Format: DOWNLOAD
• Autorote 2011 Format: DOWNLOAD
• CSV Raw Format: DOWNLOAD
• Other formats: *EXPERIMENTAL – please advise success or otherwise* BITMAP Icon ; Garmin (csv) ; Navman (csv) ;Navigon (csv) ; CoPilot (xls) ; MioMap (csv) ; Destinator (csv) ; GPX Format ; Google Earth ; Nokia LMX (info) ; Garmin direct POI upload (info) ;

McDonalds Locations (free wifi)

For details on this downlaod click HERE

• TomTom Format: DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2010 Format: DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2011 Format: DOWNLOAD
• CSV Format: DOWNLOAD
• Other formats: *EXPERIMENTAL – please advise success or otherwise* BITMAP Icon ; Garmin (csv) ; Navman (csv) ;Navigon (csv) ; CoPilot (xls) ; MioMap (csv) ; Destinator (csv) ; GPX Format ; Google Earth ; Nokia LMX (info) ; Garmin direct POI upload (info) ;

BT Fon Hotspot GPS POI

For details on this download click HERE

• Autoroute 2010 Format POI for France – DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2011 Format POI for France – DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2010 Format POI for Spain – DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2011 Format POI for Spain – DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2010 Format POI for Italy – DOWNLOAD
• Autoroute 2011 Format POI for Italy – DOWNLOAD

POI conversion tools by GPS Data Team

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Internet forums that I frequent

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