Scenic versus Google Maps versus Waze

#1 · 27.08.2025, 18:54

Quote from Marts on 27.08.2025, 18:54
I'm planning a ride for November. It's fairly basic and I can get to where I am going without maps but of course I planned it anyway.

Google Maps.

I entered the starting point, a town in Australia's north east region of Victoria (state) across the mountains to another town further northeast. If you're interested plan a route from Bright, VIC to Corryong, VIC.

There is a ski resort called Falls Creek which was my first via in Google. Second via was a town called Mitta Mitta. Now, instead of going from Falls Creek down to what's called the Omeo Highway and up to Mitta, it took me in a circuitous route the other way.

I then edited the route and plotted each part of the route by selecting POIs (camping grounds, etc.) along the desired route, til it got to a point where I couldn't progress any further and it calculated the route back to Bright, up north and down the Omeo Highway to this next point. ie. a reverse loop.

Something in Google Maps' data saw the road as blocked off or ended or something.

Scenic

Then I fired up Scenic and plotted the same desired route. Voila! It did it easily.

This is a bit of a change. Often the Scenic maps may present similar problems so I do it in Google Maps then export to Scenic via the Web App.

Waze

The other day I installed Waze on the iPhone. The idea was to run it in the background so it would pop up an alert for fixed speed cameras (neither Google Maps nor Scenic has this data currently). I used it to navigate around town when running errands to see how it performs. Not good. Laggy as hell and when I plotted a route from a store to home to see what the nav/route features are like it didn't like a major intersection and wanted to take me away from my destination, do a U-turn at a roundabout a kilometre away to get back to where I was going. ie. I couldn't turn left but I could turn right at this intersection.

General

The car's inbuilt navigator seems to work OK in general but hasn't had an update since '22 when we bought it. It's a Kia Sorento Sport Plus for those familiar with the brand. But it's a pain to actually use, whereas Scenic beats it hands down in the usability area.

I'm using a 256gb iPhone 14 Pro Max. It still is a grunty device despite it being 3 models old now, so the lagging screen updates shouldn't be a problem, should it? Scenic still has some lag but not as bad as Waze was and to a lesser extent, Google Maps.

I'm planning a ride for November. It's fairly basic and I can get to where I am going without maps but of course I planned it anyway.

Google Maps.

I entered the starting point, a town in Australia's north east region of Victoria (state) across the mountains to another town further northeast. If you're interested plan a route from Bright, VIC to Corryong, VIC.

There is a ski resort called Falls Creek which was my first via in Google. Second via was a town called Mitta Mitta. Now, instead of going from Falls Creek down to what's called the Omeo Highway and up to Mitta, it took me in a circuitous route the other way.

I then edited the route and plotted each part of the route by selecting POIs (camping grounds, etc.) along the desired route, til it got to a point where I couldn't progress any further and it calculated the route back to Bright, up north and down the Omeo Highway to this next point. ie. a reverse loop.

Something in Google Maps' data saw the road as blocked off or ended or something.

Scenic

Then I fired up Scenic and plotted the same desired route. Voila! It did it easily.

This is a bit of a change. Often the Scenic maps may present similar problems so I do it in Google Maps then export to Scenic via the Web App.

Waze

The other day I installed Waze on the iPhone. The idea was to run it in the background so it would pop up an alert for fixed speed cameras (neither Google Maps nor Scenic has this data currently). I used it to navigate around town when running errands to see how it performs. Not good. Laggy as hell and when I plotted a route from a store to home to see what the nav/route features are like it didn't like a major intersection and wanted to take me away from my destination, do a U-turn at a roundabout a kilometre away to get back to where I was going. ie. I couldn't turn left but I could turn right at this intersection.

General

The car's inbuilt navigator seems to work OK in general but hasn't had an update since '22 when we bought it. It's a Kia Sorento Sport Plus for those familiar with the brand. But it's a pain to actually use, whereas Scenic beats it hands down in the usability area.

I'm using a 256gb iPhone 14 Pro Max. It still is a grunty device despite it being 3 models old now, so the lagging screen updates shouldn't be a problem, should it? Scenic still has some lag but not as bad as Waze was and to a lesser extent, Google Maps.

Guido and LaszloK have reacted to this post.

#2 · 28.08.2025, 01:06

Nice report, thanks 😊

I am not surprised. It corresponds with my own experience, doing some 15.000 km this year (on my Vespa 300) and the year before, using Scenic in combination with Motive Monkey remote controller designed for Scenic only. There were some navigation problems, yes, when 4.0 was introduced. And we know why, that was thoroughly explained. Bur Guido fixed it, as promised. I never doubted.

What does surprise me though is how quick people says Scenice is totally useless when they run into a problem more often than not caused by themselves due to lack of upgrade, lack of knowledge, misplaced vias etc.

It takes some time and effort to get to know Scenic properly. Spend that time, and you will be rewarded 😊

Guido, DRTBYK and 2 other users have reacted to this post.

#3 · 28.08.2025, 19:44

That is one stunning scene. Where is it? And will someone pay for my airfares and motorbike hire to ride it????

#4 · 29.08.2025, 02:43

Shown on the screenshots.

Took it when doing all 59 passes above 2.000m in the Alps 😊

Marts has reacted to this post.

#5 · 29.08.2025, 17:54

Last October we did a euro tour on a bus (second most horrible experience ever). We travelled through Switzerland staying in Berne. I could only dream of what it'd be like to be riding a bike around there, as we stuck to the major freeways (motorways?).