GPS choice

Mary Lou,

TomTom is a EU company, and their maps are usually very good in the EU. We have used our two year old TOMTOM in Germany, Austria, Portugal, Italy, France, Sardinia, and on a cross county US trip, and are very happy with it.

Our older TOMTOM is not designed to be used as a wallking aide, and I would do a lot of research before I believed that any GPS will work in and around tall buildings, in the walking mode (unless it was using 3G type data). We do like our TOMTOM feature that continues to plot a course when the satelites are temporararily blocked by tall buildings, tunnels, etc.

I've had a Garmin Nuvi 650 for about 3 years now and it works great. When I moved to Germany a year ago, I bought a European maps SD card and have had no complaints. I just purchased lifetime map updates for both map sets and can now download updates 4 times a year.

I have no complaints with the Garmin and the only time I failed to get a sat lock was about a week ago on a tree-lined farm road made "Panzer blocks" in the former east. Never used a TomTom.

I purchased a TomTom and have been very happy with it. Garmin and TomTom both get good reviews. The fact that TomTom is an EU product and I wanted it mostly for EU travel is why I chose that over the Garmin.

My TomTom has a walking (and bicycling) mode that seems to work fine. My biggest concern is battery life. It's advertised as four hours but it seems like I get less - mine is probably five years old and may need a new battery. A new one might do much better.

Love my Garmin Nuvi.

I've had both and currntly use a Garmin. It has a pedestrian mode which I've never used.

I'm forever unplugging it to use the lighter socket for something else and it only seems to last about an hour before it dies.

I'd settle for skipping the whole idea. TIs give out free maps that work real well and there are usually maps on small billboard type affairs all over the place that work fine.

Thanks for the advice. I have just ordered a TomTom XXL540 TM World Traveler Edition. I found that TomTom does have a walking option in the Planning Preferences. With that, all the POIs, the excellent European maps, and free lifetime maps and traffic, we should be well set for Europe now and for use at home for a long time to come.
With all the help I get from my Rick Steves guidebooks, as well as local maps and advice from our hotels, we won’t lack for direction. If we do get lost, well that’s sometimes where you find the most interesting places!
Both the Garmin and the TomTom were excellent choices. The free lifetime maps were really the deciding factor.
Thanks for the help.

I purchased the TomTom XXL540 World Traveler and really like it so far but have not used it in Europe. I also have a TomTom 910 model and used it in Europe in 2009 & 2007. Was pleased enough with it to purchase the 540 World Traveler. I have not tried the walking mode however so no help to you with that. The 540 is much slimmer than the older 910 and will fit in your purse or bag nicely. Also, the screen is bigger which is nice. I think you will be pleased with it.

We used the Garmin 1370t in France and Italy and it worked just fine. Maps loaded and directions were fine.