GPS devices...

Anyone with any practical experience?

Oh yeah. The voting here, among those who have at least tried GPS in Europe, has been right around 300 to 2 in favor of using GPS in Europe.

Figured as much.Thanks so much!

Not to sound like an idiot but how do you search this forum? The search box doesn't seem to give any hits with respect to the forum itself.

You click the FAQ topic, look for one of the boldface topic headings, it will say FAQ, click that and scroll down to how to search, you'll click there and it will take you to instructions.

here you go, click here

This is a workaround to the in-house, built in search box, which as you've just discovered, doesn't work worth a darn.

Thanks Kent. By the way I'm looking at the Garmin 275T.

Hi Mark, I took my Garmin to Ireland and it was a well worth it. I have also driven in Europe without a GPS (I didn't have the Garmin then), but I would never choose to drive there without one again.

Mark - I just picked up a Garmin Nuvi 275T from Costco.com a few weeks ago - they have 'em new for $199 (includes North America and European maps).

We took a similar GPS on our last trip to Europe in fall 2008, and it worked great - alas, it was nipped by a skillful pickpocket early in the trip (still kicking myself over that). I've wanted to replace it since I realized it had been pinched on that trolley in Lisbon...

Highly recommended - you'll never want to travel without one again.

While I love using my Garmin in Europe I would be hesitant to buy via EBay!

Garmin has updated and added a LOT of maps in the three or four years I have owned mine, but if you are NOT the "orginal" registrant of the unit then it's basically impossible to buy just the "updates" as I understand it.

So.. your "preloaded" may not be near as good as the new maps out there.

Going to buy off Amazon. Some of those Ebay listings look suspicious to put it mildly.

I have driven several times in the British Isles and the wife is more than a little tired of lugging those heavy road atlases and multiple red books around. One thing though, does the Garmin have those neat little indicators showing the stately homes, castles, and my beloved ancient monuments?

CompUSA sells the Garmin 270 (older, but works) for $129 refurbished. We got one, and it was great.

If you're doing a lot of car touring though, you might want to buy one of the upscale models that plays MP3's, etc - you can get ones that trigger audio tours based on your location. :)

I use a TomTom but Garmins also get good reviews. I had driven many times in northern Europe without a GPS. After my first driving experience in Italy, however, I came straight home and bought a GPS.

Regardless of where you are going, a GPS will help you drive straight to an address and save time and hassle navigating.

Do these Garmins for the car do a better job acquiring the signal than their old handheld GPSs? I sure hope so!

Question: Do these Garmins for the car do a better job acquiring the signal than their old handheld GPSs?

Yes, they solved that problem awhile back. We don't see complaints any more about that.

Slightly off the subject, but I have Microsoft AutoRoute Euro 2007 running on my laptop. When coupled to a GPS sensor it is priceless. It does a superb job of plotting travel times and distances and takes you right down to street level in those little European villages. Also a tremendous aide in setting up plans while still on this side of the Atlantic. It does require a co-pilot however, as the laptop really does not fit on the dashboard ;-) . I have a A.C.-D.C. converter that I use in the rental cars and a Deluo GPS sensor which is magnetized for roof mounting.

Mark,
My wife and I have used our handheld Garmin Etrex on two trips to Europe. One, primarily in Italy, and the second in Austria and Czech Republic. It worked great, and I'm pretty sure I'd still be lost in Siena if we hadn't had Garmin with us. Just be sure you know how to use it before you go. There are a lot of helpful features, like the ability to put in an address and have Garmin take you there, turn by turn, but it is not intuitive. Have to read the book. At least we did. Have a great trip.
Bill
From New Mexico

Mark,

My TomTom picks up signals from multiple sattelites amazingly quickly. It also has a navigating mode where it keeps "going" when it loses a signal (long tunnel) rather than stop and wait to regain a signal. I'm amazed by the amount of capability in such a small device.

I've got one of the Garmin handhelds (eTrex legend) that I bought to play around with about eight or so years ago. You can grow old and die while you wait for it to acquire the satellites. That's the reason I asked that question.

Does anyone know which model is TomTom's equivalent of the Garmin 275T? Also is Garmin the best choice out there i.e. best value for money?

Mark: Garmin is probably the one we see mentioned the most here, but I don't think that means much.

Magellan and Tom Tom are also mentioned a lot and any of those three are good. People tend to like the one they have, but any of those, that has a Europe map preloaded.

I hope it's obvious, but, don't even think about taking your 8 yr old one. The current models are about 10 times better.

Kent believe me it is very obvious! :-)

Read the TomTom labels carefully as most of them only have USA, some have Canada and Mexico. I recall that only the best two have western Europe loaded.
We bought Eastern European maps this summer to update TomTom,and those were not as good as expected- too much construction of new roads were at fault IMHO.

Mark,

I have a TomTom 920. When I bought it, it was cheap because they had recently come out with the TomTom 930. The 930 comes with an antenna to pick up traffic reports and automatically routes you around traffic. My 920 has that as an option but I didn't purchase it. I'm not sure if there is an even newer model on the market.

Brad, tomtom has come out with a 940 model with Euorpe maps but I don't think it is available in the U.S. as yet. They have been selling them in Europe and are suppose to be coming to the U.S. I took my old antiquated 910 model with us in May and it still works fine & got us to where we wanted to go. I may have to retire it (her) before our next trip though. Ol' Susan is like a 3rd compainon when we drive in Europe and she will be missed (except when I miss a turn and have to listen to her telling me to "turn around when possible" in her superior than thou tone.) :)

Mark,

I've been using an older Garmin Nuvi 370 on trips to Europe for the last few years, and it's worked quite well overall. As it's a smaller unit, I sometimes use it in "pedestrian mode" for walking around cities as well (really helps if I get lost!).

However, I've found that GPS units are not infallible. There have been a few times when the unit has gone into "brain lock" and provided directions to a completely WRONG address. Re-entering the address usually corrects the problem.

Also, the choice of routing the unit chooses is sometimes a bit "off". I'm constantly checking the GPS directions against road signs and other landmarks, and sometimes the route I choose is better than the one recommended by the GPS. I always travel with a good map as well (usually Michelin) as a "backup".

It's very important to know the correct local names for destinations, and entering even one incorrect letter in a destination can sometimes be an issue. From what I've seen so far with the "talking" GPS units, they don't do a good job of pronouncing local names too well.

Despite the minor problems, I will continue to travel with a GPS unit, whether I'll be driving or not.

Happy travels!

Mark, an eight year old eTrex Legend is best used as a paperweight. They never were fast, but my Garmin GPSMap 60CSx acquires a signal in less than 30 seconds, usually. My handheld is only used for geocaching, though. I use a TomTom in the car, or the Delorme Earthmate tracker and software on my netbook.

Just a last minute check, how do the Garmin units do with the text to speech in France? I've heard the performance was rather lackluster in places like Spain.

Mark, I sent you a private msg.

Mark,

Regarding your last question, as I indicated in my previous post "From what I've seen so far with the "talking" GPS units, they don't do a good job of pronouncing local names too well". That includes France.

Cheers!

Thanks everyone. I've pretty much settled on the Garmin 275T.

These posts serve more than the OP. I decided months ago to buy my first GPS device but, until a few days ago, I was uncertain which one to purchase. The responses here led me to investigate the Garmin 275T model, and I ordered one last week through Amazon. It arrived this morning. Thanks, Mark, for asking, and thanks to the rest of you for responding.

Mark and Roy,

I've been really pleased with the performance of my Nuvi but just to reiterate, they're not infallible so don't trust them completely (I always carry a good Map as well, "just in case").

I've updated both the North American and European Maps, a process which was a bit expensive and time consuming but I wanted the most up-to-date Maps available. You may want to do that at some point in the future?

Happy travels with the Garmin Nuvi!

Roy glad to be of some service. I haven't ordered mine yet but I was wondering if you might post in this thread with some hands on experience and first impressions in the next day or so since you are likely to be experimenting in the next few days.

Ken how often do you have to update the database?

Mark,

Garmin only seems to have updates available every year or two, so I update whenever they notify customers that an update is available (it's fortunate that I remembered to register the purchase when I bought the Nuvi - I've forgotten to do that with other products on past occasions).

Given the time it takes to enter all the data, I suspect even the updates are a bit "out of date" when they're released. As I recall, I updated the North American maps in 2008 and the European maps in 2009. Not sure when the next ones will be issued?

Cheers!

Just returned from a 2,800+ mile trip through Germany, France, Italy and Austria. Our Garmin Nuvi 270 took a lot of stress out of our trip. In retrospect - I am sure we would have spent less time siteseeing and more time being lost without it. The pedestrian mode is a standard feature with this model which came in very handy. We also downloaded the optional "Speed Camera" app which came with a 60 day free trail.

Definitely agree with Ken...carry a map with you, just in case. I currently use a Garmin Nuvi in Germany and it's usually been pretty accurate. BTW, if you're thinking about loading the speed camera POI file, be aware that they're illegal in many countries.