I have been thinking about getting a garmin forerunner 305 for my trip to Europe next year. Does anyone have one of these that they have used overseas? I would be using it so I can calculate the miles walked/run, calories burned but especially as a way to get back to the hostel where I would be staying in each city. If you do have one, does the GPS signal work really well? Can you put in an end destination or just a 'home' destination in it vs multiple destinations on a regular GPS. Any help on this would be appreciated and TIA.
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Calgary, Alberta, Canada
180 posts
There are a couple of things to consider with the Forerunner, along with any wrist GPS: 1 - Battery life is limited. You'll get less than 10 hours with the 305 so if you wanted to track a full day worth of activity your battery will die part way through. 2 - In general, GPS signal is not an issue in Europe. It's pretty much the same experience as in the USA. However, wrist based devices can have an extra bit of challenge in urban areas. For example, running through old London or down the backstreets of Prague may lead to gaps in your tracking. GPS lock can be a bit harder to maintain on the small units. The 305 specifically has a good antenna, but it is still limited compared to some larger units. 3 - As for backtracking or finding your way back to a hotel/hostel, the 305 is limited here. It has the ability to drop a waypoint, but I don't believe it can do a return route via a breadcrumb style trail. It also doesn't have a map built in. That means that if you put down a waypoint at your hostel and go exploring, you can get the forerunner to tell you the direction and distance the hostel is, but that's "as the crow flies". Not very helpful in an old Europe urban area. Hope that helps. Pete