Among all the great pleasures I had on my April trip to Italy, I did have at least one frustration: walking in a city, map in hand, trying desperately to get to some destination or other, and being completely frustrated even with the map in front of me. Whether it's due to many of the streets not being well-marked, or that they change names every other block, or that there's all sorts of stuff going in the real world not on maps, I couldn't really tell. But I remember wondering at the time, and only half-jokingly, how wonderful it would be to have some sort of GPS device for walkers. Trying to walk from the Vatican to the Pantheon? Just set your endpoint to "Pantheon", plug in the headset, and off you go. The nice Italian-accented voice on the GPS tells you when to turn left and when to turn right. Does anything like this exist? Yes, we all know that half the fun of being in a European city is getting lost and being forced to ask locals for help, and then the unpredictable, chaotic and often wonderful human connections that ensue from that, but let's face it--after the sixth, or eighth, or tenth person asked it gets exhausting, and I'd love to at least have the option to find it myself. Does this contradict the Rick Steves "Through the Back Door" spirit? I don't know, but I would like to occasionally have the opportunity to just walk in through the front door...
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
120 posts
I have used a Garmin Nuvi 270 in Paris with much success. As with many other GPS units, this one can be set for driving or for pedestrian usage. I preloaded mine with all the places I hoped to visit. A problem arises when streets are narrow and buildings are 2 stories or more – no satellite fix – rendering it useless. So, really, there's no substitute for a good paper map. Something else I use to aid myself in navigation is to pre-visit places via Google Earth Street Views. It is helpful to have the feeling that I've seen a place and its surroundings before.
Posted by
Germany, Germany
813 posts
I use my iphone for that sometimes, it works out well. It came with the google maps app and has the pedestrian option. It is much more accurate than putting our GPS in pedestrian mode.....the GPS just isn't very accurate sometimes.
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
One of those small, inexpensive compasses can make a big difference when using a detailed city map for keeping oriented in cities. You come out of a building, whip out your trusty little compass, and you immediately have the map correctly oriented, know where you are, and in which direction on the ground to walk to get to your next destination. All because of that $10 compass.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32212 posts
Rick, "Does anything like this exist?" Yes, absolutely! As a previous reply mentioned, I often switch my Garmin Nüvi to pedestrian mode and use if for getting my bearings in cities in Europe. It works quite well for the most part, although every so often it gets "confused" for some reason. I tend to use it somewhat sparingly and only when needed, as the battery life is a bit "limited". However, it's a valuable travel accessory and I pack it along on every trip.
Posted by
Los Angeles
1825 posts
My Garmin worked great driving but walking isn't as accurate. Between buildings the signal gets weak lowering accuacy and you need to be moving to get your direction. A compass makes using the map a lot easier.