GPS - Ireland

Lighter plug is the same everywhere. Mine's not a steetpilot but it works out in the sticks, sometimes wanting me to go down a road that a bit (wagon trail) tight, but if you press on, it will reroute fine and get you there without a problem.

When you get the new map, you should be able to switch over from the U.S. one and use some kind of preplanning feature that will let you see the route from Spot X to Spot Y in Ireland. Compare it to what you get on a google map or something. It should work fine. Satelites are satelites, lat/lon is lat/lon. All that's left is the map plotting software.

Thanks. I thought the cigarette plug would work but didn't want to get there and find they are different in Ireland.

Arline,

As previously mentioned, the lighter plug supplied with your GPS will work fine in Ireland. These all supply 12 VDC, the same as North American vehicles.

I'd strongly suggest packing along a good Map as a "backup" to the GPS unit. Also, don't trust the GPS unit totally, as they do make mistakes. It's critical to enter the proper local name for the destination, and sometimes even one letter can make a difference. I've found it's a good idea to have a quick look at the Map before starting out, so I have a general idea of the towns I'll be passing through. Another method to "double check" the GPS is of course road signs.

I had a good lesson in the inadequacies of GPS units about two weeks ago while travelling in California and Arizona. The GPS unit worked great in the Palm Desert / Palm Springs area, but I had nothing but trouble in Yuma.

One example - when trying to find my Hotel, the goofy GPS unit was directing me into a lettuce field. There were other examples. I updated the database last year, but it still seems to be a bit "deficient". The database for the Yuma area seems to have some serious "bugs" (note to self: compose letter to Garmin to express my dissatisfaction with their product).

GPS units can be extremely useful, but don't trust them completely.

Happy travels!

I took my Garmin to Ireland and it worked great. No problems, even in rural areas.

I'd try the Garmin website (if they don't have store near you), you should get good answers from them.
I paid the extra on a recent trip and loved it- priceless along the Dingle Peninsula but even more valuable when a freakish, wet snow hit Shannon the night before my early flight home. There would have been no hope of a map getting me- as the road signs were all covered with snow.

And don't forget to bring extra batteries! I have a Garmin Oregon 300, which I love, but if the batteries died on it . . . I would be seriously lost!

Definitely take your GPS. As others have said, the adapter is universal, no worries there…..a few comments and suggestions.
I found the GPS MORE useful in rural areas than the cities (caveat: by “cities” I’m not referring to the metropolis’…we drove a bit in Belfast but none in Dublin except to leave the city after picking up the rental). It had an annoying habit of finding dead-end streets in cities…it must have taken us 20 minutes to “escape” Bangor.
Purchase a good ordnance map upon arrival. The GPS and map made a good combo. If I only had one or the other I think our travels wouldn’t have been near as smooth. Road signs can be frustratingly small…the GPS provided plenty of warning (my TomTom starts yakking about 800 yds from a turn) and made it much easier to pick out the signs. I’m convinced we would have a lot of missed turns and extra driving if we only used the map.
If not pressed for time, use secondary roads as much as possible. I thought this approach enhanced our stay considerably and made for a much more scenic trip. Most days, I’d use the map to pick out small towns/cities between the start and end points and let the GPS takes us from city to city.
As Ed said, when you get your UK/Ireland map installed on the GPS use the pre-planning feature to map potential routes or enter the places you plan to stay or visit. I had most destinations created before we left. I imagine the Garmin has a feature similar to my TomTom that allows you to map a route from your current location to pre-established destinations. It’s a lot easier to just pick from an established list, than to plug in city and address info every time. Ken makes a good point too… make sure you use the proper “local” name of the city. There’s generally more than one of any particular city name available to choose from (think my TomTom had 6 or 7 Cashels) so I frequently had to enter the Gaelic name for a city (will be on a good ordnance map) to make sure we were heading where we wanted to go.

I've always done OK with just maps, but I'll take my TomTom next time, too. And a GPS doesn't replace a map for finding what is near what, or making alternative plans as you go.