GPS or no

We take our GPS with us, that way we can preload a lot of our info at home. The added cost of a GPS to the rental car was going to be an extra 18 EURO$ per day (Avis in Spain). That is a lot of extra money to me! Also, we switched our Garmin to walking mode on occasion.

Consensus of opinion here is that a GPS is most definitely worth the expense. You will probably find, though, that purchasing one here ahead of time is more cost-effective than renting one.

Like Nancy said most people here would say that a GPS it the way to go, I would say no. I never use one, I always get a new road atlas and use it, never got lost. I think you would do great with your road atlas.

A map update on a GPS is going to be more accurate than a printed road atlas. And an atlas can't tell you where the closest gas station or ATM or hospital is.

Maps are not expensive. Have both. The map for the overall view and the gps for the details. Mark your map with a highliter as you go .Add notes and destinations. Check your course. The gps will get you from A to B, a map will show you a adventure.

"A map can't tell you where you are right now." ????

If you don't know where you are, you can't figure out where to go next.

Obviously we were all lost until gps came along.

I have a masters in geography and a gps. The gps is more useful.

I took mine with me last summer through the UK, and while I didn't always use it, it was an extra boost in confidence as a solo traveller. As well, I used it for geocaching which really added to my travels.

Absolutely worth it. We rented ours thru the same place we rented our car. Kemwell. The GPS was mailed to us and cost $40.00. When we collect our car at LHR we were asked if we wanted to rent one. £10 a day! No thank you. We used it every day we were on the road. I also always have my road atlas. Use the atlas to plot your course and the GPS to stay on it.

If you get lost, are you still on vacation?

'Obviously we were all lost until gps came along. '

We really, really were. I'm always amazed at how much extra time when have on holiday since we started bringing a GPS

When in England, I always use GPS in combination with the AA Glovebox Atlas to Britain. My GPS can't tell the difference between a main road and a 6 ft wide coutry road with high hedges on both sides. On both you are allowed 60 MPH, but do not try that on the latter...

In the Netherlands, I don't have that problem - the maximum speed is adjusted to the specific situation, so my GPS knows not to go there unless necessary.

In towns I use GPS, not a map. I prefer to pay attention to driving on the left and other traffic instead of a map.

We found it to be indispensible, even though the driver has an excellent sense of direction and good maps. We got a good deal from autoeurope in England, mailed back and forth as above. Provides lots of valuable info and takes some of the stress off driving.

I have never rented a car in the UK but can't imagine not having a GPS now that they are available. We used one in Germany/Austria this past spring and it was so worth the extra money. It gave us the luxury of getting off the main roads (primarily the Autobahn) when we saw something of interest and not worry about remembering how many turns we made, right or left, etc. It was especially helpful in the cities too. Ours had a "P" button that when pressed would direct you to the nearest parking garage. It was wonderful! We also likes that it could get us back to our hotel at night when it was dark and nothing looked like it did in the daylight.

I pride myself in my map reading skills, but now after a few trips with our GPS I would not condsider a trip without it. I think it still helps to have good maps and common sense tho. I don't know about the rest of you but sometimes we do go the wrong way with a GPS -- or have somehow put in the wrong address and it it helpful to have a sense of where you are going from looking at a map.

I say yes-we just did 2 weeks of driving in Uk and i downloaded garmin Uk maps- best 99 bucks i ever spent-although the signage is pretty good on the highways, many of the secondary roads (the "A" roads) are very narrow 2 lane roads in the countryside and are often enclosed by hedges so it's hard to spot landmarks;if you don't already have a gps then that would be a different story but even so the added stress of driving on the left and shifting lefty makes it worth it-(it will also preserve your marriage/partnership!) I say get it

We took our GPS. Well worth it. If only for telling you which round-about exit to take. You'll encounter many round-abouts.

Thanks everyone for weighing in on this - don't know yet what we'll decide but we appreciate all your comments. Especially loved the "preserving your marriage relationship" one - lol! We're celebrating 40 years with this trip so I think we'll survive either way!

Hubby wants to know what brand you're all using as we'll buy one if we end up taking one. Will do our research too but it would be nice to know what works well in England/Wales.

We use a Garmin Nuvi, I was told that they are the easiest ones to use and they are. Simple is better for me!

I love my TomTom! I purchased John Cleese's voice for it. I think it is simpler to operate than my sister's Nuvi, though it's probably because I'm more familiar with mine.

We just returned from Ireland and used a GPS. It was better than the atlas and directions, especially when we ran into a fatal accident on N25 and had to find a detour on our own. While the garda told us to go "to the pub to wait" we went back to the first turnoff, went to the next parallel route to where we wanted to go and eventually re-enabled the gps which got us back on the route. Also for getting back to someplace without having to recall this turn or that turn. When I wanted to visit something that was way out and not easy to find on an atlas, just plugging the name in the GPS as a waypoint got us there and back to our inital route (which turned out to be very close to the waypoint.)
I first got a GPS in 98 for a San Deigo trip and we would roam all around and set our hotel as home. Go home got us back every time. We've been sold since.
And I did not rent in Ireland. I purchased the Ireland package for my GPS at $90 US and the rental would have been 110 Euro.

I happily went without a GPS for years.

Then I drove in Italy.

After that I bought a TomTom. Now that I have a GPS, I see so many ways to use it (find a nearby restaurant, find parking, avoid tolls, etc.) I doubt I'll drive anywhere outside my local area without it again.

We spent 10 day driving around England & Scotland without a GPS. As long as you have a good atlas and can read a map, adventure awaits!