GPS Recommendation

The one you already use in US, with an additional map of Spain/western europe. Seriously: the best way to go is have a GPS from US taken to Europe. If you don't use one, it's cheaper to buy one in US than rent one in Europe, for more than 4-5 days rental worth.

Thank you very much. I guess its worth paying $59.00 for map of Spain instead of renting one for 17 days.

We brought our Garmin (with a Europe card) from home. GPS rental was quoted at $18E per day extra. Don't forget that you can preload some of the addresses while still at home and pull them up when you're on the road in Spain. We also take a quality map/atlas.

Look at the cost of buying the map for all of europe instead of just Spain. The darn things don't wear out, you'll probably need it again, if not, it'll have a higher resale value anyway.

If you are technologically inept at off-loading US maps to make room for the European maps the way we are, you can buy an entry-level TomTom for 100 euros. Ours didn't have enough memory for both sets of maps.

If you're renting a car, a GPS will sometimes come standard with the rental. The overall cost will depend more on the model of the car than the presence or absence of a GPS unit.

We took our TOMTOM, that we use for both the US and the EU, to Spain with us last June. It did a great job, like usual. It is really easy to use a GPS if you become familiar with it here, at home. But I was warned (thanks! Ed from Pensacola) that many of the newer East West roads are NOT on any GPS. I was very glad that I also took a small Michelin map of the country!

Josephine - We just bought a Garmin Nuvi 275T for our trip to Ireland. To add navigation to our car rental would have been an additional $150. The other big selling point for me is that it has both North America & Europe maps loaded.

I'm upset with TomTom. Short story, if your device doesn't work out of the box, return it for a refund immediately. Don't, under any circumstances, return it to Texas so they can send you a new device. I did that and they sent me the wrong device - twice - before I finally gave up (my original purchase price, and two shipping costs just an expensive lesson) and bought a Garmin nuvi 275. I'll also pack a map, but probably not a road Atlas.