GPS and Driving
 

We're doing a 14 day driving tour of the south half of Portugul in April. I've read several posts from members lamenting being lost and wasting time looking for Hotels etc. Has anyone had success with a portable GPS maping unit?

Not in Portugal, but our GPS has taken us to Italy, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and all over Germany (where we live). She (we named our GPS "Ginny") also finds gas stations, historical sights, and helped us find a parking garage in Paris when we got hopelessly lost in a maze of one way and closed off streets.

Rather than a stand-alone GPS unit, we bought GPS software that we use on my husband's HP pda and a wireless satellite receiver that "talks" to the pda using bluetooth. Its always been very reliable and makes navigating, especially in cities, so much easier. I highly recommend getting one.

Same here. We've had ours for about six months now and use it a lot. Ours has been around Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland with us. I find that I actually explore more with it, knowing that if I get lost it will find my way home for me. As mindylt1 said, also excellent for things like garages, gas stations and tourist sites. I have our local hospitals programmed into mine so that I don't ever have to worry about finding them in a rush. Ours was worth every euro cent.

The Garmin City Navigator Europe V9 version just came out with full coverage in Portugal and Spain. ((b))

Thanks for your thoughts, I've done a little more research today. The Garmin map is an optional purchase over the cost of the GPS unit (+/- $200.CDN). The TomTom Go910 includes Europe maps. Can anyone tell me if there is any differences between the two maps?

I have a Garmin eTrexC that I interface into my laptop on a USB cable.

Have done this for the last few years, works great.

Nice things is by using the laptop you can research and map out your route beforehand, the detail is greater in the laptop and of course a bigger screen.

I set it on passenger seat when alone, or have my passenger "co-pilot" with it on their lap.