I'm debating if I should rent a gps along with my car rental for our upcoming trip to Croatia. HAs anyone rented one in Croatia before? Just wonder how useful they are. Thanks.

We just used the gps in Italy and it was wonderful. We hope to do the smae next year in Croatia.

We didn't rent one, but brought one from home instead.

It worked well and saved us a ton of time. Well worth it, in my opinion.

I understand that the Garmin maps now cover that area. We were very happy with ours in Switzerland, Germany, and Italy.

We also have GPS Garmin C340 and plan to take it for Croatia/Slovenia for Sept -Oct trip
I hope it will wotk!

From the Garmin website regarding coverage for Slovenia,and Croatia on the 340 model.

Slovenia: Detailed coverage of Ljubljana and Maribor

Croatia: Detailed coverage of Zagreb, Rijeka and Pula, Split, Selin, Zadar, Dubrovnik and the Island of Krk

So it looks like they only cover part of the countries.

Here's a link to their coverage:http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/m...Europe.jsp#map

It says detailed coverage of some cities. I would guess it would also cover most of the main/secondary roads, but not a lot of the points of interest throughout the remainder of the country.

I would reach out to Garmin support and ask them exactly the extent of coverage:http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/sit...upportcontacts

We drove from Lake Bled all the way to Dubrovnik...along the Istrian coast and down the Dalmation coast.

The GPS worked great. If it's your personal model, make sure you have the software that covers Europe.

Thanks, will check. Will report when return

I've never had a GPS before and heard that I'm getting a North American Nuvi 360. Does anyone know if I can buy software so that I can download the European maps? We leave for Croaia soon.
Thanks so much!
Lisa

I'm sure GPS systems work great, and I'll be honest here and say that I've never used one, but we drove all the way up through Croatia and never had any problems getting lost or finding our way. We just used a simple map and were fine, as we found it extremely easy to navigate.

Tracy

Lisabelina: You can buy the City Navigator Europe software that the posts above are talking about. I have it, and I'm looking at it now. It appears that coverage of Croatia is indeed very incomplete in the areas other than those mentioned specifically. I.e. they have the main highways, but not any other roads.

For those who do intend to buy Garmin's Europe maps to augment their North American models, here are the two purchase decisions that you'll need to make:

(1) NT version versus standard version. The maps are the same, but the NT version has them compressed so that they take up less space on the SD card. Only some of the Nuvi units support the NT version, apparently.

(2) Buying on SD card versus on DVD. The SD card is the simpler option. You just stick the card in your Nuvi, and you're ready to go. You can also take it out and put it in another Nuvi if you want, although you can't copy it, so it's not possible to use it in more than one unit at a time. The DVD is a bit more of a "power-user" option. If you buy the DVD, you'll need to load the software onto your PC, and then transfer it onto your own SD card. It's not particularly difficult, and it gives you a few advantages: (A) you can then buy yourself a bigger SD card, so that you'll have more space for other stuff. (B) You can choose to transfer only the maps you want onto your Nuvi. If you're only going to England this trip, you don't need to take up space with France, Spain, etc. (C) With the DVD, you get Garmin's MapSource software, which is very cool. I used it to map out a bunch of routes and waypoints before my recent trip to France and Switzerland. It's much easier than doing all that right on the Nuvi. With the DVD option, you have to "authorize" only one Nuvi serial number at a time, so this option also only allows you to use the maps on one unit at a time.

Garmin tech support is really excellent, unlike that of, say, Thales Navigation, which makes the Magellan series. Definitely call Garmin if you have questions.

And by the way, for those contmeplating driving trips to Europe (or to different parts of Europe), I'm now officially upgrading my recommendation from "using a GPS would be a very good idea for most people" to "using a GPS is essential, and it would be totally insane not to use one." Assuming that you have the maps for the part of Europe where you're going, of course. I could go on and on in another post about all of the ways in which it helped me. There were many.

Thanks so much! I'm thinking of returning the North America version and ordering the North America/Europe map version...seems like they're the same price and I might get it before we go...seems like that might be easier than ordering add'l programs. What do you think?
Thanks so much!!!! Lisa

Well, the Garmin Nuvi models that have both North American and European maps are the 270, 370, and 670. The 370 is just like the 360 that you have, except for the Europe maps and one additional added feature: a built-in FM traffic receiver (with the 360, you'd have to buy that separately). Frankly, I think the FM traffic feature is useless, or even worse than useless. But you can easily disable it if you want to, so there's no downside to having it.

Therefore, the bottom line is, if the 370 is the same price as the 360, then you should definitely get the 370. Although you'll still have that problem with the limited coverage of Croatia.

Here's a list of all of the Garmin Nuvi models: http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/us/...oad/nuviseries

There are certainly other brands to look at, too. I switched over from the Magellan series some time ago, and I'm very glad that I did that. But I can't speak for the TomTom ones, which some people seem to like.

There is a Garmin compatible mapset called CroGuide. I found it for sale on a South African site but can't find it anywhere else. I'd be curious to know if anyone has any experience with this. I own a Garmin 370 and plan to drive in Croatia.

I do believe that the roads are probably not that complicated but it would be nice to have a little help.

Countdown to Robespierre chiming in with his opinion that you're nuts if you don't run out and buy a brand new laptop and Microsoft Streets and Roads 2008....3.....2.......1........

 

CroGuide... that's interesting. If nobody has experience with it here, it might be worth posting over on the forums at GPS Passion (http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/default.asp?group=2). There are some very experienced GPS people over there.

I am looking at Autoroute on the Windows side of my Mac and Croatia has spotty coverage. Even Zagreb appears poorly covered. Maybe that's why Robespierre is staying so quiet.

Thanks so much to all! I just ordered the Garmin 370...I'll send the 360 back. Funny that they're the same price. We travel abroad at least once a year and this will come in so useful for home and in Europe.
Happy traveling!
Lisa