GPS Rental in Europe?
 

I'm considering renting a GPS device for driving around in Europe, mainly France. I've grown quite attached to the one that I own, which is a Magellan, but if I take that one to Europe, I'll have to pay something like $100 or more to download the European map data. Also, it would be kind of nice to have one that I could remove from the car and use portably, and my Magellan doesn't allow that.

Can anyone offer a recommendation on how I might rent a GPS box? Autoeurope.com rents Garmin devices, for $100 per week, but they don't happen to offer them at the Nice railway station, where I'm picking up my car. I could still rent one through autoeurope if I have them mail it to me prior to my departure, but then I'd have to pay for all the extra time as I carry it around Europe without using it (prior to picking up my car).

I did find one British company that rents portable GPS boxes for something like 37 pounds per week, and I guess I might be able to have them ship it to me. But it would be nice to have a recommendation before plunking down any money.

We requested an auto with GPS on a recent rental car while traveling in Germany, France and Austria thru AutoEurope. You might want to check with the company you're renting from and see what class of autos come with the GPS system. We found it very helpful within the larger cities but nearly useless on the backroads.

Do you own a laptop computer and/or a PDA? If so, check out Michelin's offerings at

<b>http://www.shop.viamichelin.co.uk/csasp_index.asp?id=119</b>

With a GPS attachment (I got a Pharos GPS-360 bundled with Microsoft Streets &amp; Trips for $60), you can navigate down to the street level.

Even at &euro;89, it beats shelling out rental fees and not having anything to take home (or back to Europe next year)!

There's a downloadable demo at

<b>http://www.shop.viamichelin.co.uk/prod/VMCarto_Demo_PPC_EN.zip</b>

Oh, and by the way...Michelin also sells a PDA version of their Red Guide (lodging &amp; dining). Here's the demo page:

<b>http://www.shop.viamichelin.co.uk/shopexd.asp?catalogid=146</b>

Robespierre - I don't have a PDA, or a laptop that would be small enough to be practical to bring. It does sound like this would be a perfect application.

Suspaul - why was your GPS useless on the backroads? I would think it would be easy to track satellites there. The only problems I have with mine are in big cities.