Just back from trip to Provence and Cote d'Azur. Have been driving in Europe since 1986 using maps. Wife gave me a Tomtom gps for Christmas "to save our marriage". Susan is the voice I chose to use because when a woman speaks you have to obey. Wife is completely out of the navigtor's seat now and happy.

It worked like a charm. Never got lost and never looked at a map. It even warned me about radar cameras. Even used it when walking. I will never go around the block again without a gps.

My advice is to rent a gps or buy one if you are going to rent a car in Europe.

OUr satnav in our Prius is called Kitty! Our kids thought the black Prius was like KITT the Knight Rider car so called her Kitty! I love her, saves me map reading, which I do enjoy and am good at, and more importantly saves DH from map reading which he hates and is appalling at. No more arguments!

And I call the Prius the batmobile. Different generations different amazing cars!

We are interested in purchasing a gps mostly for US however we will be in Paris and Provence this May-June. Could you tell me the model of your Tomtom?

Thanks

plufmud,

I have a tomtom 910. don't need all the horsepower it has, ie bluetooth, ipod. But it was actually cheaper than the tomtom one because it comes with western Europe maps. Cost $150 to get the Europe Map. Of course, the price dropped 100 two weeks after I bought mine.

Reviews on tomtom were good and my son in law does pt home health in rural mississippi and uses a tomtom. Claims it saves him 30 minutes a day.

I checked around and was suprised that best price was on Amazon. Seller was compuplus at http://www.compuplus.com/
but was cheaper to buy it from them thru Amazon than was going direct and didn't have to pay shipping. Go figure.

Draw back with 910 is that the unit itself does not have a plug for the charger in the unit and you have to use a dock in the car. the One has a plug in the unit. But the 910 has a four hour battery and the one has either a one or two hour battery.

Just run a google search for gps reviews tomtom or whatever brand you are interested in and can get reviews.

There is no annual cost, but if you want the most current maps every year will have to pay to update them.

Be sure and get one a month or so before you leave so you can practice with it. Takes a few times to get it down pat especially when driving those twisting turning roads in Europe. For example if the road has severe turn it it, the gps will tell you to turn right or left although there is no actual turn.

Lot of the streets in Europe don't have street numbers in the database so you will have to use cross streets, but that is minor problem. I changed the home address to the address of the hotel so could just push home and it would tell us how to get there.

can also set it for a bicycle or walking. kinda takes the fun out of getting lost which i don't mind.

Looks like compuplus has them for 404 now and Amazon for 434. I paid 512, rats. Good luck and you will be glad u got one.

You could also have gps as part of your car rental.

We are renting a Peugeot 407 next month that has gps in English. The 407 because it's the smallest one I could find with a proper trunk to hide luggage.

It was about 50 euros more (my guess) for a 2 week trip. I go to Europe about every 1 1/2 years for pleasure.

My guess is that by my next trip the price decrease and improvements will double, as Moore's law has predicted so well with computer chips.

I can't believe my luck in your posting this thread! My son's birthday is Tues. and he wants the TomTom 910 so that he has European maps. The question we were going to try to find out tomorrow was whether or not this could be used as a hand-held for walking tours. You've answered my question.

My dad who tows breakdowns for AAA has the Street Pilot, and like your SIL, he swears by it and now can't live without it. We bought that brand and model after reading it had the most detailed US maps as in finding small, rural roads, he needed the best maps possible.

Thanks for all the info!

What a difference a year makes !!!

These posts are a year old now and I just went on line and purchased the TomTom Go 920 thru Amazon at an amazxing price of 342.00 including shipping.....

Areala. I just purchased a Garmin Nuvi 670 from Amazon last week and I am taking it to Portugal with me next week.

So we shall see.

Well Sher,

Got my TomTom in and I must say it is not the most user friendly device. I played with it for about 4 hours, gave up, gave it to my hubby who has it all figured out and is going to show me.,

That said, I am not an idiot to electronics, so if it is that difficult that I can't figure it out after a fashion I think something is either wrong with the device or the limited terribly written instructions.

Hope your Nuvi turns out better than my TomTom...Hopefully, it really won't be so bad once I know how to use it.

Areala

Just an update...my hubby figured out the Tom Tom and showed me and I have been using it ever since to go to Fort Desoto and well, just everywhere so I can get the hang of using it. I have already programmed into the favorites all my hotels for France for the upcoming trip as well as sites I want to see along the way and in Paris for walking tour stuff. Once shown, it is relatively easy to use and I am starting to love it...We used the Susan voice as well.

I love the feature where it comes thru our FM radio so hearing it is not a problem.

Now, if I can just figure out how to get my audio books on it, I will be a happy camper !!!

Happy Travels