Using a GPS while walking in Europe
 

WE will be in France and Switzerland during the Christmas and New Years holidays. We have been looking at GPS portables for not only driving but also while on foot. Has anyone had experience with a GPS that works well when walking? Would like brand name etc.

My experience hiking with a Garmin eTrek was disappointing. It didn't work under tree cover and I din't find it useful. I imagine that in a few years time there will be a GPS unit with full colour, detailed map. I think I'll wait before I buy another one.

I used my Garmin nuvi 275T in pedestrian mode in Italy. Worked great!

We used the Garmin nuvi 775 and it worked well in Italy and plan to use it in France, Belgium, Denmark & our Baltic cruise next May...
Som

We didn't have very good luck using our Garmin while walking in Seville. It could not find our location.

As a backup, I used google maps to get walking directions on my iPod touch, using the wifi in our apartment. Then we used the iPod while we were out walking. You could see all the streets and the turn-by-turn directions. But, you could not get your current location while walking (no wifi). It actually worked out pretty well, although real-time GPS with the Garmin would have been better.

We also used the Garmin nuvi 275T for walking with good success. Some examples are walking from outlying parking area (fortress) in Siena to Campo and walking from underground parking to our hotel Goldenen Ente in the Salzburg old town.

Thanks for your input. I have been looking at the Garmin Nuvi 275T. Seems like I was on the right track. These Forums are a great resource. How long did the batteries work before re-charging while walking?

I have been looking for a Garmin to use when walking around for my next trip.
Garmin has a new 1390T which is slick, small and expensive. Not the phone model but just the hand held. And the battery life is only four hours which I think would be a drawback.
So, I am still searching.

I used my Garmin 1350T in Florence last month to negotiate the twists and turns from the train station to the apartment we were renting. It worked fine. I'm sure I could have gotten there with a street map, but the GPS made it easy.

Flyfish or anyone. Have you downloaded any of the Garmin city specific programs they have available?
How are they? Because I would be interested in Budapest and Krakow but have no idea how good they are.

Sorry, Sher, I haven't tried any of the detailed city downloads so can't help you there. I did purchase the Europe SD card before our trip and it installed and worked fine.

I downloaded Paris for a trip last fall on my Garmin. When it worked, it was outstanding. But, there was usually no satelite connection when wandering anywhere with buildings all around. I left it in the room after one day.

How good a specific city is would depend on what that city provides to Navteq.

djkBooks; What model of Garmin is it and how old?

As many noted, GPS fails when on streets surrounded by buildings. I don't bother turning the GPS anymore when I am in the core of old towns with roads just wide enough for one passenger car.

Are you saying that they work better when between buildings in a car as apposed to walking?

I have used my Garmin in Europe and I love it. But I know what you mean about buildings.
If I use it to go into Pittsburgh even from home it works fine. But sometimes, when I turn it on again, after exiting a garage even in downtown Pittsburgh to travel to another destination it will not pick up a signal sometimes.

I wondered if walking around in a tightly packed city in Europe with small narrow streets it would work.

>I wondered if walking around in a tightly packed city in Europe with small narrow streets it would work.<

I know this can be a problem as GPS pretty much works on line-of-sight, but FWIW my Garmin 1350T had no problem with the narrow streets in Florence. Maybe the satellites were just aligned favorably when I happened to be using it.

I have a Garmin Nuvi 265W I bought about two and a half years ago.

Frankly, when walking, a good street map is just as good. It is handy, however, for the "Where am I?" in an unfamiliar city or neighborhood.

I would guess that satelite connections are more reliable in a car, because you're driving on wider streets/roads/highways as opposed to walking on a sidewalk more obstructed by buildings than if you were in the middle of the street.

Flyfish

Do you find battery life to be a problem? The information on most of the nuvi models seems to be about four hours as well as I can tell.
Did you turn it off to save the battery and be able to use it for a longer period of time?

Didn't have a problem with battery life, but I used the GPS sparingly - probably no more than about a half hour for any single use - and turned it off when I wasn't actually using it.