Folks,

Part of my trip will be by car. I'll be driving from Taesch to Stechelberg. Directions from mappy & viamichelin has many "long names" specified including Goppenstein-Kandersteg auto-train and numerous tunnels.

Is that too daunting to navigate? Is it worth renting GPS for $140 (autoeurope charges for all the days outside USA)

Per our plan, additionally I'll be driving in/around Lauterbrunnen valley and in Grindelwald and in Interlaken. Ofcourse if weather disagrees we might decide to hit the road more and there a GPS might be handy.

Can someone help me resolve this dilemma "To GPS or not".

Where can I get a good/reliable road map of the area?

I have driven all over Switzerland, west of the Engadine, with only a road map to guide me. Get the Michelin map. It is not perfect, but it will do ok for you.

Daunting? No. Interlaken? I just blunder around until I find what I want. Not the most scientific way of doing it, but it is a fairly small place and if you leave town going east or west, you find a lake. Going north isn't easy, and going south you have one option: Wilderswil.

As for the Lauterbrunnen Valley, you have two choices: north or south.
East to west is not possible without going vertical.

Grindelwald? Not much latitude there either. You can exit only one way: to the west. I drove around the village exploring one afternoon with no idea of where I was going, but I got out of it ok.

We even drove up on the Höhenweg, which I do not recommend because the road is so blooming narrow! No place for the faint of heart!

Using the map, we drove one day from Lauterbrunnen to Schaffhausen and back to Lauterbrunnen by way of Zürich and Luzern. Easy enough.

Where to get the map? Try a big city Borders or Barnes and Noble. If that fails try onemapplace.com

I just returned from Switzerland and brought my own Garmin GPS with the European maps downloaded. I preprogrammed all the mappoints ahead of time, and never opened up a map the entire 12 days in Europe.

I have friends who rented a car in Europe and rented the GPS and told me they would never go back to Europe without renting a car with GPS.

As I mentioned in my reply to your other post, the GPS will only show you the fastest route, which in Switzerland, is almost never the prettiest route. It is the highway route with lots of trucks, and people passing through Switzerland going to France or Italy, and other tourists relying on their GPS. It is almost never the gorgeous high pass route. I would get a good map and plot it out yourself. Never go with just the GPS.

GPS also will not know about road closures due to construction or public holidays, which happens more often than you would think. (The Gotthard Tunnel is currently closed for 3 weeks, not sure this has made it to the GPS; and certainly the road closures for public holiday's in Zurich don't make it, which can lead to some circuitous routes through Zurich.)

On second thought, I guess I should encourage more people to use GPS because that means they will all be on that horrible flat crowded highway between Interlaken and Lake Geneva (via Berne) and I will be on the wonderful winding road up over the Julier Pass and passing through the little villages......

You can program the GPS. For example, I programmed mine to "avoid toll roads" so I was never on a highway and didn't buy a vinette. It took me down some very scenic roads and thru a lot of little quaint villages.

It's true that it won't know road closures or new construction, but it very quickly recomputes to the destination. Besides, looking at a map won't show you a tunnel closure.

No of course not Budman, my point was that you need a map in case you could not take the route suggested by the GPS.

Interesting that you can use GPS to avoid the toll roads, but that of course can be done by just looking at a map and avoiding the toll roads. And unless you got the GPS for free, you spent US$140 on a GPS to avoid paying US$35 for a highway sticker, so I don't think that was your point (or at least I hope it wasn't).

I just don't see the point in paying for a GPS when a map will do; in cities in Europe in my experience in being in other people's cars who have it, they aren't that reliable, they sometimes count pedestrian-only steets and streets and you end up in the wrong place. OK for highways I guess and long haul, but for that you have a map.

Maps and the lack of signage can be very confusing at times. For example, we entered one village/town with a roundabout with 5 spokes. The GPS told us the exact spoke to take in a sexy feminine voice: "In 200 meters, enter roundabout and take the 3rd exit," plus it displays the turn on the screen.

We never used a map. If the route could not be taken, we kept driving the way the direction we thought would be correct, and it was amazing how fast the GPS recalculated a different route.

No, of course, it's not for everybody, especially if you are on a budget. If you can afford it, it beats the heck out of even a good map.

Thanks very much guys; Lets me see both the pros and the cons.
Although I am still torn between...

Not having to open the map (and miss scenery) is really really very convenient and hence attractive proposition.

I realize it isn't cheap and chances are not getting the most scenic routes.

I asked and found out that AutoEurope rents Garmin Streetpilot III. I am going to check its manual to see if I can program 'Via points'. Like telling it to route Taesch to Stechelberg via Gimsel pass. I will post what I find.