HELP - which GPS?

[sreigle]

Much depends on what you want to do with it and how much control you want over the routing, etc. The nuvi's are good units for their intended purpose but don't have the things I want. I can store up to 50 routes at one time. Each route can have up to 250 waypoints. I can do the routing on the gps or I can do it with the provided Mapsource on my laptop and quickly upload it to the Garmin. It has lots of other capabilities, including traffic, should you want/need that (I don't).

Drawbacks to my model is it is not functional as a handheld. It is portable but not as a handheld as it has no battery. It has persistent memory so doesn't lose anything. It comes with a 12v adapter and a 110v adapter. It has voice that tells me the name of the street to turn on, etc. It responds faster than any of the other brands I tried. That's important when you have a quick turn coming up.

Mine is a Garmin 2720, now superceded by the 2820.

Don't buy direct from Garmin. Their prices are outasight. I bought online from PC Connections for 42% of Garmin's price and received it next day. I paid for next day shipping.

The nuvi's and lots of others may do everything you need. If you want more, then consider some of the other models. Just be very careful about the literature. I found it confusing and often misleading as to just what was meant. For example, a Magellan model i bought said, in the brochure, it can have multiple destinations in a trip. What it didn't say is that a "trip" is actually several routes kinda sorta tied together. But when I reached one destination I then had to find and activate the next leg of the route. Wow, that's great when I'm tooling down the highway. With this Garmin I can have a single route take me all the way across teh country with a destination for each day. I don't even have to activate the route each day. It will pick up where it left off next time I turn the unit on.

Wow, sorry this got so long. Just be careful to make sure you are getting what you want before you plunk down the money. I paid some hefty restocking fees.

[markwick]

Thanks Guys - bought a Garmin Nuvi 255W - wanted the wider screen - looks like it will do what I want it to - arrives in a couple of days - best price I found was from Amazon.com at $237.00 plus $6.00 for shipping. Hopefully now when my better half says "stop and ask someone" I will be able to use my "new best friend"!!!

[sreigle]

I imagine your Nuvi has a "home" location like my 2720 does. When we arrive at an rv park I immediately mark that location as the new "home" location. It's a quick and easy setting to do so. Then we can go out and explore and not worry about remembering how we got where we got to. I just hit the Find button twice and she takes us home. Or there's a screen option to go home. I also often will have the gps running without a route selected when out exploring. I can see which of these dirt roads go down to that lake, etc, that way. Good luck and enjoy.