I know nothing about GPS devices but I have recently become intrigued by the concept of using one to navigate as a pedestrian in Italian cities and towns during my upcoming trip in October.

I can easily use maps but collecting the city plans for the dozen or locations that we plan to visit in Fruili and Emilgia Romagna seems a daunting task. I am attracted to the concept of carrying one hand held screen rather than a clumsy guidebook everywhere.

I envision being able to enter the location of the train station and finding real-time directions to museums, restaurants, etc. I would also like to be able to enter a lot of this information and save it on the unit before we leave on our trip.

Is this a realistic expectation?

This trip is going to be entirely by train, next year's trip will be by car, so I am interested in car features also.

So far my research on the internet reveals that Amazon.com offers the Garmin Nuvi 670 with NA and European maps for $725. (Yesterday the package was $745.)

Are there less expensive alternatives?

The large screen size (4.3") and the maps are attractive. I have no current use for Bluetooth, or MP3, or JPEG capabilities.

Thanks for any advice or experiences you may have had.

We have a Garmin 370, which also has North American and European maps. I'm not sure what the difference is between that and the 670, other than price.

I have not actually used the Garmin much as a pedestrian, but we previously were using a TomTom system, and the main problem we had was that in a city it would keep losing the satellite fix. When you are on a road in a car, except when you go through a tunnel, you generally have a clear line of sight to the sky. But walking down the sidewalk, if the street is narrow, the buildings often would get in the way and we couldn't keep the GPS on track.

This was a real problem one night for us in Pisa. We thought we were so smart when we parked our car and took a fix on its location. But then walking back, we couldn't keep the GPS signal, and we had no clear memory of where the parking lot was, We wandered the streets and only made it back to the lot about 5 minutes before it closed and we would have been stuck in Pisa for the night, since we were staying about 30 km away.

We are completely sold on the GPS for navigating in a car, though.

- Roz

Thanks, Roz.

I think the biggest difference between the 370 and the 670 is the size of the screen - 3.5" vs 4.3".

And that might not be enough to justify the price difference.

I am hoping to hear more.

Hi,
We used a Mio 310 for both, car and pedestrian navigating. We paid 200$ CAD. This pocket unit comes with the maps for NA only if you buy it there. Now it is possible to get latest West European maps for about 100E.
It was very handy especially when driving in Sicily, and we believe we wouldn't made it in the cities without GPS.
For walking we found it more difficult especially when streets were very narrow or when using it from time to time. We needed to have it powered up while walking, otherwise if we stayed in one place it wouldn't provide indications. If it didn't, then we started to move to get directions.
Basically this means 2 things:
1) the satellite signal needs to have a clear path, so if there are narrow streets and high buildings, it will be difficult. In this case you need to find a larger intersection and may need to stay in the middle in order to receive the signal.
2) if you power it up continuously, you will run faster out of battery, since it won't be recharged while you are walking. So, if you are using it in a car then think to buy a cable for the car, and you will also need to have a cable to connect to a regular plug while in a hotel/appartment. By default it comes with a USB connector which allows to recharge only through a computer (this also takes more time to recharge integrated batteries).

Another problem is that in Europe often there are 2 streets that are parallel and a building in between is very narrow, then the GPS had a hard time to make the difference between the 2 streets. This was not a big problem because usually it was possible to see the other street and walk back there. This happened in Siracusa and in Palermo, however at that point we managed to find the destination using a travel guide maps and asking people on the street to confirm.But this can also be an issue with a regular map because not all the streets are indicated there neither.

The good thing is that we also use it when going for local vacation, not only for travelling overseas.

Has anyone on this board tried the GPS system built into some of the new Blackberries? they sound pretty neat, but I wonder about how they compare to a "pure" hand-held GPS system such as the Garmin.

I think possibly one of the issues here is that folks are trying to use a car-type GPS for walking. Buy a GPS that is for hiking! That's what we have, and it worked great in Spain. We have a Garmin Vista C --its no larger than a cell phone, and it can upload city street maps etc. We use it for both hiking and for driving (can only be used for driving when there is a second passenger doing the navigating, though, as its too small for the driver to safely use.

You can set waypoints for your hotel,train station, sites, etc and find your way back easily. It also does import Garmin maps.

I've never had much of a problem getting a fix but its possible that we didn't try to use it in very narrow streets with tall buildings...I really don't recall. But there is usually an open piazza somewhere near...

Thanks, Janet.

That may be a direction for me to go in.

So far my research had not made it clear that the handheld units used for hiking were also useful in European towns.

This may be a much less expensive alternative for my planned use.

Yeah we paid under $300 for ours. The maps can be expensive, but you can also get "last year's version" cheaper on ebay. We have Metroguide Europe and it was fine for Spain--covered all the major cities we were in. Italy's coverage should be even better. We'll know in a few weeks!

The etrex Vista C is what we have, but its been replaced by the etrex Vista CX https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=326 The main difference is the CX has a slot for an SD card for more memory.

OK, here goes : GPS for hiking, I understand. But GPS for wandering around towns and cities?? What ever happened to serendipity?

OK - I thought about it for two days and I don't get it.

I am all for serendipity.

But how will it get me from the train station to the restaurant or museum or church that I want to visit?

My question was whether a handheld GPS unit was a reasonable alternative to the maps that I ordinarily use.

I read the Trip Reports where people describe entering all the addresses at their destinations before they leave home. I was just curious about what devices users might recommend.

I apologize if I have somehow offended the ST sentiment.

quote:

My question was whether a handheld GPS unit was a reasonable alternative to the maps that I ordinarily use.

It can be helpful, and I don't think there's anything anti-slowtrav about it. But I also think you still need a good map. My feeling is that the main thing a GPS is good for is telling you where you are if you get lost. And, as I said, in a city ours wasn't always able to do that!

rk, if there's an ST sentiment re GPS I certainly am unaware of it. I express only my own opinion (I'm not even a mod!)

For me, part of the joy of walking around a new city is the things I come upon while I am aiming for a particular site museum, church, or restaurant. That's what I mean by serendipity.

I like to use a map when in a new place, as then I can figure out which direction to set out in, and get some help if when I realize I'm going the wrong way. BUT, sometimes the things I come upon when heading the "wrong" way are quite interesting. So I guess I see a city not only as a set of particular sites that I want to visit but also as the web of interesting streets and squares (and people) connecting them. For me that's part of the fun of travel, and I somehow intuit that using GPS would distract me from this.

But as I said, I'm not even a mod.....