We are leaving in a week for Provence, picking up car at Marseille airport and returning to Avignon TGV. I just called Auto Europe for info on a GPS system and was told that you can't get one if you are picking up and returning to different places. I don't know anything about GPS...can anyone help me and tell me if one I would buy here would work there and what brand should I consider? Thanks!

Hi-
We have used a Garmin Nuvi 660 and a 770 - both work great. They can easily be purchased in the US - we got ours on Amazon. A friend who lives in France really likes her Tom Tom. You can find them for around 200 euro in european airports - so you could buy one when you arrive.
Have a great trip-
Anne

Most of the GPS units sold in the U.S. include North American maps only. There are a few exceptions, however. The Garmin Nuvi 270 includes European maps as part of the base price. This has the smaller screen, so some might prefer the units with the bigger display, but I found it perfect for portability.

Be aware, the prices vary widely! The Garmin 270 was $400 at a local electronics superstore, I bought it for only $170 off of Amazon.com! It looks really nice for that price. I got it in only 2 days for $15 in shipping. I plan on taking it to Italy next week, and might use it for occasional portable use at home (I already have built in GPS in two cars, but not all). It has a nice touch screen, speaks the turns and directions for you (but only says "turn left in 100 meters", it doesn't pronounce "turn left on Via Appia" like some of the more expensive units.)

This site is wonderful, thank you both for the advice/information!

Hey! We leased a car from Peugot this summer and had GPS - we picked up in Lyon and returned in Paris. Ask again, maybe a different agent in a different mood...

BTW my husband is an ace with maps, but the car came w/GPS - we, especially HE, loved it!It made getting through cities a cinch!

Any Garmin model ending in 70 has European maps. The 770 has recently dropped below 400 on Amazon--or so I have read. Ours worked well in Italy, Switzerland and Croatia--as well as here in the US.

I just wanted to let you know that I followed Caf's lead and purchased the Garmin 270 on Amazon after seeing it at our local electronics store for $399. Thanks again to everyone....I know this will help keep a stress free or at least a low stress zone in the car!

I had a visitor who arrived with a UK purchased tomtom. It had European maps installed. It worked fine in France and Spain.

Peter

We added European maps to our Garmin 660 and were very happy with the satellite coverage/reception throughout much of Provence this past spring.

Oops, I guess this is too late for you but for anyone else...

We always used GPS in Europe and just loved it. Didn't know how we'd get around without one. That is, until we couldn't get one, since only the bigger or airport locations had them, and we were renting from a small town this past May. I looked into buying one, then decided that if people have been navigating auto roads without them for 100 years, we could manage. But I braced myself for getting lost, a lot.

It never happened. Everything in France is SO well marked that it was just as easy to drive without a GPS as it was with. I rarely even referred to all the Michelin direction I printed out. We were awfully happy to have saved the $400, and didn't have to deal with the hassle of bringing it/hiding it in the car.

I was looking at the travel articles on the LA Times today and came across this article on using a GPS in Italy. I thought I'd add it to this thread as a future reference since TravelB is probably still in Europe.

Navigating Italy by GPS

The author was looking for the least expensive option and went with the Garmin 270.

There was a story about trucks in Italy using GPS and going into no go areas. Even if you're driving a car keep your eyes open. Watch the signs. Don't blindly follow the GPS.

I find French maps and signage very easy to follow, but then I live here. GPS is useful in the city when roads are often not marked, but I think less so in the country, or getting between places.

I too would say do not follow the GPS blindly. People arriving at one of the houses we manage have been told to turn right - up a narrow pedestrian street, accessible by bicycle perhaps, but not by any car I've seen.

Very true, don't follow blindly. We were on a new stretch of autoroute, the GPS said to "bear right at the round-about" - there wasn't one. We missed the exit and were in unchartered territory for the GPS system. Our little arrow kept moving on the screen, nothing else was there. About 20 minutes later we were finally able to exit and turn around. Not tragic, just inconvenient.

Just got back from Italy. I had bought a Tom Tom One 3rd Edition for $99.00. It only comes with US and Canada map but I bought a Europe map for $79.00 and loaded it in. I am a good map reader but this really was worth its weight in gold especially when coming back in the dark and the rain. It got us right back to our hotel with the quickest routey, over 60 miles. I would have never made it with just a map unless I drove miles out of my way to stay on the big roads. Some of the roads it took us down were not even marked, so even if I had been looking for them with a map I would have missed turning off on them in the rain & the dark. There were a couple times when the route was detoured and it took a few minutes to figure out what I was doing(it wanted me to do a u-turn and go back the way it had indicated) Finally it recalculated an alternate way. One time the detour was not in the GPS map so I was driving in what looked like a field on the GPS Screen, but after a half mile or so it came to a cross street and it figured out what was going on. I also used it on the air flight from Rome to Paris, it was neat to see the speed and the towns we were flying over. Also used it for walking in Rome, very accurate even with the time calculations for walking from point A to point B. Also used the built in restaurant data base to find a restaurant out in the country one rainy night. Would not have found it on my own but the GPS led me right up to the door. All in all one of the best travel tools I have ever bought. Would not go without it!

My Garmin 770 made it possible for me to drive alone in Italy from place to place without that gnawing fear of getting lost. Sometimes I disregarded the directions, but less after I figured out how to program the GPS to take the kind of route I wanted (ie, by setting a waypoint or two).

At a road-construction site about a half-hour outside of Bevagna, when I became totally confused, the GPS took me on a dinky little road that actually DID get me back to the main road. (If there were any signs, I sure didn't see them.)

Even in my last fiasco of returning the rental car to Europcar at FCO, I would have done better to have "listened" to the GPS at a crucial point: Having missed the turnoffs so many times, I decided that I knew better and ignored the instructions to stay on a particular road (going AWAY from the airport) for 7 km. In frustration, I got off after 5.5 km only to find out that this put me on a road going even further in the wrong direction for 11 km.

Other than that, the Garmin was great at correcting my missteps, and even giving me confidence that I would end up where I wanted to. No map can do that for a lone driver.

Oh, and of course it was also useful when ellens and I were travelling together, heading for out-of-the-way places in northern Le Marche.

11/20 just saw this: at Amazon\
Garmin n�vi 760 Bluetooth GPS Navigator Now $249

11/20 Better price - I just got in the mail a discount book from costco.
Garmin nuvi 750 gps online price 299.00 less $100.00 discount $199. Its on inside front page.

Good prices, Joanne. But understand that the #50 and #60 Garmins to NOT have the European maps; only the #70s.

Unless you buy in Europe. The models[x10,x50,x60] sold in Europe lack the North American maps. Plus some come with local traffic features.