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Navigation - Maps, Compass, GPS How to find your way - traditional map, compass and road signs, or GPS and more
Photo by Lois Pryce, schoolkids in Algeria

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  #1  
Old 4 May 2007
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How useful is a GPS?
I am debating whether to get a GPS. Can anyone tell me how helpful they really are (say for a USA to Argentia trip)? I have done Mexico and Costa Rica with paper maps with no problem. And I'm getting fed up with the whole digitial age too -- do i really need to take a digicam, cell phone, MP3 player, and GPS. I am travelling to see the world, not a small LCD screen. And I won't venture too far from paved roads. So would the GPS just be another gadget, or a practical tool for navigation?
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  #2  
Old 4 May 2007
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Paper maps are fine but how many paper maps can you carry ?
The garmin 60cx and 76cx both can hold all of the US and Canada road maps (down to street level) on a 2GB card.
I think you can get maps for CA and SA and keep them on another card.
Example of Evergreen.
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Last edited by John Ferris; 4 May 2007 at 22:57.
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  #3  
Old 5 May 2007
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Hi
Argentina maps from “Proyecto Mapear” are 65MB include all auto-routing data.
Bob’s Wanderlust Worldmap for all the rest of the Americas are +/- 230MB
So you even can hold all in one 2 GB card


How useful is a GPS?-example-of-ushuaia.jpg
Example of Ushuaia from Mapear Maps

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  #4  
Old 5 May 2007
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I'm now convinced.
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  #5  
Old 6 Jul 2007
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Cool You're only lost if you have a destination..
We've just completed 3 years through North, Central & South America with paper maps & a bar mounted compass.
Admittedly you can't have anorak discussions about how big you're RAM or LCD is but you also don't worry too much about losing your $5 map!

I think the main times where one would have paid off are trying to get through major cities or on unmarked dirt trails in salt flats or deserts.

If you want to 'loose plan' a trip mainly on tarmac roads through rural areas then it aint really a problem, there's usually only one road in your direction anyway.

If you're trying to break some Guiness Book record or want to disappear into the Atacama desert then getting lost may be relevant, you are always somewhere & the unexpected ends to the day's travel can be the most memorable.
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Old 26 Aug 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lew&Anita View Post
you are always somewhere & the unexpected ends to the day's travel can be the most memorable.

I second that motion!
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  #7  
Old 26 Aug 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lew&Anita View Post
...........getting lost may be relevant, you are always somewhere & the unexpected ends to the day's travel can be the most memorable.
You can have both worlds.

Just turn off your GPS and get lost.

Then if it turns out to be, not so memorable after all, turn it on and get out of there. ;o))
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  #8  
Old 27 Aug 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lew&Anita View Post
I think the main times where one would have paid off are trying to get through major cities or on unmarked dirt trails in salt flats or deserts.
An especially good reason to use GPS - if you're only going to follow paved roads. There's almost no detail maps for cities - ones that show the entire city instead of just the detail for "central".

Using GPS to find your way through any city does make it worth it. In much of CA and SA, there's not a lot of road signs, the streets are never straight - they wind around and its easy to loose track of your north/south orientation - and the main roads have a habit of "disappearing" into neighborhoods. Just zoom out so you can keep an eye on the highway you want to exit on, keep following the bigger city streets that take you in the direction of the highway out the other side of town and - "no problema"!
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