Travel Technology - Europe GPS software

What's the best Europe GPS software out there?
Looking mainly Poland and Germany. Got a bluetooth receiver and I can just buy the DVD online

I have used TomTom in the UK and France. I was particularly impressed with it in France (not that I'm unimpressed with it in the UK, but I had to go to some particularly obscure properties in France and it knew where they were by name...). I've read on the net (when researching which GPS to buy myself) that TomTom are considered better in Europe as they use maps supplied by a European mapping company, whereas Garmin are considered better in the US as they use a US mapping company. I have no idea whether or not this is an accurate statement!

I also have a bluetooth receiver, and considered using it with my PDA and Europe maps, but after doing a bit of research, it seemed like too much of a headache, especially since I was looking for a more short-term turnkey solution.

As mentioned by the previous poster, I too had a good experience with Tom Tom. I bought a unit preloaded with Europe maps and used it mainly in Italy. The unit worked immediately out-of-the-box with no setup, other than supplying power. The GPS receiver locked up quickly and dealt with multipath quite well, as evidenced by the unit's functioning inside the rental-car parking garage at MXP (not to be misleading, the unit displayed a valid position within about 50 feet of the open 'walls' of the garage, and quickly re-established lock when I finally exited the garage). The Tom Tom's text-to-speech algorithm was fine for English, but rather poor in Italian.

I've been using the ALK copilot SW for many years, it has gotten much better now using NAVTEC maps for europe. Runs nicely on the continent, haven't gone further east than poland the czech rep. Has traffic now, one can get the SW for 99$ as an upgrade to a US maps DB. So, buy the US maps/program on ebay for 65$ and then upgrade.

Laptop would be the ideal one as I built a car PC and will load all the maps on that. Ill look into TomTom and the ALK

It would help to know what brand computer you plan to use it with.

If you're using a laptop, Microsoft AutoRoute (http://www.microsoft.com/streets/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=003&active_tab=Overview) ($39) would be your best bet. The program updates its maps every time it starts up.

If on an iPAQ, Michelin (http://shop.viamichelin.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10051&storeId=10001&categoryId=15501&productId=36512&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=15501) (the paper map publishers).

Well its a custom miniitx I built running XP and its Europe maps I need.

AutoRoute runs under XP.
AutoRoute comprises maps for these (http://www.microsoft.com/uk/homepc/autoroute/country-coverage.mspx) European countries.

I am using iGo on my PocketPC throughout Europe. It's purely fantastic.

At one time, I got a parking ticket in Budapest, which I had to pay at any post office. With a few clicks, I went to Points of Interest -> Post offices -> Closest -> Create route too ... and everything was sorted out in 5 minutes :)