Travel Technology - GPS for Walking Tours of Major World Capitals

When visiting a world capital I find it fairly easy to get to the general location of a tourist site by using local subways and/or buses. It's usually from the station to the actual site that I sometimes find myself running around in circles :o, particularly if said site is not a tall or highly visible landmark. Same problem in finding recommended restaurants and bars.

Does anybody in this forum have hands-on experience and recommendation for a GPS that helps a tourist in navigating city streets in the world's major capitals, e.g. Tokyo, Paris, etc. I'm open to an iPhone-based or standalone device. A major plus would be being able to program an itinerary in such a device to guide you through a walking tour. (My car GPS is 3 years old so I'm not up to date with current capabilities.) Thanks!

I am using a Garmin etrex Venture Cx for travel. It has a MicroSD card slot so can hold quite a bit of maps as take the Garmin Mapsource series of maps in MicroSD format. Battery life is huge too.

I know that most Nokia devices currently have access to some pretty good city guides (including from Lonely planet).

I know that most Nokia devices currently have access to some pretty good city guides (including from Lonely planet).

Just make sure that you watch how much data you are downloading if you are using a GPS on a cell phone when traveling abroad, the roaming charges can add up pretty quickly.

I have an HTC Kaiser (same as ATT Tilt) with TomTom on it. Overall works very well. All maps are on local storage so never a download charge. It has an extensive and updatable POI database and can also navigate to locations out of my contacts. If I want to do a walking tour I'll often plan it in Google and then download that plan to TomTom. A company in Amsterdam is working with TomTom to allow downloading of pre-arranged walking tours that include GPS routing and narration. I believe Rick Steves is behind it.

The biggest problem I have is that in some cities it has a bit more difficult time tracking exactly where I am when I'm walking (never a problem when driving).

I have been looking at the Garmon Colorado 400 T.

I am planning a trip to Switzerland and austria and Germany and am hoping to use this instead of carrying around maps

It looks like some people have done this but I'm going to given a shot I'm wondering if anybody's use that garmin

I've used the 60CSx, Nuvi 370, Nuvi 550, and Nuvi 775T on my trips abroad.

For European trips, all of them performed adequately. I tend to use my GPS to locate destinations (restaurants, shops, etc) and then mark it on a smaller map. If necessary, I'll use it on the spot for guidance when I'm walking around/taking mass transit options, etc. On those occasions, I sometimes had trouble getting a quick lock in some of the European larger cities (e.g. London was particularly bad). But, long acquisition locks aside, you shouldn't have any problems with the newer garmins.

To the OP, I don't think the Venture Cx has the SIRF receiver, does it? If it doesn't have one of the newer high sensitivity receiver, you'll definitely have acquisition problems within the larger cities.

My friend's Tom Tom (sorry, I don't remember the model) worked particularly well.

For South America and Asia, it's hit or miss if Garmin has available street by street maps for your destination. I've had no problems using the SD card maps with the 60CSx, 370 or the 550. For Japan, I used a Garmin enthusiasts homebrew maps. For Tokyo, I found the Tokyo City Atlas to be a better navigation tool.

Hope this helps.

D3hwsu8

I've used the 60CSx, Nuvi 370, Nuvi 550, and Nuvi 775T on my trips abroad.

For European trips, all of them performed adequately. I tend to use my GPS to locate destinations (restaurants, shops, etc) and then mark it on a smaller map. If necessary, I'll use it on the spot for guidance when I'm walking around/taking mass transit options, etc. On those occasions, I sometimes had trouble getting a quick lock in some of the European larger cities (e.g. London was particularly bad). But, long acquisition locks aside, you shouldn't have any problems with the newer garmins.

To the OP, I don't think the Venture Cx has the SIRF receiver, does it? If it doesn't have one of the newer high sensitivity receiver, you'll definitely have acquisition problems within the larger cities.

My friend's Tom Tom (sorry, I don't remember the model) worked particularly well.

For South America and Asia, it's hit or miss if Garmin has available street by street maps for your destination. I've had no problems using the SD card maps with the 60CSx, 370 or the 550. For Japan, I used a Garmin enthusiasts homebrew maps. For Tokyo, I found the Tokyo City Atlas to be a better navigation tool.

Hope this helps.

D3hwsu8

Do you use the City Navigator (http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/cache/offonce/us/maps/ontheroadmaps;jsessionid=AE8D7C2DFF32C2DCDA041B9C5 079411D) products from Garmin? I see that they also have City Navigator NT which are supposed to be compressed. Do you prefer one over the other? I am just looking for some reviews but most google searches for this just link to sites that sell this.

Yes, I use the City Navigator and City Navigator NT from Garmin. I haven't noticed any difference between the two versions out on the road. At home, I do seem to recall that there was a slight difference in uploading the particular mapset to 60CSx (one was faster; I don't recall which one, but it wasn't by much).

If you are buying pre-built maps, you shouldn't have any problems with either (although, you should check to see if your unit can handle the NT version). The only problem I've had with the pre-built map (e.g. Mexico NT, Brazil NT etc) was that every so often the GPS would not recognize the maps on the card. A simple reboot fixed it.

D3hwsu8

Had a very unsatisfactory experience with my Garmin eTrek in Italy a few years ago . . . .

On our first trip to Italy we had a devil of a time navigating in the old sections of Rome and Florence. Twisty streets, dead ends, etc.

I was soooo smart . . . . Took my eTrek on our second trip. Figured no matter where we ended up, I would always be able to back track to our hotel.

Didn't realize that because of the narrow streets and 4-5 story buildings, I was able to get satisfactory satellite reception only in the largest piazzas.

The newer units seem to be much better -- like the TomTom that I use in the car (where the eTrek might see three or four satellites, the TomTom sees up to ten!

Point is that GPS units are not created equal so check out the capabilities of the one you're thinking of taking.