I have an older 3.5" TomTom One that easily fits into my shirt pocket and I use it all the time in the US and the Benelux etc countries (extra SD card reqd) for walking in the cities and small towns. It even shows the train stations when riding the rails. FWIW I never saw anything about a separate walking mode.

MisterNice

You turn on the unit and when the welcome screen comes on asking you "where to", "view map", etc....you'll see a wrench icon (settings), you select that icon and you will see a number of choices...you are looking for "navigation".

When you open navation you will see a number of choices and you will see "vehicle"...you select "vehicle" selection and it provides choices for car/motorcycle, pedestrian, bicycle, truck, bus, emergency and taxi...select "pedestrian".

This is how you get to it on the Nuvi 670...I am not sure about yours but I presume it to be very similar.

Thanks for the heads-up. I will yank my unit out of the car and give it a spin.

Don't forget you need a wall charger, particularly if traveling out of country for several days without a car. ;)

IPHONE!!!!
 

if you need new phone thats packed with features you may want the iphone...best thing about iphone is there is several different mapping tools you can use with the built in gps....the best is one where you set a spot and it displays an arrow that points directly at it (navigating grand theft auto style lol)...and it uses the very awsme google maps among others...

Am I the only one that thinks walking with a GPS screams "I'm a dork" and "I'm a tourist - please mug me"?

I prefer the old fashioned method of a paper map and pre-planning at least some of my route. I will also use my blackberry and Google maps. My phone does not have a GPS chip, but it will show me the nearest tower and my distance from it. That and looking at a couple street signs will tell me where I am and where I need to go.

^^^ I could slip it in my purse, put on earplugs (Does a garmin work with earplugs) and people will think I just dont care!!! Hee Hee

I think there is nothing quite as reliable as a good paper map. You don't have to worry about the batteries dying while you're trying to find your way, and there is no possibility of not getting a signal when you need it most.

Quaint idea but not true.

I was recently in a number of European cities with Labrynth-like old quarters.

If I wanted to find some place, I just entered it into Google Navigation on my Nexus 4. I got easy turn-by-turn walking directions. A map would have been more difficult (take put flashlight, figure out where we are, figure route, etc.)

This is a resurrected four year old thread - didn't catch it until I saw my comment above about using my Blackberry.

Google maps and phones have come a long way in the last four years. It is also much more acceptable to be staring at a phone screen vs. circa 2009 GPS while you walk down the street.

For traveling out of the country or anyplace you don't have a cell signal there is also an App called Maps With Me. The maps are downloaded and stored on your phone. It doesn't use GPS, so you have to know where you are to start with, but it can be useful.

(And yes, a 4-year old thread resurrected to simply to say paper maps are better than smartphones. :confused: )

I am also looking for a portable gps for walking. When I go outside the US, I don't have a smart phone. TomTom and Garmin (I have both for the car) are really lacking in practice , even though some of the models insist they have public transport and walking modes. They are, however generally not accurate under 3 mph and will often show you on a different street then you are. I have looked into handheld models, but these seem to be geared toward off road hikers, not city pedestrians.

I would very much appreciate it if anyone has a good recommendation for a device (not phone, not iPod touch) that they have found useful as a pedestrian in cities.

Thanks

While very expensive, you might want to consider a Garmin 800 bike computer. You can purchase the SD cards for various countries (we own North America, Europe, and Australia). The battery lasts about 8 hours. You can also do routing or use it to get back to where you started if you use the timer.

While this thread started in 2009, lots have changed since, so the renewed discussion is timely...

I like google map on my android phone as well. I am cheap, and don't want to pay for roaming data, so I simply download the areas I need to travel in. However, without a data-connection, I can't search for directions in google map... For bigger touristy cities (NYC, London, Paris, Amsterdam, etc.), tripadvisor has an app that will "Point you the right way", showing a compass (which way to walk) and the distance to that location. However, the place you can pick must be one that is in the system already - famous/reviewed tourist attraction/businesses. This app served me well in Amsterdam, Paris, and London. It didn't work so well in NYC, maybe due to the weather we were having, or perhaps the tall buildings were simply too tall...but NYC's grid-like street is easy to nagivate anyway.

If someone really need to be able to find many different addresses/locations in a town/city not served by tripadvisor, then do it the (semi) old fashion way: get a map and mark down the places/route you need to take. (If you do it electronically, you can print out your google map for reference...)

I recall seeing a TomTom offline map app, but it was not cheap, and I don't know how reliable it is on a smart phone...

I really don't want paper maps. I love the google maps app, but I haven't found these useful offline unless you never change your plans. I have tried several apps that are allegedly offline for ipod and iphone but have not yet found one that is really useful offline. The handheld gps units I have seen give me enough physiological data to do surgery and can tell me precisely how much I have pedaled and my elevation, but I just want to be able to get to someone else's hotel, a university building, a pub and back home without drama.