I got a portable TomTom GPS unit last winter – first time I’ve had one. It’s of moderate use around town from time to time, but I’ve found that it’s real value is when I’m on the road.
I first brought it with me on a quick trip to LA last month, then again last week when I went to Ohio to spend some time with the ShareThis team. This last trip, it really came in handy.
I arrived in Ohio late, and around 12:30am local my drive to my hotel was interrupted by an accident on the freeway. After about 45 minutes parked, we were turned around and directed back to the previous exit. Of course, I didn’t have directions to the hotel from this exit – just hit the “avoid roadblock” button and Bob’s yer uncle.
The GPS is nice around town, but It’s in my travel bag to stay.
I had a similar revelation (with a TomTom, as it happens). We moved from San Francisco to Boston a few years ago and drove my car across the country. I bought the TomTom just in time, and quickly realized how much easier it was making the trip. Just being able to predict with some certainty whether an exit will have hotels or restaurants, is a great advantage over traveling “pre-GPS.”
What unit do you have?
I got the 920 on the Amazon Black Friday sale – the voice recognition is the pits though. If I had to do it over again, I’d be torn between the readability of the big screen and the portability of the smaller screen models.
After having had GPS in my pickup (installed) and moving to a portable unit when I got the G35, I have to say I totally agree. I have a Garmin 760, have taken it on two trips now, and found it invaluable both times.
It was great driving around Austin, which isn’t the most straightforward city when it comes to roads… tho Denver isn’t much better.
thanks for the post
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I started off using an old (no name Chinese) bluetooth GPS unit in conjunction with an old 2210 ipaq. When the PDA died, I started using GPS with my s/phone, and when that phone got relegated to backup/2nd SIM card duties, I bought an HTC TyTnII. For both driving in areas I don’t know, or walking around cities, the ability to keep it all in my pockets, and just use headphones for the directions has been quite useful. If you ever find TomTom doesn’t cover where you’re going, something like GPS Tuner works quite well – even if you don’t have the streets a proper map would give you, it is useful to know which direction to stagger in after leaving a bar 😉 (Thats assuming you remembered to program in your hotel/friend’s house as a POI first 🙂