elenaluna

Hmmm, now I'm really confused! LOL I thought the City Navigator map included all states and Puerto Rico also. Do you load it state by state?

Where do you live, and where do you cache? If Garmin's "try it" is giving you problems, I can post some sample screenshots from Mapsource showing those areas you're interested in, in both Topo and City Navigator, and you can use those to help you decide. I live in northwest GA and we do our geocaching near there, of course. We RV to Colorado/New Mexico in Spring and or summer and will geocache along the way and while we are there. Example: Some friends and I went to GCD30B in Eastern Alabama (you can see Flagpole Mountain from my house in Georgia) yesterday. We found the cache OK, which is on the Pinhoti Trail, but my Legend HCx wanted to send me on a 16 mile trip back through Georgia, over into Alabama and back again even though we were at the trailhead and only a couple of miles from the cache. All because the county road we we on wasn't included on the base map. Anyway, the screen shots would be appreciated! Thanks!

Its best to take a look at them yourself and see which contain the information you want. Go to http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/ and select a map product in the MapSource Map Viewer drop-down field. Its a wonderful ability for you to view the maps before you buy them. Personally I use the City Navigator pre-loaded on a chip most of the time, and then bought the National Park 24K topo maps for my visit to Glacier National Park. Ah, well, as I said, the results on the Garmin website's "look at the maps before you buy" is extremely disappointing. As I zoom in, I get blank maps an thus can tell nothing about the detail available.

I've read a good many of the topics here and still can't quite figure the answer to my question about Garmin maps. Which should I buy if I can get only one? I'm a little disappointed with the base map on my new eTrex Legend HCx (got it for my birthday a couple of weeks ago and been geocaching since), but was somewhat prepared for this disappointment and I'm prepared to purchase another map set from Garmin. (Even though I dislike these proprietary deals, I understand why.) So, all that said, I see that I can get the Garmin Topo 2008 for $80-$90 and City Navigator for $20 bucks or so more. I live in an area with county roads all over the place and travel to areas with lots of hiking trails and want a map set on my GPS that contains the best selection of both. I've read that the topo set from Garmin is not all that accurate or inclusive (especially regarding trails) and I wonder if I would be better off getting the City Navigator even though most of my GPS use will be in the toolies. The Garmin web site actually makes me leery of both of them as their "try it" maps seldom work..lol Right now, my $$$ situation will allow for the purchase of only one or the other. Which one should I buy? For the future: I have a 1GB card for the HCx. Will both fit? I can't find any information on how the size of either mapset. Thanks for any and all input... Marlishduo

Hello - I am new to this forum and not sure about how to post a question. I was interested in what you had to say about GPS units and wondered if you have one to recommend that doubles for out of car geocaching as well as traveling in the car just generally. And the lower the cost the better. Thanks.