KalicoKate

I wasn't sure which direction to go either. I am a brand new geocacher myself and unlike you I don't have any experience with using a GPS. I started out using the iPhone app, I really like a lot of the features it has especially the find caches near me ( you don't have to preload anything) and I like being able to see my current coordinates and that of the cache at the same time. The downfalls were it sucks the battery like you wouldn't believe, even with my juice pack. The other was an issue of being in a service area. So I decided to take a leap of faith and ordered the Megellan eXplorist GC. I seemed pretty easy to use and came preloaded with set number of caches. It was a bit of challenge for me getting it started, it didn't come with a users manual. All of the information is available on line, but I find that a bit frustrating, so I just went outside and started pushing buttons until I figured it out. So far I love it. Biggest wishes are that I could see the coordinates of my location and the cache at the same time, and I wish the lighting was better. I find it hard to see out in the bright sun. Hope this helps!