Which Map Source?

[BonnSotto]

I recently got a Garmin GPSMap 60cs from my wonderful girlfriend for Christmas. I would like a more detailed maps in there for trips (or just an excuse to supped up my new toy).

 

Questions:

I have been looking into Map Source, can somebody tell me the difference between the Metroguide and City Navigator?

 

Do I have to have one (Metroguide) to use the other (City Navigator)?

 

Is there others that I can use for my GPS?

 

What do most use here?

 

I appreciate all the help.

 

Thanks in advance,

Bonn

[+Olar]

Currently the best for Canada to use in your 60CS for road navigation and autorouting is City Select ver 7 (latest) and Metroguide Canada 4 (getting dated). City Navigator is supplied with the higher-end models for in-car use only. For the off-road/hiking part of it all is Topo Canada which also has very good coverage of Canada. It differs in that it does not have any of the points-of-interest data that the other two have and not all streets are labelled but are displayed. Much like a typical topo paper map.

I personally have settled on using both CS and Topo and can't imagine needing anything else.

City Select updates usually every year and in case you are unaware of it, CS comes with two unlock codes so that when you buy your wonderful girlfriend a unit it will not be necessary to purchase CS again.

 

Cheers, Olar

[+VO2WW]

Are unlock codes needed for Topo Canada

[+Bullfrog Eh-Team]

No unlock codes required for Topo Canada. We too drive a GPS Map60CS and love it. We also use both City Select and Topo Canada. Most of our caching is in 'bush' locations so the Topo Canada gets the most use. Haven't had any need for the POI yet. We're truly amazed at the battery life for this unit; but still carry extra GPS Food, just in case. Bullfrogeh & Lilypad (in the Algonquin Highlands)

[ertyu]

Looking at both Magellan and Garmin they have products based on 3 data sets:

 

Navteq: Offers very good urban street coverage for US and Canada, and therefore very good auto-routing. These maps are available in Garmin City Select/Navigator NA and Metroguide NA and Magellan Directroute NA.

 

DMTI: Offers good urban street coverage for Canada and better rural street coverage than Navteq. They also include geographic details such as waterways and parks. Offers pretty good auto-routing based on the street coverage they have. This data set is available in Garmin Metroguide CA and Magellan S&D Canada both without the auto-routing.

 

DMTI Topo: Offers topographic map coverage of Canada which improves the geographic details. Includes all the street coverage of the regular DMTI maps, but the auto-routing ability is more limited. Available in Garmin and Magellan Topo Canada again without auto-routing.

 

The ultimate would be a combination of DMTI Topo and Navteq if possible, where DMTI is a good middle ground. For geocaching, the details are more important than urban transit so DMTI Topo seems the way to go.

[+The Blue Quasar]

MetroGuide Canada 4 is very out of date.

 

Still works 98% of the time, but sometimes it wants to take you down roads that haven't existed for over a decade.

 

But sometimes, that's where the cache is too...

 

The Auto-Routing is okay... some times it doesn't recalculate properly and insists you turn around instead of a new faster option.

 

Lots of roads built in the north don't exist either.

 

All in all, I would love to see a new version for MGC.... but it's got like 5 year old data... I don't expect anything anytime in that style.

 

The Blue Quasar