New Vista HCX, but how to get city maps for it?

[+cachons-nous]

I have had a Vista HCX for a few days now and have figured out many of its features. I bought a 2 gb card for it and have that loaded. Now I would love to have some street detail for caching. I'm on a Mac (although I have access to a PC if need be). So, does anyone have any advice on the best (and cheapest) way to get at least West Coast street info loaded onto it? I know there are individual Micro SD cards that have some maps, or there are CDs (which seem to only work on Windows). Any advice would be appreciated.

[+Chuy!]

In the USA, you need City Navigator North America, City Navigator North America NT, or MetroGuide.

 

M-G does not autoroute but is more affordable and you don't have to worry about purchasing it used as it has no unlock codes. You can use GeoDude's software to convert it to an auto-router. I did that for my Vista HCx using M-G v5. The maps are a bit aged but I get around just fine.

 

Of the two autorouting programs, NT is preferred 'cause the mapsets you download are larger - the compression technique is different.

[+SparksGuy]

I have a Vista HCx, a 2 GB card and City Navigator North America NT on DVD. It took a long time to load 3/4 of the US onto the card, but it worked. I wish now I had loaded the whole thing; I think it would fit. If you have a Mac, you might want to think about the MicroSD version instead of the DVD, or the TOPO maps on DVD or MicroSD. Either way they are expensive and a bear to load from DVD but have tons of data.

 

I posted a review of the Vista HCx on my web site. Go to www.ksguy.com , click on Geocaching then click the link to see my review.

 

SparksGuy