GPS Unit for BOTH Vehicle Travel AND Terrain?

[The Singer]

I have never used a GPS unit (except briefly on my cell phone). Can you recommend any that are good for both vehicle navigation AND walking on terrain? There are so many that I am baffled.

 

Thank you!

 

Charlie

[The Singer]

To continue, I was originally looking to buy a nice street navigation GPS unit, such as the Garmin nuvi 1450T, which is fairly highly rated, but then I see these cool ones that have actual terrain maps. Are there any that do both well? I'd rather not have one that only has major roads, as many of the terrain models have.

 

Charlie

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

There are inevitable compromises when you try to do both. For most people, a low end car unit and a decent handheld makes the most sense. Otherwise, decide whether you want to compromise more on the handheld side or the auto side and folks here can make recommendations.

[MtnHermit]

To continue, I was originally looking to buy a nice street navigation GPS unit, such as the Garmin nuvi 1450T, which is fairly highly rated, but then I see these cool ones that have actual terrain maps. Are there any that do both well? I'd rather not have one that only has major roads, as many of the terrain models have.

Charlie,

 

Any of the Nuvi's can display Topo maps (see below, Nuvi 205W), but all of them have compromises for field use, mainly sunlight visibility and battery life.

 

[hoyshnin]

As the others have posted, unfortunately there is NOTHING out there that does both fantastic vehicle navigation AND fantastic off road hiking navigation (usually b/c it is not waterproof, shockproof, etc). The closest thing is probably a Nuvi 500 (unless it's been replaced with a newer model?) which is kind of a beefed up nuvi.

 

Your best choice is to grab a $100 nuvi for road use and a handheld of your choice for offroad.

Edited July 15, 2010 by hoyshnin

[NordicMan]

Yes "combo devices" are always a compromise. But if you insist on having just one, you should add to your considerations the Lowrance Endura Sierra & Safari models. They are the ONLY rugged handheld GPSr's on that market that also are able to give spoken turn-by-turn car navigation, as well as having excellent Geocaching features.

[+ecanderson]

gc.com only keeps the last month of threads online. It's come up as a thread at least a hundred times prior to 15 June. Here's those that we've seen in that period of time on this topic:

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=254274

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=253806

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=251990

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=238332

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=252505

[+coggins]

Do you mean like this?:

GPS Passion preview: LINK

 

Here are a few screenshots from the nüvi 3790, since a picture is worth a thousand words. Being able to rotate the display between landscape and portrait orientation is fantastic. With the high quality 3d rendering, portrait mode really lets you see a lot of the road ahead!

 

These are from City Navigator. I have reduced the size from the native 800x480 to fit the forum, and also give a better idea of the physical screen size.

 

 

 

 

These are from the "New Jersey Topo" by Maps4gps - http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/294/

 

 

 

 

And from "Boyd's Map of New Jersey/GS Edition" - http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/294/

 

 

Or are you looking for a handheld???