GPS for hiking

[hiker]

Hello,



I do a lot of hiking in Scotland and I would like to get a GPS/Digital maps for it. I am have made up my mind about hardware - use my bluetooth-enabled Ipaq + buy bluetooth GPS (was thinking Fortuna GPSmart). As far as software/digital maps my understanding is that there are two choices - Fugawi UK or Memory-Map navigator. I have read reviews of these products on this site but I would appreciate to get some feed-back from people with first-hand experience.



Basically I am interested in the following features:

- being able to plan routes and then either print small map for a day trip and use it w/o GPS or download maps into Ipaq and use it with GPS.

- measure distance covered and total elevation

- I need Scotalnd map coverage plus possibly I would like to use the system when I am travelling in Europe, so possibility to add street maps/other topo maps is a plus



My understanding is that both Memory-Map and Fugawi provide these features and price-wise I favor Fugawi.

I would be glad to hear your thoughts, suggestions, tips, problems you expereinced if you used any of these two products for hiking planning/navigation.

[MikeB]

Both packages do provide all the functionality you require, except that, Due to OS licensing restrictions, the Fugawi UK software can only use OS maps. If you want to go to Europe then you will need to buy Fugawi 3 as well.



On the other hand Memory-Map although you can get the Phillips Europe route planning map is quite difficult to source topo maps for in certain countries and is very complex creating your own maps from scanned paper maps.
_________________
Mike Barrett
Editor, PocketGPSWorld.com
Follow PocketGPSWorld via our Twitter feeds: Darren and Mike.