Advice needed for UK "handheld" GPS

[SteveS]

I've looked at dozens of handheld's but can't seem to find one that is dedicated to the UK

I have absolutely no intentions of using it abroad so all these European maps built into the rom are of no use to me.

I want something that will have a good street plan of the city that I live in and will calculate a route for me that will just give me directions to my destination and also automatically create the next fastest route should I make a wrong turn.

I also plan to use it for camping just so I can find my way back to the camp site when I get lost

I would prefer a dedicated handheld that I can load detailed maps of the area I'm going to visit, If there are none then I would like a good recommended PDA that would do the same job.

Thanks for reading .. Steve

[Dave]

Steve, it really depends on what you're main use will be and how much you can afford.

You could go with a handheld GPS which would give you waterproofing, and you purchase map data for the Garmin or Magellan's, but most are grayscale screens, and really won't give you any level of detail.

If you're ideally looking for topographical style maps like Ordnance Survey Landranger, then Memory-Map or Fugawi UK would probably be better and would give you virtually like paper maps on a PDA screen (but it won't be waterproof).

If you're looking for more street routing then you'd really need a PDA. Garmin are doing the new iQue, we don't have one here yet, but will get one for review, but sounding from what you're saying I think the PDA (Pocket PC) route might be better.

[MikeB]

Hi Steve,

What you should be looking at is something like a Garmin with Maping capabilities. Such as the Garmin GPSMAP76 ( reviewed here) or the Etrex Vista (reviewed here).

These GPS receivers come with basemaps which are not too detailed. But show major roads.

These will allow you to use the Garmin Mapsource data to download detailed maps of the area. These maps will be road maps. There are no topographical maps for the UK or Europe.

If your version of camping is road based then this will be suitable. If your version of camping is mountaineering or fenlands etc then you might want to look at getting a PDA and either Memory-Map (
reviewed here) or Fugawi (reviewed here) both of which will provide Ordnance Survey maps at 1:50,000 scale.
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Mike Barrett

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