Best unit for extensive travelling?

[boxer750]

Hi all,
I have a guy that works for me, who retires end of the year to an active retirement with lots of travel.
He will be travelling by road in this country and europe in his soon to be purchased VW hippy van or whatever. However, he also has quite active holidays where he jets off to far off places. He sometimes walks and sometimes uses public transport.

Can anyone tell me the best unit for travelling so extensively? as I want to arrange to give him one as a retirement present.
I did think that Garmin edge it on being able to load different types of maps, and the mapsource software also being of use.

I did look at one fom Garmin that can do turn by turn road navigation, as well as all the off road stuff, but I dont know if the road navigation will suffer because it does the off road stuff too??

The one I looked at was the Garmin GPSmap 60Cx handheld but Im really not sure if a dedicated car unit might not be better..

Pete

Any advice gratefully received.

[jolly47roger]

There are so many considerations in this decision... Where will he be travelling and are digital maps available? Does he need maps when walking or just basic GPS (tracks/routes/waypoints) functionality? How technically competent is he - would he be able to scan and calibrate paper maps if digital ones are not available? How rugged does the device need to be - rain/ice etc? Will he be walking for several days without access to electricity?

The turn-by-turn road routing and map-based functions for walking will usually use different software but they can coexist in the same unit. Look at 'what shall I buy' from Mizelz lower down in this thread. A PDA-based solution would probably give most flexibility - but need more effort to set up and maintain.

[boxer750]

Thanks for that JR. Im thinking his use 'off track' would be limited. He often used guided holidays such as explore or similar, when the rugged handheld devices prob wont be needed.

So, modifying my thoughts.. for road travel around the world but mainly Europe and the USA, which is the best system? I only have experience of Garmin and TomTom. Still, the mapsource program seems useful for travelling. Does TomTom or anyone else have the same?

Pete

[jolly47roger]

My only experience 'on the road' is with Tomtom - maybe someone else can help? Check the Mapsource coverage - if you friend is going to Peru or China, say, there may be no maps available from them and, with Garmin systems, you can't add other maps.

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!