Italy Trip Planning - GPS and Maps
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
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So one big aleviation of concern is to have the ability to know where I am when I'm over there. I know that I can get maps from the Tourist Information stands when I'm in a city, but I want to have something that I know I can rely on before I leave.
I was able to pick up some maps from Pete and Lisa. I had a full map of Italy as well as one of Florence. (never used these on the trip) There were also maps located in Rick Steves' Italy guidebook. So I had the basics down now, but...
...a lingering thought has been to have a GPS unit while I'm there. That would be the ideal solution, to have a way to both see where you are and tell you how to get to where you want to go. There were some special sales going on for the holidays, so I started to shop around.
Best Buy had a deal on the Magellan Maestro 3200 for $180. I decided to go for it and that's when the drama started.
I purchased the unit on November 19th, the Monday before Thanksgiving. On Wednesday I was in the office for a few hours and when I left I discovered that the 2 day old device had been stolen out of my car. So now I was out a unit and had to pay for a window.
I was going to forego the GPS until my mom told me that she was going to be getting me one for Christmas, so I picked up another Magellan from Best Buy. Then I find out that the device does not support expanding maps, so it would be worthless to me in Italy. I was just going to stop there until my roommate found some deals online for some Garmin units that supported European maps. I took the Magellan back to Best Buy and rush ordered a Garmin Nuvi 200w ($220). Then I express ordered their map of Italy and Greece ($140). The stress here came from the fact that the GPS was supposed to arrive on the 3rd, the maps were supposed to come on the 4th and I was leaving on the 5th. Talk about cutting it close. And then when the GPS arrived, it had such a hard time locating a signal that I thought it was broken.
Anyway the unit came and I took it and the maps with me. I'll admit that even though the unit could almost never find a signal, it was nice to have an interactive map that I cold search. It was also nice to be able to run in 'simulation' mode that would actually let me say where I was on the map and get directions to wherever I wanted to go.
Since this was a substitute for maps when I needed it, I would say it was worth the hassle, but it would have been better if it was as good at detecting the satellites as the Magellan was. |
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