# Best GPS for Spain



## travelplanner70 (Jan 25, 2009)

I have been reading revies of Garmin GPS units and the Europe map CD that can be purchased to use with your US Garmin.  Unfortunately, many reviewers have said that finding satellites is a problem which makes the GPS useless.  

Does anyone have experience using a GPS in Spain?  Which is the best one for that area?  

Thanks in advance.


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## X-ring (Jan 25, 2009)

jo-jo said:


> I have been reading revies of Garmin GPS units and the Europe map CD that can be purchased to use with your US Garmin.  Unfortunately, many reviewers have said that finding satellites is a problem which makes the GPS useless.
> 
> Does anyone have experience using a GPS in Spain?  Which is the best one for that area?
> 
> Thanks in advance.



I used the GPS in my iPhone to do all the route planning within cities before heading off for our trip to Spain & Portugal last fall.  It was superb, showing all one-way streets etc. and doing a marvelous job of taking me from point to point within very difficult cities (e.g. Coimbra, Portugal and Cordoba, Spain) perfectly.

I didn't have a data plan so while in Iberia I could use it only where I could get free wifi (e.g. our hotels in Madrid, Granada, Lisbon) so I can't speak as to how it performed while outside cities.

This Christmas, my daughter knowing that I had no intention of getting a data plan for my iPhone (expensive from my service provider), gave me a Garmin nuvi 270 pre-loaded with maps of Europe.  I have tinkered around with it around home and while I expect it to be useful in Europe while in transit, its functionality seems much more limited than the one on the iPhone. Specifically, the Garmin is good to get you somewhere based on your present location but you cannot ask it to provide driving directions from a specific location other than your current physical location.

For example, using my iPhone from home I could plan in detail how I was going to get from point A to point B anywhere in Europe.  I don't see how I can do that with the Garmin unit that I have ... perhaps some other model can provide that functionality.


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## jerseyfinn (Jan 28, 2009)

The Garmin nuvi 275T comes loaded with both North American and Europe maps & it can synch with your blue tooth phone. I've actually looked at this model but haven't purchased it yet. We want it especially for when we travel to Spain.  We had friends who brought their GPS units to Spain with them last summer and they found them very useful on those side roads which can get oh so confusing ( one was a Garmin with Euro maps loaded - not sure of model number, but it was definitely not the 275T which just became availible in October 2008 ).

We're going to buy the 275T in June shortly before we leave for Spain ( and hopefully the price might slide down a bit as well ).

Barry


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## gresmi (Jan 31, 2009)

We used a Garmin (I think 750 from Costco) that our friends had loaded with Europe maps while were in Italy last April to hit the wine country in Tuscany and it was invaluable. I don't know how we would have gotten around to see as much as we did without it. We loaded addresses of restaurants or hotels in each town we wanted to visit into the Garmin based on our hosts' recommendations at the agriturismo we stayed at outside Florence and we just went from town to town. It was a blast. With the roundabouts and Italian multiple branched roadsigns, it would have been quite difficult to experience nearly as much. Wish we could do it again tomorrow.

Have fun!


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