I don't know. I used to live in my Rand McNally Road Atlas. I'd buy a new one every year as soon as it was published. A few years ago I bought a Garmin 2620, and I bought my Si with a built in navi.

Since buying the Garmin, and the Si I haven't opened the road atlas even once. I have yet to find anyplace that the Navi couldn't get me to. The Honda Navi in the Si is even better than the Garmin.

I also have Microsoft Streets and Trips on my computer for when I'm home and want to know where something is, or for when I want to plot out a route just to get an idea of it. Except for the Garmin and the Honda Navi, Streets and Trips is the very best map/system I've ever used. Before the Navi I used to print out the maps and directions and follow them.

 

I guess I'll eventually get a GPS, but I also enjoy looking at the hardcopy. I also use mapquest and googkemaps quite a bit...including our recent trip to Europe.

I did one or the other for each leg of our trip:
*Frankfurt Am Main to Dresden
*Dresden to Prague (and back)
*Dresden to Weimar
*Weimar via Rothenburg to Schwabisch Hall
*SH to Arnhem, Holland
*Arnhem to Haarlem, Holland
*Haarlen back to Frankfurt Am Main

For Europe, Michelin also has a good site. I think it's www.viamichelin.com.....twas the only one with good mapping for Prague (not recognized by mapquest )

Yes, Rob, it took a lot of time.....but I enjoyed it

 

Rob, you may love them but I can't say I am all that thrilled with them. I never really did use my GPS during the 1500 or more miles we just drove. It was off 98% of the time because I didn't feel I needed it. The most useful thing I found with my Garmin C340 on the VA trip was after we'd checked into a motel in a town we had never visited before, such as Marietta, OH, we could then go exploring without having to worry about finding our way back to the motel. On the other hand, trying to do some simple things like finding the way to Interstate 64 from Wintergreen (when nothing had been preprogrammed and without the use of a map) turned out to be frustrating and I gave up on it. I could look at a map and know in a second where to go.

 

I had my new Garmin 2720 GPS for this cross country trip from Cali to Virginia. I would not have wanted to drive that far without one. I had each day's drive programed when I left home so I just activated that day's route every day. It's similar to my Garmin 2610 but putting in routes is done differently. The only real improvement of the 2720 over the 2610 is that it says the street names one is to turn on.

But, I still use maps too, at home, before I program my GPS. I use them to decide how I want to get where I'm going, and to get a visual of how far apart the towns I might stay in each night are. Then I'll use my GPS and AAA Trip Tiks (on-line) to see how far apart towns are, before I start looking for hotels.

I have some USA atlases to see the big picture and then look at each state I'll travel through. I bought one at Walmart (it's a Walmart item)and one at AAA. I also get maps from AAA of the states I will spend time in.

 

I haven't bought a GPS unit yet, as I just don't need one.

I use Google maps to plan my trips, and if there are any details I want to check I use the hybrid function (satellite pic with street name overlay).

 

Maybe that's the difference. I always keep mine on. When I'm just running errands around town or going for a drive I leave it in the driving (I don't know what the actual name is) mode so that it acts like a real-time road map. I like being able to see the cross street names, my speed and the geographic features (fields, ponds, etc) that are off to the side and not visible from the drivers seat.

When I'm going someplace that I've been to before, I call up the route and have it on as if I'd never been there before. Even though I don't need the directions, I like knowing how much further I have to go, how far it is to the next turn and my expected time of arrival. I don't need the navi to find my destination, but I like the other information. On rainy nights it is very comforting to know that it will tell you in advance of your turn so you don't have to be so concerned about being able to see the street signs.

Of course when I'm going to someplace I've never been before or coming home from someplace I've never been before, there is no substitute for the navi. It won't always get you home the very best, fastest way, but it will always get you home. That is expecially comforting for me during tax season when I have to visit clients in places I've never been before, almost always in the evening. Before the navi I used paper maps, but I always found it incovenient to try to read them at night and follow a route. This is so much better.

You will find that the more you use your Navi, and the more you get used to it, the more you will understand it and rely on it. I still like paper maps in the same way that I like paintings and posters, I like looking at them, but as far as navigating while I'm driving, there is no substitute for a navi. I don't think I'll ever buy a car without one again, or at least be without a portable unit again.

 

http://maps.google.com/
is a fantastic map resource! I use it a lot, too. But for travel you would need to take your lap top and have something like Verizon wi fi. I hope Garmin will upgrade its maps and make better and more up to date maps available to download. Sometimes the N

 

I'm thinking about buying another unit so we both can have one in whatever car we're driving. I leave mine in "navigate" mode when I'm not using it. I do not keep it in my car when I'm just around town (my town is quite small and I've been here all my life, so I don't really need it), but anytime I leave the city limits, the navi is in my car. I LOVE IT. It has gotten a little wanky once in a while, but I've learned its little characteristics and absolutely think its one of the best purchases I ever made. If I'm traveling wayyyy out of town, I do take maps with me in case the unit totally dies (in which event I'd probably RUN to a store and buy another one), but I've always tried to keep maps in my car when I'm in new places, so that's no biggy.

As far as updated maps is concerned, Garmin has been great about upgrading and I've upgraded the maps in my unit at least twice since I've had it. I just plug the unit into the computer and the download commences and is over very quickly. It has all the newer highways, etc. around here installed, so I'm assuming they stay fairly well up to date.

 

[QUOTE=S1997,May 11 2007, 03:52 PM] http://maps.google.com/
is a fantastic map resource!