GPS recommendation

[terrybahena]

Originally Posted by RPBHaas

May I suggest, Telcel has an option for either 3gb for smart phone plans per month or unlimited internet for iPhone for 379mxn per month or just under $30usd. The other part of the plan, which makes all the difference in the world, is how many minutes, SMS etc and ranges from 390mxn up to 1300mxn per month. The practical exchange rate yesterday was 13.85mxn to $1usd. You will be able to obtain a Telcel plan with your Passport and FMM.

ooh thank you very much!

[Grizzy]

I have used my Garmin Nuvi all over Mexico and it has worked well except for some glitches in larger cities with lateral roads. I try to remember to update the maps every month or so as there always seem to be upgrades for Mexico roads on the Garmin database.

[RVGRINGO]

I've tried GPS but still prefer a good paper map, which allows me to familiarize myself with the surrounding areas and alternate routes. I need to know more than just where to turn next. A GPS can take you to where you want to go, but you won't really know where you are when you arrive. Take away the GPS and you can't get home.

[Detailman]

Originally Posted by RVGRINGO

I've tried GPS but still prefer a good paper map, which allows me to familiarize myself with the surrounding areas and alternate routes. I need to know more than just where to turn next. A GPS can take you to where you want to go, but you won't really know where you are when you arrive. Take away the GPS and you can't get home.

GPS conks out and I don't have my wife with me. REALLY up the creek!

[Ken Wood]

With all due respect (I'm an old sailor myself) to each his own...I'm sure there are mariners somewhere who still say bad things about electronic navigation at sea. The power goes out, and you don't have a good sextant, SOL. I traveled all my life with paper maps, but consider this the next generation. It can help me find a gas station in a pinch, a restaurant, the traffic congestion on a particular route, and can suggest an alternate route if the need arises. I keep my old maps and guidebooks at hand, but I'm all over the technology of GPS. I used the same system, a slightly different application, while hunting in the boonies of Alaska. How convenient to drop a caribou, field dress it, punch one button on my Garmin, walk back to camp, gather up my partners, and hike back to within a few feet of the caribou. Paper maps carried us for all my father's life and most of mine, but they are now folded up and put away, to be pulled out for occasional use only.

[terrybahena]

Originally Posted by RVGRINGO

I've tried GPS but still prefer a good paper map, which allows me to familiarize myself with the surrounding areas and alternate routes. I need to know more than just where to turn next. A GPS can take you to where you want to go, but you won't really know where you are when you arrive. Take away the GPS and you can't get home.

Ha ha the GPS is for him, the maps are for me. I have a Mexico atlas, and google maps printed out for each 8-10 hour leg of our journey thru Mexico. I do like like GPS, but I trust maps, and like you RVRINGO I like to see what's there, what's where and more than one way to get to/around it!

[mickisue1]

Originally Posted by terrybahena

Ha ha the GPS is for him, the maps are for me. I have a Mexico atlas, and google maps printed out for each 8-10 hour leg of our journey thru Mexico. I do like like GPS, but I trust maps, and like you RVRINGO I like to see what's there, what's where and more than one way to get to/around it!

Two summers ago, our youngest was with us, driving to South Padre Island the day after his brother's wedding.

We wanted to stop at a gas station to get a map, and he was nearly sputtering at the foolishness of the old fogies.

"I've got GPS in my phone!"

'Yes, but we like to see the whole route."

"You can see it on the phone!"

"Yes, but we like to see it bigger than 2" X 3."

"What difference does it make? You can still see it! This is stupid!!"

[FHBOY]

Maps and GPS are not mutually exclusive. I have and use both. My Guia Roji will be just as important as my Garmin.

You know, to us old farts, it is like the Rolodex vs. contact program on your computer, iPhone etc. I loved my Rolodex and my address book because it was analog and it was more "general" - I didn't need t key word or something to find what I wanted, I could turn back and forth, compare in seconds. It was like my old pocket appointment calendar book, I could see it all and not just what I was looking for, and relate visually one thing with another.

It is like that with maps, I love my GPS when I am driving, when I know where I want to go and only have the goal of getting there. But I love my maps that show me what is on the way to "there". GPS is more up-to-date, but the info you get is just that much more selective, which mean you need to select what you want. A map is a puzzle, you may not know what you want, but it is all in front of you.

So, find it on the map, set your GPS and go - they don't care, they both love you.