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[clean]

I was in another city last week and the people I was with rented a car with a GPS device.  It was very handy.  I dont travel to unknown cities very often, but would consider purchasing a portable one for when I do.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

I saw that Consumer Reports reviewed some in December 2010, so nothing is all that up to date.

Ive quickly looked at
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Garmin+-+nuvi+1300LM+Automobile+Portable+GPS+Navigator/9940512.p?skuId=9940512&id=1218198443167

and this was recommended by CR

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Garmin+-+n%26%23252%3Bvi+3760+GPS/1620411.p?skuId=1620411&id=1218279827345

The second is twice as expensive but is supposed to have live updates of lane blockages, fuel prices and such.

Ive certainly not made any decisions on model, price or even make.

Advice an comments?

[chaosbydesign]

I have a relatively cheap one (I paid around $150 for it) which picks up updates of closed roads etc. I like it a lot.

It's in the car and I can't remember which model I bought, but I'll come back and post it next time I go to the car.

[macaroon]

I  have one of the touch screen nuvis that will also look for restaurants and gas and such.  It is very easy to use, and I find myself OFTEN looking for things while I'm out, like pharmacies or playgrounds, using the GPS. 

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. 

After several years of use, it met with fate and the screen cracked.  I thought it was going to be useless, and considered picking a new one up almost immediately (it's fine - the screen's a bit dimmer now but still useful). 

It's nice to use even when I'm driving a route I already know, because it reminds me that the turn is coming up or that the exit is in 1 mile. 

[betty_p]

I just bought a Garmin Nuvi with free lifetime updates for $89.99; if you go to the Garmin website you'll see that they also have one-time update packages for $49.99.

I've had two Garmin products previously. They both stopped working after a couple of years (touch-screen became unresponsive), but that was when I smoked in my car. It was kind of a hostile environment for electronics (CD player never worked right after a year or two, either).

I'm hoping that the smoke-free environment of my new car will extend the life of my new GPS. This hope is not necessarily baseless: my husband has had his Garmin GPS for years, well before I bought my first.

[galactic_hedgehog]

We have a Garmin that's a few years old that quite nice.  I don't remember the model.  We also got a Tom-Tom for free last year when we bought new tires, but we gave that to my sister, so I'm not so sure how it is (Hedgesis seems to like it).  If you're lucky, you might score a deal like that on one.

Also, if you have an Android phone (and only and Android, as it's not available for the iPhone), Google Navigation is really good.  Some (all?) phones have auto mounts that make using them for that purpose easier.

[mystictechgal]

I use GPS Drive HD on my iPad. I love it. When my husband was alive and we took trips I drove and he navigated. Although I enjoy driving and have driven long distances in unfamiliar areas since I first got my license, I found myself afraid to do so after he died. That app has been a godsend. I think it costs me something like $20 a year with the voice feature, and that includes all of the updates, which download regularly. I even use it to get around town in familiar areas, on occasion--it will avoid traffic backups and construction, if asked--and it's found me some routes that are faster that I'd never considered. It's also good when I need to find a gas station or have a craving for a particular meal or restaurant and want to find a location nearby. It also works offline, or if you are walking, and has features (compass, etc.) that allow it to be used for geocaching and such. You can even save the exact location where you've parked your car so you can find it again.

I have not used it out of the country, yet, but I just asked it for the route to my favorite place in my favorite Canadian city. I know the route well and wouldn't need it, but there are a few ways I could get there. One is, I know from long experience, the best route to take, but if you weren't familiar you wouldn't probably think to go that way from here. Yet, that's the route it just gave me.

Honestly, if I didn't love my iPad for many other reasons, I'd have one just for this app. It's cumulatively cheaper than what I understand some of my friends are paying for their GPS devices, when the cost of the upgrades they pay separately for are factored in; and it seems to have more features than a lot of them.