I just returned from 2 weeks in France–1 week in Paris and 1 week in Provence. I decided prior to the trip to buy a portable navigation device (commonly known in the biz as a “PND”), a TomTom Go 920 GPS device.
When I had read about these in the past, I thought ‘here’s another device I will have to carry around and worry about–I’ll just get a phone that has assisted-GPS instead’. However, after talking to someone who had bought one for a trip to Europe, and finding out that this particular TomTom has both North American and European maps pre-loaded, I decided to get one.
Let me tell you, it was worth it. Here’s what makes this device worthwhile: 1) voice recognition that really works pretty well–you can tell it the address you want directions to and it will tell you how to get there; 2) bluetooth–if you have a bluetooth-capable phone, you can make calls through it by synching it with your phone’s address book; 3) it always can tell you the nearest hospital/doctor/gas station/auto repair shop to where you are or at least one of them (if not every one); 4) it has a more accurate speedometer than your car does, since it relies upon actual distance/rate calculations based on the satellite fix it has; 5) you can download map modifications that other customers have input to the maps, so you get updates not only from TomTom but also from other people.
In France, the TomTom made our lives much easier. We never had to worry about getting lost and it knew exactly how to get us where we wanted to go.
The device cost me $368, but you can get it even cheaper now, since it’s being replaced by a newer model. I’m not sure that the newer model is worth the extra money, but the model replacing mine is the TomTom Go 930.
If your car already has navigation built-in, then you probably don’t need this. If you don’t have it built in, skip getting one in your next car (probably at least a $1000 option) and get this instead.