I resisted for years and then found myself having to get to a job interview in a city I'd never been to before (that people had sworn to me was really easy to navigate) and getting lost over, and over, and over ... finally I got my DH on the cell phone and had him walk me through Google Maps' route to the nearest
Best Buy and bought one on the spot.
It's a Magellan RoadMate 1470 and I
love it. I don't have the TrafficLink add-on for it (it doesn't work in my home city anyway), but if it detects you driving really slowly (like if you're in heavy traffic) it pops up an icon asking if you want to get off the freeway and get back on the route farther along. It both tells you and shows you which way to go, the voice isn't annoying (there's only one, but it's fine), and if you miss a turn, it finds a new route really fast (I almost never have to hear "When possible, make a legal U-turn"). It has tons of bookmarks, it always finds me gas stations and coffee shops when I need them ... believe me I was 100% against the idea until I bought one, but I'll never travel without it again. It doesn't accept added POIs (points of interest) but when I took it to Orlando for a conference followed by vacation last month, it got me all over Orlando and to and from several different points on Disney property with no problems at all. I just searched for "CARIBBEAN" and it took me to Caribbean Beach, etc. It remembers your last 10 searches so I didn't need to program in the addresses, I just used my previous searches to go back and forth.
But always use common sense--if the road is clearly not where the GPS says it is, follow the road, not the GPS! I always confirm that the sign I'm following says what the GPS says it should, but now I don't need to be looking out for it, I always know how far away it should be and on what side. And I can go shopping or find restaurants in an area I've never been to.
I seriously never thought I'd own one, let alone be praising it, and I don't use it to drive around town (my DH does because he does tech support for one of the largest school districts in the country and doesn't know where all the schools are) but for vacation? Absolutely. Unless you're only going to be at Disney, I would take it.
