My family and recently took a trip to Florida. We rented a lovely minivan and spent several days visiting family, animal attractions, etc. When we were planning the trip, we realized that we’d have to either print off a bunch of maps to get everywhere we were going, or rent a GPS unit, or buy a GPS unit to help us get around.

For ease of travel, we decided we’d use a GPS rather than maps. We also decided we’d buy a GPS rather than rent one because rental rates run $10 a day or so, so buying would save us money in the long run. We’d also have it to use on other trips as well.

We totally loved our GPS on that Florida trip and have used it several times since. We settled on a Garmin 550c that we got off eBay. We got an incredible deal on it and found that it worked terrifically.

Our new GPS not only got us where we needed to go, but helped us find new places to visit that were close to where we were. It helped us find beautiful beaches, shoe stores, Walmarts, grocery stores, and all kinds of other places.

My sister came on the trip as well, bringing her husbands new Magellan GPS unit that he got for Christmas. Unfortunately, her Magellan didn’t work nearly as well as our Garmin. It often couldn’t figure out where she was and got her off course quite a bit.

Obviously, from her experience, we learned that it pays to get a high-quality brand of GPS units! It wasted a lot of her time and cost her extra money as well trying to deal with that little machine.

I highly recommend getting a GPS for any of your navigation needs. It’s so much easier than trying to make sure you’ve got all the right maps. It’s also way easier than trying to follow maps as well, since the GPS audibly tells you where to go!