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The Genuine Article	Past stories GPS navigators Ice skates Digital cameras Insect repellents Adventure Travel Insurance Tent Buyer's Guide Hiking footgear --------------------- Cool Tools

GPS navigators, including the TomTom GO 720 ease travel along unfamiliar routes and through nasty weather or heavy traffic.

APPROACHING Ottawa from Montréal as twilight and rush hour set in, I surrender to a firm yet maternal voice not unlike that of Mary Poppins. “In 500 metres, turn right.” The plummy, disembodied words emanate from a magical box the size of a wallet that is suction-cupped to the windshield, below the rear-view mirror. On its touch screen, a 3-D view of my progress along Highway 417 scrolls by, the location of my car marked by a small blue icon. I have to reach a hotel on Slater Street, and while I have been there before, I am no expert on Ottawa’s thoroughfares and oneway streets. So I am entrusting my safe and timely arrival to the little box.

It gets me there flawlessly by painting the ideal route in pink on the display, with turns marked by arrows and onscreen driving instructions backed up by Poppins, who tells me where to turn (in how many kilometres or hundreds of metres) and when to keep left or right as I negotiate off-ramps. If the unit directs me into the Rideau Canal, I will obey without question, since by this time, it has successfully delivered me from my home near Midland, Ont., on southeastern Georgian Bay, through Kingston and on to Montréal, where I made a similar twilight rush-hour arrival at a downtown hotel in slanting rain.

The wise little device is a Garmin nüvi 250, a GPS navigation unit I purchased on the eve of this extended road trip. I had other choices — almost too many — but the Garmin model fit my criteria of being basic, inexpensive and made by a company whose products I already knew from marine GPS navigation. And, thanks to fierce competition and a white-hot loonie, retail prices were in free fall. The nüvi 250 has a suggested retail price of $321.41 (U.S.), but I had just paid $269 for it at a big-box electronics retailer, and its competitors were undergoing similar price cuts.

This type of device is ideal for guiding you in stressful conditions: an unfamiliar city, heavy traffic, darkness or inclement weather. It comes preloaded with map software and databases of “points of interest,” such as hotels, restaurants and gas stations, as well as street addresses. Simply search the database with a touch-screen keyboard, and the nüvi 250 quickly locates where you want to go. The routing function then tells you how to get there. By tracking changes in position over time, the GPS unit calculates your vehicle’s speed and, by using its built-in intelligence on speed limits, provides you with reasonably accurate destination arrival times. (Some units even warn you if you’re speeding.) It can also help you stickhandle your way through a maze of secondary roads on a cross-country expedition. Many times during a lengthy jaunt, I have found myself suddenly wondering whether I’ve reached a crucial turn or shot past it. My normal recourse has been to consult a paper road map after pulling over somewhere or, in more reckless moments, while driving.

The Garmin has cured me of this dangerous habit, but there are still some safety issues to consider. You can choose to suction mount the device to the windshield or fix it in some way to the dashboard. I decided to go with the windshield mount, just off to the right but within arm’s reach, which I consider the safer option, with the map in my field of vision as I drive. But concerns about windshield mounting of any electronic devices have caused the practice to be outlawed in Minnesota and California.

Pre-installed in-dash systems, available on high-end vehicles, have larger screens, lack the clutter of wiring (which plugs into the lighter) and are usually integrated with the car’s audio system. Some even have DVD-playback capability and presumably are meant to be watched by back-seat passengers or by the driver when the car is parked. An advantage of a portable unit is precisely that: it’s portable. You can also use it while travelling on foot, running it on battery power. And this way, you don’t have to buy an entire luxury car to get highquality GPS navigation.

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