Recommended Trail and Street GPS Receivers

As civilian users of GPS technology, we have many GPS receivers to choose from, so many that it can be difficult to decide what to buy. This website complements my GPS books by recommending specific basic and mapping trail and street GPS receivers from the units in current production from the major manufacturers. My suggestions are based on using the receivers, comparing specifications, and reading reviews. But this is not a review site- for detailed reviews of GPS receivers, I recommend gpstracklog.com.

Specialized GPS receivers dedicated to marine, aviation, engineering, and scientific work are beyond the scope of this Web site and are not considered in making my recommendations.

On the Trail

With an advanced mapping GPS receiver, you can find your way in the backcountry regardless of weather or location, whether you are hiking, snowshoeing, birdwatching, hunting, photographing, fishing, paddling a canoe or sea kayak, mountain biking, cross-country skiing, backroad driving, or doing any outdoor activity where accurate navigation is important. At home, you can work with digital maps and satellite images to plan outdoor adventures. In the outdoors, you can record your trip by saving waypoints and tracks and track your progress on the GPS receiver's built-in base maps and add-on topographic maps. Back at home, you can download the trip data to your computer, attach labels, graphics, elevation profiles, comments and photos, and then share it with friends or publish it for all to see on the Internet.

Basic trail GPS receivers have the same accuracy as advanced GPS receivers, but leave out such features as magnetic compasses and barometric altimeters. Some support detailed mapping and some do not.

On the Road

"Street" GPS receivers let you choose your destination from thousands of built-in points-of-interest (POI's) representing cities, businesses, and public buildings, or by entering a street address or intersection, and then navigate the quickest or shortest route to your destination. The GPS receiver gives driving directions via voice prompts, and many also speak street names so that you never have to take your eyes off the road. You can set most street GPS units to avoid toll roads and other undesirable routes. If you miss a turn, automatic rerouting recalculates your route. Emergency location lets you quickly find the nearest police, fire, and medical services. Advanced features on some GPS units include lifetime map updates, fuel-efficient routing, real-time traffic information, and smart traffic that takes into account historic rush hour speeds when computing your time of arrival.

One GPS Receiver to Do It All?

Most mapping trail receivers can be used for street navigation when loaded with street mapping, and many street units can accept topo maps. So why not buy one receiver to do both? The two uses are so completely different that I have to recommend that you buy dedicated gps receivers. For example, touch screens are essential in a vehicle but difficult to use outdoors wearing gloves. Buttons are much easier to operate on the trail and are less likely to be pressed accidentally. Large screens are important in a vehicle or on a motorcycle but often make for heavy, bulky trail units.

The Recommendations

There are two recommendation pages, one for Trail GPS receivers and one for Street GPS units. Each page describes one or more recommended advanced and basic GPS receivers. There are links to Amazon.com so your can buy a recommended receiver direct from this site if you wish. For more information on the receivers, visit the manufacturer's Web sites on the Links page.

Glossary

Three Glossary pages describe GPS terminology in detail to help you learn about GPS and compare units.

GPS Books

This Web site is not intended as a GPS how-to. For information on using GPS with digital maps and computers as well as traditional paper maps and hand-held compasses, see my GPS books: