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GPS question on big island


ottmar
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For the day on the big island starting from Hilo in a rental car I have decided to get a GPS with the car so I could just go to the places I want instead of stopping every few minutes to see if I wanted to see something.

My question is: are the GPS programmed so you just can pick the program by name or do I have to program some of it myself? I am familiar with GPS programming but it is time consuming.

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Hi Ottmar - not sure about the programming of GPS units from the rental car companies, but I'd suggest deciding before you go which places you want to visit and then map them out on google maps. It would be easy to do this and efficient once you are there because you'd have a plan with drive times and how much time you'd have at each location. With google maps, I'd add about 10% to the drive times indicated.

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I took my own GPS from home, programmed everything into it before I left home (fun to think of each sight as you plug it in). Saved all the time it would have taken to learn how to use a new-to-me GPS and plug in the locations. Even if you don't already have your own, it's probably cheaper to buy one then rent several on multiple islands.

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  • 3 weeks later...

There are also a lot of great apps for your smartphone. We use Waze whenever we rent a car on vacation. Using the phone that we already have with us means one less thing to pack and worry about leaving somewhere!

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I took my own GPS from home, programmed everything into it before I left home (fun to think of each sight as you plug it in). Saved all the time it would have taken to learn how to use a new-to-me GPS and plug in the locations. Even if you don't already have your own, it's probably cheaper to buy one then rent several on multiple islands.

This method gets my vote. There is a learning curve to using a GPS (unless you are under twenty years old). Punching in search terms takes time and results may be ambiguous or non-existent. Do the tedious fiddling at home. I would also take paper maps to confirm that a GPS route makes sense.

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