Good old Garmin!

My first GPS - not nearly grand enough to merit the tag 'satnav' - was a Garmin GPS12XL.  No on-screen mapping, just a text-based display which was good for ETA and miles-to-next-waypoint readings.  

The positional output fed into a laptop and was used for APRS (a system used by radio amateurs like me to transmit positional data on VHF which other users can pick up and use to display your location).

After several years the 12XL was replaced by a Garmin GPSMAP60CS with a colour screen and full mapping capability.  At last - satnav!  With extra software it acquitted itself extremely well in the USA and South Africa.  Until the 60CS guided us unerringly around Cape Town, Anne looked on GPS as boys' toys;  since the Cape Town experience Anne has been a GPS convert.

The only downside of the 60CS was that mapping guidance was only visual, not verbal.  For that reason the 60CS has been relegated to APRS and handheld use, and replaced in the car by a TomTom One XL.  The TomTom has been very impressive and rarely disappoints. Until recently. 

Driving to the Novotel in Rennes, France, the TomTom deposited us outside a block of flats, saying 'You have reached your destination' when there was no Novotel in sight.  Luckily we know Rennes quite well and we found the Novotel after a bit of driving around.

Last Saturday we had the same experience with the Novotel Bordeaux Airport.  Madam TomTom (ours speaks with a female voice) confidently announced again that 'You have reached your destination' when we plainly had not.  

After about 20 minutes fruitlessly casting around for the missing hotel my temper was wearing very thin.  Brainwave - dig out the 60CS!  Yes, I am sad enough to travel with two GPS units.  Program in the location and, hey presto, our hotel!

Maybe the TomTom has a particular problem with Novotels - it seem accurate enough with other destinations - but I'm not leaving the Garmin at home on the next trip!

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