there be two type of trip on which a gp be useful . one be find a address you do not know in you own city : be this case it be best for the last mile , deliver you right to the address you need . the chance be that around you own home or office you 'll have a favorite route which be different to what the Garmin choose , so you just have to ignore it and let it recalculate , which it happily do . the second type of trip be a drive vacation . here this machine be at its best and worst . what be good : it will take you from wherever you be to you destination address in the next town or city on you itinerary , however many mile away . it will do so with speak word , include the name of street you be about to turn into . it will also take you to major attraction without you necessarily know they address . en route , you have a choice of view . I find that in town , where there be lot of turn , you want the classic 3d view , where the car -lrb- or arrow , you can change the symbol -rrb- be in the foreground and the street come towards you . cleverly , if you be sit on a wide view , the machine will cut to a close-up view automatically as a turn approach . on the open road , however , the 3d view be pretty meaningless and you want to switch to the North up view and touch the minus -lrb- - -rrb- sign a few time . with the North up view it be like look at a traditional map : if you be drive south-east , for example , the arrow or car symbol will be point to the bottom right . by zoom out , you give yourself perspective : you can see town and attraction situate a few mile in any direction . what be bad : it take a endless amount of touch to change the view from 3d to North up and back : definitely not safe unless you stop the car . also , and this be serious , for smaller town , either they do not bother gather local information about one-way street and other restriction , or the information they have be out of date . case in point , Natchez , Mississippi , a town where all major street be one way , alternately go in one direction or the other . the Garmin try , try and try again to send we down one way street in the wrong direction . when we -lrb- fortunately -rrb- notice and ignore it , it then recalculate to take we round the block and back on to the same one way street in the wrong direction . eventually we give up on it and find we own way out of town , thus negate the whole point of have a gp . there be other , less serious niggle : for example , if you just want to visit the downtown of a city , there seem no way to tell it that other than make up a fictional address : we find that most town have a 100 Jefferson St or Washington St. anyway , once you get use to it , the device be fun and most of the time useful . it be very small size mean you can not only easily travel with it , you can also remove it and take it in you pocket when you park you car . if you hate trail wire , the Garmin have several hour of battery life and can be recharge with any mini-usb charger , probably the same as you cellphone use . all in all I be glad to have it on vacation , but they really need to sort out the local information problem and build in the ability to create shortcut to favorite view .