A good GPS for Safari and offroading

Wasif Ahmed · Thu Nov 03, 2011 8:22 am

off road mode is one of the menu options that a GPS woild show, you ususally have the following options when you click the navigation tab.

1. Shortest route.
2. Fastest Time
3. Off Road.

If you dont have Off road mode then tge GPS will be useless on the sand. If you enter a destination that is deep in the desert it will say it cant navigate to that location as there are no roads nearby.

On the other hand if you switch it to off road mode it will show you a straight line route to the same location.

For a beginer any mid level Garmine GPS will be fine. Just check the packing as it will clearly say off road mode as its one of teh key selling features.

I have a Garmine Nuvi 715 and am quiet happy wiht it. There is no need to spend around AED 3000 for an out of production Garmin 276C like some feel.

Hennie · Thu Nov 03, 2011 9:27 am

harrazh wrote:From my quick search I did using the info I got from your replies guys, I found that to get the trachback and compass features with the on road navigation, I will need two devices

I also have a garmin Nuvi, when in offroad mode it makes a little blue line that record your track, this you can later download or store if you would like to revisit your route. you can also easily retrace your steps on the track that you have traveled

MB Hammer · Thu Nov 03, 2011 12:25 pm

if you are planning to do a lot of offroading, then I really recommend the Garmin 276C. It is expensive but it is far superior to any of the others for offroading. We go offroading more than most, and have recently bought a second one, so we can have one in both our cars, it cost 1800AED from carrefour and the maps and card were 900AED. Sometimes you can get a good second hand one too. My husband often uses a handheld garmin, he really likes it but it is fiddly to input info and I have no patience for that sort of thing

. Being a dual purpose marine navigator, it is also splashproof which means it is sandproof too!

We also have a 3790T bought from carrefour a year ago, it is great for the road, and although it has tracking and offroad mode, the calculations are not dynamic so if you veer off course for any reason, then you have to "recalculate" which is a bit of a pain. Definitely not worth the 1400AEd or so I paid for it (complete with uae/oman maps etc).

Good luck in your choice

Thu Nov 03, 2011 1:10 pm

Scavenger wrote:Hi harrazh,

i have 2 Garmin Gps devices that i always have in my car, one i use mostly for the car, and one i use when im tracking my route when i use my bike in the desert. they both have all youre on-road capabilities and offroad.

1. This one i use while in my car - smaller version of 276c but not with all the ssame functionality. 276c heavy duty + hardcore but takes a while to learn how to use properly,
Garmin Montana

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1151[/ATTACH]
2. This is one i use alot with bike, compact but has all functionality needed in desert and road.
Garmin 62s
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1150[/ATTACH]

As Scavenger said,

Montana 650 .. it is really something worth what you pay for ..

Wasif Ahmed · Thu Nov 03, 2011 2:45 pm

Ya...forget the 276C ...the new rage is the Garmine Montana.

shafiq jan · Thu Nov 03, 2011 10:50 pm

I am having 8" GARMIN and bought it for 300 Dhs from Dragon mart I mean Chines. I am using it for last 6 months with no issues and also have updated maps for city.
It is good for offroad too, can navigate and record routes and having sd card too.
It is more like a computer as there is excel ,word, and windows too,lolz.

276C is no more for 1800 Dhs at carrefour and again the price is 2199, the salesman told me it was 1850 dhs only in promotion and now the promotion is over.
my next target is GARMIN MONTANA 650, which is amazing on and off road with alot of options.

harrazh · Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:25 pm

Thank you all guys for your input, looks like most of you prefer Montana, I'm not planning to do that much of off roading because of my work demands, so I'm thinking of buying something smaller than the 267c. and combine it with a basic handheld device ( maybe I will have more patience to use it

)

Hammer (sorry I don't know your real name

) why do you say that the 3790 is not worth the money, I checked it and liked it, except that the one I found was without the life time traffic.

p.s. By the way guys my real name is Hany, harraz is my last name

MB Hammer · Sat Nov 05, 2011 10:48 am

harrazh wrote: Hammer (sorry I don't know your real name ) why do you say that the 3790 is not worth the money, I checked it and liked it, except that the one I found was without the life time traffic.

p.s. By the way guys my real name is Hany, harraz is my last name

Hi Hany
I think for the money I paid it falls short on offroad features. It can do tracks, but I can't save them on the unit itself, and compared to my friends' garmins, many of which were half the price, it doesn't seem to do a lot more.
Good luck with your purchase
Marina

Tillybean · Tue Nov 08, 2011 10:54 am

Sorry for not responding earlier. Yes, the Garmin 276C does have a track back facility, and yes, its available in Carrefour and also a couple of other places for around 1800 AED.

I went with the 276C because this was one that a lot of other people have and therefore downloading and sharing routes/tracks is really easy. Also, if there was something I didnt understand, then someone else did! After 2 years driving, its only in the last 6 months that I have really started to take any notice of it as I was always too busy concentrating on the dunes!!

Can you borrow a selection and test them?

harrazh · Tue Nov 08, 2011 11:54 am

Thanks all for your valuable information, it was really helpful, for now I bought the the 3790 (unfortunately before I read Marian comment) but in all cases I will need two, as my wife needs one as well, any way I have put it in try as I went yesterday to explore Wadi Asimah, and the 3D feature in it was really helpful overthere to know my way, it logs the track and saves it and I was able to retrieve it on my laptop and manipulate it (its done automatically you dont get to choose which part to save), and also plots the track on the maps which helps to track back as well, the only thing that I didnt figure out was the off-road mode as it wasn't like an arrow that shows me the way, maybe I didn't use it correctly.

Based on your recommendations I will target the 276C.
Thanks all !!! Really appreciate it.

A good GPS for Safari and offroading

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