My family and recently took a trip to Florida. We rented a lovely minivan and spent several days visiting family, animal attractions, etc. When we were planning the trip, we realized that we'd have to either print off a bunch of maps to get everywhere we were going, or rent a GPS unit, or buy a GPS unit to help us get around.

Thankfully, we opted for buying a GPS unit. It proved to be well worth the money and we figured we could use it on other trips as well, so the cost could be spread out over more than just one trip.

We searched around for the best machine and best deal. We ended up buying a Garmin 550c off of eBay. It was a fantastic deal and had a bunch of cool new features that some of the older brands didn't have.

Our new GPS not only got us where we needed to go, but helped us find new places to visit that were close to where we were. It helped us find beautiful beaches, shoe stores, Walmarts, grocery stores, and all kinds of other places.

My sister brought her Magellan brand GPS unit. She'd thought it'd be helpful as well. However, hers got her into all kinds of problems because it couldn't figure out where she was and/or couldn't figure out how to tell her to get places.

Obviously, from her experience, we learned that it pays to get a high-quality brand of GPS units! It wasted a lot of her time and cost her extra money as well trying to deal with that little machine.

So our recommendation is that GPS units are one of the handiest things to take on a trip, you just need to make sure you invest in the right brand! Garmin is one of the better brands, in our experience.