Sooner or later, almost every traveler is thinking about buying a GPS navigator. At the moment it is not just a luxury, but already a necessity in some way. The navigator will not only allow you to not get lost in an unknown area, but also help with the pleasure to master new territories. Today, GPS navigators are high-tech devices, waterproof, with the ability to load various maps, up to satellite  images of the required terrain, as well as the ability to record in the track various indications such as altitude, atmospheric pressure, air temperature.

Navigators can be divided into the following groups: Portable, sports, auto-navigators, moto-navigators.
In our case, for walking and cycling trips, portable navigators will be of interest.

Which one to choose

Of course, this issue lies in the plane of the necessary goals. One can only say that if you seriously travel to unknown places in any weather, your choice should be appropriate. So you can recommend such manufacturers as Garmin, Magellan, Lowrance.

I want to note that the navigator is primarily not just a device, so as not to get lost, this is something with which you will easily reach the necessary point without becoming attached to a certain locality or routes. Having raster satellite maps you can plot the route right during the movement and explore the territory as you want.

I use the Oregon 450 navigator from Garmin, so I will briefly describe its interesting features, which are present in almost any Garmin navigator.

Navigator Oregon 450, allows you to upload satellite images on a subscription to “BirdsEye Satellite Imagery”, the cost of which is $ 29.99 USD per year. Also, it is possible, when installing a special firmware, to download self-made JNX expansion cards, which are very easy to create in the SAS-Planet program.

Built-in barometric altimeter and 3-axis compass. Compatible with sensors, “chirp”, “tempe”. The last sensor came out not long ago and allows you to know the temperature of the environment and record it in a track.

Navigator Oregon 450, very well proven in practice, waterproof, strong body, for 5 years of operation almost never lose contact in the mountain forest massivs of the Ukrainian Carpathians in any weather, even in a dense forest. Has good accuracy.

To the disadvantages, I would have attributed, very slow work with maps, especially with raster to what eventually you get used to. Garmin announced the output of the Oregon 600 (650) navigator where the work and display of maps will be accelerated and the “GLONASS” system added.