With GPS, you might find the Seine without going insane

One of the lowest points of Brian Warner's marriage was when he and his wife, Kathy, got lost while driving in Paris years ago. They argued as they endlessly circled the Arc de Triomphe, running low on gas, searching for their hotel.

Now, though, their frequent driving trips in Europe go swimmingly because of GPS. "I refer to it as our MPS," says Warner, a retiree from Blaine, Wash. "Marriage preserver service."

Tourists abroad who want to avoid the guided tour have an emerging option: the GPS unit in their rental car. The precision of Global Positioning System devices is empowering travelers to visit out-of-the-way locales on their own, without fumbling around with maps, getting lost and getting into arguments with spouses.

Satellite navigation devices have been around for years -- one in six adults in the U.S. now owns or uses a GPS unit or service, according to a recent study by Harris Interactive Inc., a market-research firm, but their improved performance and increased availability are making them a better option for travelers going abroad.

Hertz Europe, a unit of Hertz Corp., plans to extend the availability of its enhanced version of NeverLost, its in-car GPS system, in 2008. The new system was introduced in June and can be used both in the car and carried on foot (it has a five-hour battery charge). It's available at several major European airport locations, including London Heathrow Airport and Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car Co. says it is expanding its offering of GPS systems in Europe. It plans to have units available for rent at airports in the United Kingdom by early next year.

Consumers also can take along and use their own GPS devices that have European maps pre-installed or have been retrofitted with the data. TomTom NV, the portable-navigation market-share leader in Europe, is introducing improved versions of its high-end models this fall. The new units have technology that gives users a better sense of where they are. They also come with European maps installed.

This spring, Garmin Ltd.'s Garmin International Inc. introduced the Nuvi 270 that comes pre-loaded with European maps. The company also sells plug-in Europe SD (secure digital) cards for use with GPS devices that didn't come with maps of Europe.

For travelers going to Asia or South America, GPS availability is limited. Some major rental-car companies are focusing their GPS efforts in Europe. Hertz, for example, has a GPS offering in Brazil, but not NeverLost. Garmin does sell maps of several countries that can be installed on its devices, including Singapore and Malaysia ($99 combined) and Brazil.

Stand-alone GPS units with pre-loaded European maps cost around $600. TomTom's Go 920, for example, runs $599.95; its Go 920T, which comes with a receiver that provides up-to-date traffic information, is $699.95. Also, SD cards that add European maps to GPS devices that lack them, such as Garmin's City Navigator Europe NT card, cost about $300.

Renting a car outfitted with GPS in Europe also costs a bit extra. Hertz charges about 11.50 euros per day (about $17) or 57.50 euros per week (about $85) for a NeverLost unit. Auto Europe, a rental-car wholesaler that represents several rental companies, rents GPS devices for $84 per week (one-week minimum). The units can speak directions in multiple languages.

Alec Tarshis swears by his Garmin Nuvi 370. Once, while traveling in Europe without GPS, the 36-year-old information-technology manager from Los Angeles literally drove off a cliff. He got lost on a tight mountain road, and when he tried to turn around, his car got stuck because the rear wheels came off the edge of the narrow pavement. He had to get a tow truck to pull him out.

With GPS, Tarshis was able to navigate himself and his wife and 2-year-old daughter to Galway, Ireland, from Dublin in July to attend a friend's wedding, a 2½-hour drive from Ireland's eastern end to its west. "It's amazing how much less stress we had because we didn't have to keep looking at a map," he says.

GPS devices use satellites to pinpoint their location. Several current models provide traffic information and contain listings of hotels, restaurants and points of interest. Hertz says that NeverLost can provide directions to any postal code or street name in its coverage area in Europe.

The systems aren't flawless, however. Coverage in Eastern Europe is spotty. The maps in TomTom's top-of-the-line Go 920 models have detailed coverage of Hungary and the Czech Republic, for example, but only major roads in Bulgaria and Romania. NeverLost users have griped that the older system's maps were difficult to read. (Hertz says that the recently released version has a larger display screen and an internal processor twice the size of its predecessor, which makes the unit faster and gives it higher-sensitivity reception.)

Also, consumers complain that GPS units sometimes suggest obscure back roads with few signs. Trucks, lorries and other large vehicles following satellite navigation repeatedly have gotten stuck on narrow roads in the U.K., prompting authorities in the South Wales village of St. Hilary to put up road signs instructing truckers to ignore their guidance systems.

Experienced users say that the devices often can be configured to suggest either the fastest possible route -- which usually involves main roads with high speed limits -- or the shortest-distance.

But GPS-guided touring is a convenient and cost-effective option for travelers who want to venture outside major metropolitan areas, says Michele Keeley, an agent for Carlson Wagonlit Travel in Eden Prairie, Minn. Travelers who are planning only to see sites within a city's limits shouldn't bother with it or a car, she says, because parking is often scarce and driving is sometimes subject to taxes. Drivers traveling through central London during daytime must pay an 8 pound (about $17) congestion charge; Oslo and Stockholm also have driving charges.

Warner, the retiree from Washington, is lending his Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS unit to his son for a trip to Germany soon. Warner and his wife successfully used the GPS last year on a trip to Denmark, where they attended a wedding in a small village an hour and a half away from Aarhus, the country's second-largest city after Copenhagen. "Could we have found it without GPS?," Warner says. "With great difficulty."