Comments on: Hawaii Vacation Driving Stress Reducer – GPS Navigation System

By: ISLANDS Travel News – latest news, deals, tips and photos

ISLANDS Travel News – latest news, deals, tips and photos — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:20:31 +0000

[...] Don’t get lost in the aloha state: Here are some tips for using your GPS on Hawaii. [...]

By: sheila

sheila — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:43:03 +0000

@ Kris – Thanks for sharing your experience with your phone on Maui. That’s very useful to know that phones aren’t as reliable as a stand alone GPS navigation system. I laughed at your uncle’s experience with the GPS in Honolulu. Oh my! I can imagine it did make a difference. Andy and I joke that using the GPS on our last stay saved our marriage.

@ Stephen – Great tip for making your car less enticing to thieves! Thanks for adding that. Yes, there is much to be grateful for this holiday season! I wish you blessings upon blessings!

@ David – That’s a great idea to pre-program in the addresses of the places you want to visit before you get to the islands! What a time saver!

By: David

David — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:07:10 +0000

I’ll second Kris’ suggestion of using a stand alone GPS. We used ours all over Maui the last couple of trips with good results.

Driving over the “top” of Maui our little GPS let us know just how many more miles of wonderfully winding narrow road we had left to go. There is no cell phone coverage for most of that drive, so a cell phone GPS would probably have not worked.

As we’re planning our trips I’ll program the GPS with locations we might like to visit. Then when we get to the Islands it’s simple to retrieve these places of interest.

And a general caution about depending on GPS navigation. It often lacks common sense in its route planning. Sometimes the shortest, fastest or most economical route is not the best route. Always have a map and a general idea of where you are going.

David

By: Stephen Hopson

Stephen Hopson — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:04:59 +0000

I also have a Garmin GPS for my car and I love it.

One thing I would suggest is that not only should you take it down when parking your car somewhere, but you should also take a napkin, wet it a little and wipe away the circular impression left by the suction cup because a potential thief will see the ring and think the GPS is left in the car somewhere.

I got that tip from my Dad who also owns a portable GPS.

Happy Thanksgiving! Much to be grateful for.

By: Kris

Kris — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:25:48 +0000

I have a Sprint smartphone that has a built in GPS receiver and, combined with the Google Maps Mobile download, I thought I was pretty much all set. It worked most of the time, however, the mobile version Google Maps on a cellphone requires an Internet/Data connection, which isn’t always reliable throughout the islands.

It stopped working on us during our last trip on the Road to Hana because my cellphone couldn’t get a signal. I have a GPS travel recorder that I use for my photographs, and checking the data from that, I actually had a GPS signal the entire time. So a dedicated GPS navigation device that doesn’t require Internet connectivity might be the preferred method, unless you know that you’ll have cell phone coverage 100% of the time.

Also, my cousins were visiting Oahu for a soccer tournament this past July. Their hotel was in Honolulu and all the games were in Pearl City. My uncle said his GPS was a BIG help, especially with a mini van full of young teenagers.