Rather than hiring a GPS...

[Paddy55]

A few years ago, I bought a TomTom GPS locally in Australia, and you could choose either North America or Europe maps for free. I now bring my own GPS with loaded Nth American maps to use when I hire a car in Nth America, avoiding all the extra charges

Did same thing, except bought one with World Wide maps. Especially useful as my 5 yo Kluger doesn't have GPS built in so use it at home too.

 

[AdMEL]

I used to always get a GPS, or GPS equipped car, then I found Co Pilot GPS on my Samsung Phone. I had to buy some maps, but it is awesome! In the USA it has great lane departure advice, invaluable on some of the on-ramps and off-ramps around LA. Once you buy the maps, they are yours. You can also just buy maps for a region, not a whole country, which is handy. No data need! I used it everywhere I go, anywhere in the world.

I used Co Pilot on my iphone 4S in NZ recently - as you say, awesome! Even better, you can get a 14 day free trial at no cost!

I just bought an app for my phone and its on my ipad too, full maps offline, but if you have data will pull updates as needed etc..

Which app and what cost?

 

[Quickstatus]

I just use google maps on iPhone with a prepaid local SIM card with data. You would need to change the APN software using unlockit.co.nz. An external battery juice pack as Google maps is highly battery intensive. And on return to Oz, I reset network settings. Google maps does not chew up much data and seems to work in areas with very poor cellular reception. Very easy for searching restaurants around you, public transport options. In car I use a mobile phone holder.

 

[harvyk]

Well, have just "rented" the US maps, was all pretty painless. I did think about going the one step more and purchasing the US maps, but the last time I needed a GPS (where I didn't just rely on public transport / friends to get me around) was 2010.

I've used phones and tablets in the past along with both google maps and apple maps, I just prefer have a dedicated device for it. I have no plans on purchasing a travel sim whilst we're there (if I need to make a phone call I'll either rely on skype over one of the many free wifi's we'll have access to, or just sump up the few dollars since I'm with vodafone and they keep saying international roaming $5)

It's just I'd never heard of renting maps before, I was always under the impression that if you wanted a map, you'd need to buy it.

 

[Scarlett]

For our J RTW last year we used a programme (or app - I'm a luddite I have no idea what it was - but I knew how to make it work and follow its directions) downloaded to my missus' iphone. It was called SYGIC and cost about $80 for whole world maps for life. All that was needed was to download the maps for the countries we were going to before departure and then they could be accessed whilst the phone was offline.

So, we've now got Aussie maps on it whenever needed and we used it on the trip in: South Africa; Jordan; UK; Finland; Estonia; Canada; USA and Japan.

The other thing needed to make it work was the after-market cradle to hold the phone up on the dashboard / windscreen. The only thing it doesn't come with is voice navigation as that is an extra cost if you want it.

I recommend Sygic as a decent travel GPS option.