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Will Garmin 510/520/810 etc from overseas work in Thailand


Pdaz

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I have a 510 and an 800 [kind of a poor man's 810].

Base maps in the 800 are, well, basic. Area specific maps can be bought via Garmin or 3rd party. Ride with GPS charges around $25 for SD micro regional maps.

My take: the 800 maps are okay for road riding [and found my hotel again in Tokyo!! phew] but the small screen means that you're probably better to cache the maps into your phone - battery life permitting. Any scratches on the screen protector look like roads to my failing eyesight....off road mapping useless.

510 is a little slicker, so I guess the 810 would be likewise. I suppose the telling point here would be that I now only use the 800 in Thailand and the 510 when travelling OS. The paper trail is good enough.

Touchscreen on both can be really annoying with default display constantly erm 'defaulting'. A friend has been through all incarnations and now bought a 520 with - wait for it - buttons!

I'd buy a 520. smile.png 1000 is too big.

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If I didn't need turn by turn voice directions for driving, I'd ditch the Garmin (which I love, BTW- in my vehicle) and stick with my smart phone and Google Maps or Navigator.

The quality of Garmin road navigation in Thailand is dependent on ESRI maps of Thailand. They're a 3rd party with office in BKK that do the road maps and updates for Garmins sold in Thailand. I don't know if those maps can be put on a non-Thai purchased GPS or not, and at what cost

That's not to say you can't get around on a bicycle using a Garmin with generic maps, but why bother if you're carrying a smart phone anyway? If you're not carrying a smart phone (I resisted for years), you don't know how much you're missing for getting around in an unfamiliar area.

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If I didn't need turn by turn voice directions for driving, I'd ditch the Garmin (which I love, BTW- in my vehicle) and stick with my smart phone and Google Maps or Navigator.

The quality of Garmin road navigation in Thailand is dependent on ESRI maps of Thailand. They're a 3rd party with office in BKK that do the road maps and updates for Garmins sold in Thailand. I don't know if those maps can be put on a non-Thai purchased GPS or not, and at what cost

That's not to say you can't get around on a bicycle using a Garmin with generic maps, but why bother if you're carrying a smart phone anyway? If you're not carrying a smart phone (I resisted for years), you don't know how much you're missing for getting around in an unfamiliar area.

Garmin has for a few years already their own Thailand map.

Esri maps can be loaded on any garmin unit, but as I said in another post, you will need the Asia basemap installed on your unit to make it function.

Garmin maps are crap, all over the world, not only in Thailand

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