Review on 🗺️ Exploring the World with Garmin eTrex 30 Handheld GPS Navigator by Brandon Christianson

I've been using GPS on my phone for hiking and hiking for a few years now. The EveryTrail app is fantastic. However, the phone's battery only lasts about 4 hours of constant use as a GPS, and after hiking with other people with Garmins I finally bought this Etrex 30. It's light (4.5 ounces with battery), lasts MUCH longer than my phone and works much better than GPS. Now I can keep my phone off and save battery life. (Plus, it's much easier to read in bright light than it is on my phone, and unlike my phone, it's easy to view with polarized sunglasses.) However, there are plenty of negative comments and feedback that I'm glad I ignored. No, the maps do not come with this unit, but they are available online for free at gpsfiledepot.com, good quality maps with installation instructions. I put the California topography and two separate hiking route overlays in the onboard memory and still have over 1GB of free space. A microSD slot is available for those who need more space. You can also find free GPX tracks online that can be transferred to GPS. For example, EveryTrail has many high-quality hiking trails that can be saved as GPX files (from the EveryTrail website) and then transferred to GPS using Garmin's BaseCamp software. In fact, this is now my favorite way to get directions on GPS, with free California topo as the background. Yes, the instructions are poor or absent, but the menus aren't that difficult to understand if you've used GPS in some other form. Just go through the menu and play around with it a bit. Some of the default features are annoying, but all the issues I've encountered so far have been resolved with the settings. (For example, I didn't see the place names until I changed the map settings, and I don't need a constant backlight, which just drains the battery and changes color to red.) I agree they might include a lanyard, and there is no clip with this thing. For now I keep it in my shirt pocket, but I'll probably attach a carabiner and zip tie to the lanyard attachment point to make sure it doesn't get lost. This is my first standalone GPS and I'll probably find out more things over time, but given the weight, battery life, accuracy, and the many free maps I'm pretty happy with. It's much more reliable than using my phone.