Friends love to rent a car and drive around, often off the more-beaten paths, when they go to Europe. Now they take their portable Garmin GPS with them! Yes, it needs a new chip for Europe - North America and Europe have different requirements.
They get their directions in English, in the same familiar "voice" they hear in the US. With European chip inserted, this equipment works exactly the same as in US and Canada. They put the "US chip" back in when they return to US and Canada, and save the Euro-chip for their next trip.
The only problem they have encountered? The system uses a phonetic pronunciation, and that does not always square with the alphabet/spelling system. Slavic languages, for example, when they drove in Poland and Czech Republic, "took some getting used to," they tell me. But they encountered no problem with street signs in Italy, Germany, France.
I imagine Greek and Cyrillic alphabets might be a bit more complicated than the Slavic language family! If driving in Greece or Russia, etc, get a good map and study it. Familiarize yourself with their orthography (spelling symbols!) beforehand to improve the system's utility. Back it up by studying your map first, use the GPS to help you remember your path and stay on it.
Using your GPS in multiple countries is a great idea! Especially for the Road Warrioress. It's hard to read your map while you are driving. You're multi-tasking as driver, navigator, trip planner, spotter simultaneously - and in unfamiliar territory.
These friends say the Garmin is much better for international/multi-national use than other brands, and with their extensive travel experience, I'll take their word for it and stick with Garmin versus other GPS brands myself. Having reliable, practical, multi-purpose, easy-to-tote equipment makes life on the road so much simpler! Here's to less-stress travel.
May your road rise to meet you,
Ann
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