Garmin Topo GB Review

Overall Rating

It provides reference data in remote areas

It's not OS Explorer level detail

Initially on reading reviews of this product I was somewhat disillusioned. I bought with some trepidation but nevertheless I suspected, gambled even on the basis of other reviews, that having some detail on the GPS screen when in the middle of nowhere would at least be better than a blank screen and it really is. Key factor is that well into the Cheviots, I can look at my GPS screen and compare with the OS Explorer map I am carrying and easily identify my location almost with a glance, rather than read off the grid reference and transpose that to the OS map. Some reviewers not just on this site, but elsewhere have suggested that you are better of with the City Select/Navigator series. Well that's fine if you are happy with a blank screen in remote upland areas and at least with TOPO GB I can now walk along the banks of the Tyne or along the North East coast without appearing to be in the middle of the river or wetting my feet offshore as is the case with City Select/Navigator. If you are an outdoor, off road, high hills activity person in remote the locations of Northumberland, the Lake District or the Scottish uplands, then this is for you. City Select/Navigator is fine for those who stick to the provenances of the average tourist but you can expect nothing on your GPS screen in really remote areas.

I don't know what people expect of this product but I am delighted with it. The level of detail may not be as per the OS 1:25k maps but then what do you expect for the price. To buy the whole UK at 1:25k OS detail maps from Anquet or TrackLogs would set you back around £1000 so for about 12% of that cost would anyone expect the same level. Then even if you spent £1000 to get the whole country for one of these alternative mapping products, you still wouldn't be able to download any of the topography to your Garmin GPS. As for the detail of tracks & paths, it certainly doesn't have the detail comparable with an OS Explorer 25k map but I have found tracks/paths in remote areas marked on the maps of this product that you would find difficult to find on the ground, as they are so little trod. Don't expect OS Explorer 25k Map detail but used in combination with OS Explorer maps TOPO GB is a significant aid and in my perspective worth the money, providing data in remote area where City Select/Navigator provides none.

However, isn't it scandalous that our rip off government monopoly namely the ordnance survey can impose such limitations as restricted view and no printing. Further they rip off multiple times people who purchase Memory Map/Anquet/TrackLogs and others in so far as every time the software is upgraded they render the existing maps unusable and a new set has to be purchased. Biggest con merchants in the business and if they were a private organisation would be publicly exposed, but they revel in their government protection.

Elsewhere the US government has decided that mapping data is a countrywide resource and many countries also have a more consumer friendly approach. Only in the UK, with the ordnance survey is such a rip off approach pursued.

Members' Comments onpathfinder's Review

• jason13323 on 1st Apr 2008

  I found this review helpful because the reviewer used this product in exactly the way I intend. Garmin thanks you since I will now purchase Topo GB!