Merry Christmas all!

I was wondering, does anybody know the best place to get my hands on some topo, street, and blue charts for garmin? Or does anybody have blue charts they aren't using? I am mostly interested in the blue charts and topo, but street would be nice too!

Thanks,
Peter

I've been eyeballin' the bluecharts ever since I got my gpsmap60c last year for Christmas. They're pretty high at ~$150 per sector. I want San Diego Bay...

Spill the beans, which unit did you get? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

gpsmap 76csx, was gonna get the 76cs plus but got upgraded, so far i love it.... I just need some maps now... I don't know about the mapsource, but i know blue charts can be used on two garmins....

I have the Garmin 76CS with City Navigator and Topo.
The city maps are Navteq based and quite good. The computer based interface stinks, however. I can look up addresses easy using my Garmin GPS, but on the computer program it's a real hassle--you don't just enter "1800 Belt Line Rd, Mesa, AZ" and have it go there.

Garmin's topo maps suck.
They're acceptable viewing on a GPS (when you have either a blank background or Garmin Topo as your only options), but not much use on a computer screen.

There are many other Topo programs (National Geographic, etc) but they pull data in from the GPS and display your location on a computer. I personally like DeLorme's Topo program, with it's ability to have multiple draw layers (Like AutoCad or PhotoShop vs MS Paint). Unfortunately, you need too have a laptop running as all GPS makers have proprietary internal maps (which is why their map software is more expensive).

ò Compare Garmin Topo vs DeLorme Topo:
See this post: http://forum.delorme.com/viewtopic.php?t=6418
Garmin has two layers of Topo support. Garmin US 24k is just for certain national parks, like their description says. I didn't buy it and don't know what it looks like. Garmin US Topo is very low detail--I have it. Major details only; don't zoom in too far. See these posts:
http://forum.delorme.com/viewtopic.php?t=2574&highlight=garmin+topo+compare
And with a picture comparison with Garmin and DeLorme:
http://forum.delorme.com/viewtopic.php?t=4455

Sweet. You got the expandable memory, right? That's awesome! They make bluecharts on the memory card so all you have to do is buy the card and put it into your unit to use it. I wish mine had the card slot...

On topic, I unfortunately don't have any real world experience with these programs so have nothing to add regarding them. As mentioned before, I'm looking to expand my base unit as well. Good luck on the quest!

I've been thinking of trying to get the street maps from ebay. But alot of times ppl will bid the price up to about the same as retail. Which is very annoying.

I have the eTrex Legend Cx and it came with the topo maps. Its ok but not great. Alot of the streets around where I live arent even shown on there. And on some of the trails I've done not all of the trail is shown. I save the tracks to computer though so the next time I do it I can just d/l the track and follow it.