Garmin Overlander

The hotly anticipated Garmin Overlander has finally arrived. It’s an all-in-one GPS unit that’s at home no matter if it’s directing users in big cities or small towns, or from tarmac to dirt tracks… or even gravel trails. It’s a GPS unit for those to like to get out. Miniscule Mini Cooper? That’s super cool. Off-roading Rover? Even better. All vehicles should apply.

THE GOOD

The Garmin Overlander has excellent city capabilities but also excels during off-pavement treks. Garmin listened to the traveling enthusiast crowd and decided to make a rugged GPS unit that combines both on- and off-road navigation, can pair with Garmin’s Explore smart phone app, can sync routes or tracks from the device to a smart phone, and can also help find camp spots via pre-loaded websites like Ultimate Public Campground or iOverlander. What’s not to love about this?

n addition to city life, the Overlander GPS can easily switch to off-road navigation. The off-road topo mode showcases lots of stats: public land boundaries, elevation, tracking abilities, oodles of 4×4 tracks and trails, and even more. The Garmin Overlander also offers up a plethora of other goodies like a digital compass, barometric altimeter, and even pitch and roll gauges (super helpful when canted a bit too far to one side in the sand dunes!). This fully loaded product can also record your tracks, ensuring safe passage out if need be.

Although this heavy hitter doesn’t include satellite communication opportunities, it can be paired with inReach devices like the Garmin inReach Mini. Once you have them both, a simple subscription needs to be purchased to make satellite comms a reality, and you’re ready for two-way texting, weather forecasts, and SOS emergency communications.