Hey, Fellers;
I have to confess that, deep down in my soul, I do believe I am getting stupider with age. I have worked MIDI mixing and built professional websites, but entering this whole GPS arena is beginning to fill me with dread. God help me... I'm becoming my father. So, be gentle with me...
The thing is this: I've just gone a little mad, and picked up an Etrex 20 with eyes on a trip to Ireland in the Spring. Basemaps suck - check. So, I went ahead and ate the cost of a local (US NE) 24K, so I can be all cool and Star-Trekky here at home.
Now things get confusing.
From what I (think) I understand, I can subscribe to Birdseye, from which I can download SAT imagery to overlay on the map, giving me a photo-realistic overhead view of where I is. Groovy. Plus One Star-Trekky.
HOWEVER... We shift to over the Atlantic, and we get this thing called "Birdseye Select." From what I can figure, this is simply a Vector copy of the OSI paper maps - no pretty pictures, just terrain lines, etc. So, OK...
Now - you have the Garmin Discoverer series, which, as I thought I'd understood it, is a topo raster map of the same thing.
So I figure I must be wrong about something. Because to spend extra to lay a map over a map would just be kinda stupid... wouldn't it? Is there something I would gain by it, for the week that I would be casually using it?
Finally, are SAT images for the E20 available for Ireland, so I can be the cool kid on the trip with the whiz-bang spaceship device, or am I SOL? Thanks for any clues you can pass on.
BirdsEye satellite imagery covers the globe, to should check your destination with BaseCamp for it's quality as far as resolution and cloud cover. The local versions for the UK are OS maps that also contain a roubtable vector component that you may or may not want to pay for or need.
I know nothing about the UK myself, but have heard that the "TalkyToaster" maps are very popular over there. I believe they are all vector based, but created in a style similar to OS maps. I think they are free.
You will have to figure the rest out for yourself here: http://talkytoaster.com/ukmaps.htm
The UK and Ireland section for geocaching would likely have more people with knowledge about UK map sources, etc. http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?s=1e5dd9fe205cd383ce7e5e8c59dc5d9b&showforum=35
Many posts recommend the talkytoaster site for UK maps