If you like offroad, make sure you look for a couple of features. One is the ability to choose different routes, especially non-interstate routes. I use a Magellan that gives you four routes instantly--quickest, shortest, most use of freeways, and least use of freeways. That's helpful.
Second, make sure you can program different stops. Some units let you enter only a beginning and end point, and not points in between. Others let you plan multiple destinations, so you go from Austin to Albuquerque by way of Clovis or Muleshoe, and thus completely change the way it will route you. If you can't add a stop to your route, it's harder to make it do what you want. Most seem to let you have multiple locations now, but not long ago Tom Tom didn't, and there may still be models out there.
Third, make sure you can change your route, and find one that lets it happen easily. Magellan, for instance, lets you avoid a "maneuver" on the route, meaning once it's planned, you can go through each step and say "avoid this segment," and it will figure out a different route. Also you change it on the fly with a command that lets you avoid 1 to 20 miles from where you are, in case you hit a traffic jam.
If you're going adventuring, those are things that will make it easier to tell the GPS to get you off the highways. I've found a lot of times I cancel a route, go exploring on my own, and then turn it on when I'm ready to go back. In that case, it's a good feature to have a lot of destination buttons. For instance, one of my older ones let me set only two permanent routes, so wherever I was I could press "Home" and it would get me out of whatever I'd gotten into. That's a good feature. The one I have now has about 20 buttons I can program, and better, it has a memory that will pick places I've been and let me choose them again. So if you head to Albuquerque and decide you want to explore the Guadalupe Mountains for a while, just get yourself as lost as you want, and when you're ready to get back to the main road again you can just click your original destination from memory and it will plot you home from there.
That's how I use mine. I'm lousy at planning. Others plan out the whole route before they leave, so a lot of units are geared to them. They are great to plot out every part of the trip, but harder to adjust on the route. So that's in general the types of features you are looking for.
I used to have an old Mio which may have been the best I owned, even though it got low ratings. It was not only good at picking alternate routes, but it displayed a lot of useful info on the screen at once--trip distance remaining, ETA, estimated time left, for instance. Most of the others I've seen will let you display only one of those. The Magellan I use now lets you toggle between those settings at a touch to the screen, but it was still better having them all visible at once.
I like the Magellan I have, and you seem to drive like me, so check it out. I did a lot of reasearch before I bought it. Here's a review:
http://reviews.cnet.com/car-gps-navigation/magellan-roadmate-1470/4505-3430_7-33611149.html?tag=contentMain;contentBodyHere's a good list of others:
http://reviews.cnet.com/best-gps/?tag=rightColumnArea1.0Be sure to check the model. Different models vary greatly even in the same brand.
Just some thoughts. Hope they help. :)
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