Etrex Vista Hcx or Oregon 300?

[frankly frankie]

Thanks Andy. Much as I'd love the 25k mapping on the Satmap 10 I can't justify the expense, so what I'm really after is a device that will replace all of my bike computers, give me a grid ref that I can transfer to paper map and will also allow me to record where I've been and upload it to PC and conversely allow me to plan routes on PC and download them to the unit. The Etrex sounds like it would fit the bill.

Even a more basic model like the Geko 201 will do all of that and more, and is a smaller lighter unit (though battery life a bit limited).  The map-enabled Etrexes don't come with maps (nothing useful anyway) so adding the maps would still be a comparable extra expense.   (NB some of the lower-end Garmins use a serial connection, which is becoming a problem for some computer users)
Just mentioning it - personally I strongly recommend going the extra mile and getting something with maps.  I started with a Geko and it did everything I expected and wanted - but I very rapidly realised that the 'added value' of the scrolling map was easily worth the extra outlay.

[andygates]

I'd strongly the mapping etrexes over the gekos - the lack of a map is something I sorely missed before I got my Yellow Lovely. 

As for maps, well, there's OSM (download in my sig) for free, routable, topo maps of the UK and Ireland and cloudmade.com or openstreetmap.org for the rest of the world. 

Or bittorrent, but that would be naughty.

[ibrahim]

I ended up with the etrex legend hcx and am very happy with it. Only used it on one trip so far, using a home plotted route as well as the routing function (with a garmin map), but it behaved excellently. Extras such as the ability to find the nearest railway station also came in handy 

[Aminthule]

Thanks for all your input. I'll look on the web for some pictures of the Etrex units and their displays as they sound like the way to go for me.