by Jessica Barker, 19 June 2008

If you're considering a self-drive vacation in sunny South Africa, there's no money better spent than on a mobile Global Positioning System (GPS) to navigate your way around the country.

The benefits of using a GPS are numerous and include, among others, not having to dangerously scrutinise a map book while you're driving; no more unnecessary disagreements on the road because one of you (usually the passenger) wants to ask for directions while the other (usually the driver) refuses to admit that they're lost; no more trying to decipher ambiguous road signs and no more wasted time or fuel on "detours".

These days, when flying into any of the international airports in South Africa, you can pick up your GPS while collecting your rental car, although you do need to let your Go2Africa travel specialist know that you're interested in this option beforehand, so that we can ensure there's a GPS ready and waiting for you on arrival.

If you're not sure how to operate a GPS, don't worry about a thing, it's been designed to be incredibly user-friendly! So what you do is take the cell phone-sized device and fix it to your windscreen. Once you've allowed it sufficient time to power up, you can key in your destination and it will suggest the shortest route by map and voice command.

If you're feeling a little unsure, you can also ask the representative who'll be signing out your GPS at the car rental company for instructions. Otherwise, don't be scared to have fun exploring the functionality of your GPS by punching in different options on the touch screen.

You may even find, to your delight, that you can use your GPS as a great source of information. For example, you can search for attractions, lodgings, food and shopping wherever you are.

If you don't have any particular place in mind, you can select "all" in any of the categories above and the GPS will give you the names, distances, direction and drive time of all these places within a 20km radius - great for discovering hidden gems.

Having had first-hand experience of just how useful a GPS can be when you're in an area you've never travelled to before, I would recommend that even when using one, have a good idea of your expected time of arrival (drive time) at your destination, orientation and trust your instinct.

There are times when you could lose satellite transmission, and in this instance it's always good practice to have a map book on-hand as a back-up plan.

Is GPS infallible? Well, as the GPS calculates the quickest route to your destination based on distance, you may find that it gets itself a little confused when you're in an area where there's more than one route that'll take you to your destination.

In this case, keep your eyes open for road signs and have a look at the landmarks and landscape to make a directional decision. Within 15 seconds of "recalculating", your GPS will settle and let you know whether you should continue in the direction you've chosen, or make a U-turn.

Another great feature of the GPS is geocaching! Geocaching is a worldwide treasure hunt game where you use your GPS to hide and/or seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere around the globe. The average cache will consist of a container with a logbook and treasure - usually toys or trinkets of little monetary value, but sometimes the prizes are quite substantial.

The only complaint men may have about the nifty GPS is that now he really does have to take directions from a woman!

Article © Copyright 2008 Go2Africa.

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