Best GPS For Overlanding In 2023 (Reviews and Comparison)

1. Garmin Overlander – Best Touchscreen GPS

If there has ever been a GPS designed specifically for overlanders, it would be the Garmin Overlander. Every single feature that you find packed into this gadget has been designed to make overlanding so much easier.

For starters, you have full topographical and street maps for the whole of North America. This means that once you have unpacked this and charged up the batteries, you can head out on the road right away. There is no need to slave away in front of a computer.

Although, of course, you can use the Garmin Explore feature if you want to download maps for other destinations or perhaps update the ones on the device. You have 64GBs of storage for you to do that.

The maps aren’t basic either. These maps come preloaded with lists of sights and campsites that may be useful when you are out there exploring. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of heading off-road.

One of our favorite feature inclusions is ‘Know Your Vehicle’. When you tap in details about the size, weight, and type of vehicle that you own, the Garmin Overlander software will plan a route based on your specific vehicle.

You will no longer be guided down tight and narrow lanes while driving a massive vehicle.

This is a fully wireless system. The battery lasts a solid 3-hours, which can be great for taking on motorcycles and ATVs, i.e., situations where you may not necessarily have a port that you can plug the system into.

That’s barely scratching the surface of what this GPS can do. Take a look at the Garmin Overlander’s features and specs above.

What We Like

We do love the fact that this has been designed for overlanding. While we do not doubt that people will eventually start to download their maps, there have been many cases where we found the preinstalled POIs and campsites useful, particularly on multi-day trips.

We also loved how easy the system is to use. While there is a lot of customization, the basic features can be accessed with no more than a couple of taps of the screen.

What We Don’t Like

While the Garmin Overlander has been designed for overland use, it is more of a hybrid GPS. Unfortunately, this means it does leave off some features that you may find helpful when it comes to street travel, e.g., traffic data.

It also leaves off a few features you may find in other overland devices, although nothing particularly striking. Just bear in mind that the device attempts to be a jack of all trades.

Sometimes you don’t need a fully-fledged GPS. You just want something that ensures you’re heading in roughly the right direction. You want something with a long battery life that you can pull out just to keep tabs on where you are.

This is where a handheld system such as the Garmin GPSMAP 66i can come in handy.

Right off the bat, some features can be useful for new overlanders. Yes, there are topographical maps built into the 66i. However, you can also download satellite imagery.

This is free. There is no subscription required. This can help you to place yourself a little bit better if you aren’t used to the reading topology. Satellite imagery, in our experience, is so much easier to read.

This is a small device, but the type of gadget that you can easily slide into your pocket when it isn’t being used. If you set it to track your location every 30-minutes, you can get a whopping 200-hours of battery life out of it. Are you tracking every 10-minutes? About 36-hours.

This means that it is one of the longest-lived wireless GPS devices for overlanding. It is ideal for those that want multi-day trips.

What We Like

This is a highly portable GPS unit. It is no bigger than a walkie-talkie. Just slide it into your pocket, and it will keep tabs on your movements. It is perfect for those that want a GPS for basic navigational purposes but don’t want to lean on it too heavily.

We especially loved the battery life. As we stated, the battery can last up to 200-hours, which is huge. However, we love that the system allows us to turn on and off features to increase or reduce battery life.

For example, if you know that you can reach a charger within the next day or so, you can tell the GPS to update your position every minute.

If you need to improve the battery life, you can set this up to every 30-minutes.

What We Don’t Like

The screen doesn’t have a huge amount of detail. Although, we suppose this can’t be helped since it is a 3″ screen. This isn’t a brilliant GPS for fully-fledged navigation.

It is more of a GPS that you can use to ensure that you are going in the right direction.

It is also not a touchscreen device. This can make it a little bit trickier to use. There are a lot of features here, but navigating through them with the buttons can be cumbersome at times.

While you can easily use this GPS device for all forms of overlanding, the Garmin Zumo XT has been designed with motorcycles in mind.

This fully waterproof and rugged device is easily capable of being attached to your motorcycle cockpit. It is incredibly durable and will survive even the most horrendous weather when you are off-roading.

So, don’t be afraid to use this GPS in a bit of wind or rain.

It offers a 6-hour battery life, which is great for most trips. However, if you plan on heading out for those longer adventures, then you can hardwire the Garmin Zumo XT onto your motorcycle.

This ensures that the GPS has power for as long as your motorcycle does.

The Zumo XT offers a wealth of mapping options. You have street and topographical maps as standard. You can also load on some satellite imagery.

You can flick between each mapping method with a tap of your screen. This ensures that you always have the best map up for the situation you find yourself in.

The most motorcycle-centric feature of the Garmin Zumo XT is the adventure routing. This system will turn even the blandest of rides into a thrill-a-minute adventure.

It will steer you clear of straight roads and instead will have you on an adventure full of twists and turns. It is ever so exciting.

What We Like

We enjoyed how rugged this device is. It is clear that it can take quite a beating. By all accounts, it has met military drop-test standards, which we can only imagine means that this thing is virtually indestructible.

This is ideal when you are off-roading on a bike. After all, we have all had our falls while traversing the outdoors.

The screen on this is stunning too. It is full color and backlit. This means that you should have no issues reading it, even as you attempt to navigate around tight angles or at blistering speeds.

The GPS works perfectly, which means that your position on the screen is kept up to date.

What We Don’t Like

The UI is not the most intuitive. There are many options on the screen, and tapping the wrong one can bring up a menu that you didn’t want to bring up.

This isn’t exactly ideal when you are riding a motorcycle. After all, you often only have one hand free to control whatever it is you need to be doing.

Always want to keep a photographic or video log of your overlanding trips? The TRX7 could be ideal for you. It comes with an 8MP rearview camera.

You can switch this to multiple modes, including video recording and time-lapse. You can start the recording yourself, or you can program it to start as soon as you hit a trail.

Whatever you do, once the TRX7 camera is turned on, it is going to record all of the action.

The TRX7 comes preloaded with 160,000 different off-road trails across the United States. This number is always expanding.

This is because the team at Magellan has designed a crowdsourcing system where people can share their routes. This means that there will always be something a bit different to explore. 

The rugged, water and dustproof construction will allow you to use this GPS device with whatever vehicle you plan on taking off-road.

What We Like

The inclusion of the cam is the real highlight here. While 8MP is hardly the greatest camera in the world, it still creates crystal-clear videos. We enjoyed the fact that you can review them on the screen right away.

We also liked the fact that you can control the TRX7 using both touchscreen and button controls. Very few overland GPS do this. They mostly opt for one or the other.

You will also find expandable storage. As long as you have an SD card, you can boost the amount of storage space on the device. This will allow you to save more videos and maps.

What We Don’t Like

While you can add an SD card to the GPS, the onboard storage space isn’t that high. It is just 16GB, which means you will barely be able to save any video or maps.

When most other systems on the market opt for at least 64GB, this is a little bit disappointing. 

The street maps are also appalling, which is somewhat annoying since it is an advertised feature for the TRX7. This is purely an off-road GPS.

The Garmin InReach Explorer+ is an ideal GPS for those that want something they can just slide into their pocket. This is a GPS that has been built for those that truly love the adventure of heading off the beaten track.

The Garmin inReach Explorer+ supports topographical maps as standard. The device comes loaded with a ton of them.

However, if you pair it up with your phone, you will be able to download some satellite imagery too. This is surprisingly rare on smaller devices like this, and we are sure that satellite imagery can be a lot more useful for some people.

Safety features are at the forefront of this GPS too. While some are locked behind a subscription service (Global Iridium for two-way messaging), others are free, including the ability to send an SOS or keep your friends and family up to date with your current location. 

While the screen of this device is small, it is easy to read. You should be able to easily pick up your routes and spot key features on the maps.

What We Like

We do like how small this GPS is. It can easily fit into a pocket. Despite the small size, Garmin has managed to fit a huge number of features into it.

It is also one of the only portable GPS units on the market that you can download satellite imagery to.

This device has a great battery life too. 30-hour lifespan, even if the device is constantly tracking your location. This can be good for a couple of days out there on the trails.

What We Don’t Like

Most of the features of this GPS are locked behind a paywall. If you are not willing to give cash to Garmin each month, then you will lose around 50% of all features of the device. This means no access to the namesake service, InReach.