Whenever you go off with your family to take a family road trip or to go on vacation, then you may want to take a navigating system along with you so that you can keep up with the weather, road conditions, and many more issues that can occur.

There are several different multi-navigating systems on the market today, which weighs less than ten ounces. Multi-navigating systems have broken new ground in the GPS market by combining the standard GPS features with new and more integrated electronic compass navigation features. When you throw in barometric pressure monitoring capabilities you will have the best experience with your multi-featured navigation system.

Many multi-navigating systems will provide the standard GPS features of a twelve channel reception, many grid systems, datum choices, ten routes that will hold up to one hundred way-points, and storage for up to one thousand way-points. These devices are waterproof, normally, up to a depth of two feet and for up to ten minutes. What sets many multi-navigating system apart from others is the coordination between the compass and GPS. One example of this is the straight home feature that many multi-navigating system now have.

These multi-navigating systems combines the best of GPS and compass into a single functioning system. For instance, if you are going for a hike on a primitive trail and you want to make sure you can get back to the trail head. All you will have to do is when you park your car hold down the way point button to set the trail head as *Home* then you can go out and hike the trails without having to worry about it again. When you reach your destination and you are ready to return, then you activate the straight home feature to guide you back. You put your multi-navigating system into the compass mode and it will give you the correct bearing and distance to *Home* with arrows to guide you right or left.

With previous GPS systems you needed the GPS and a separate compass to accomplish this, and most GPS systems will also require you to be moving for compass features to work. The multi-navigating system's compass works while you are stopped, which is due to the compass knowing where you are and it can automatically set the declination between true north and magnetic north for your area. In general, most the navigation features of the MNS, such as straight home, are exceptional.

Even the documentation on the navigation features are good with the examples in the manual on GPS navigation using UTM and various way points is one of the better examples. Still, these manuals and other GPS manuals are not going to help customers with purchasing a new GPS systems. A recommendation is that you research all the GPS systems on the market prior to purchasing one, which will ensure that you purchase the system that is best for you and your needs.

You will find that many multi-navigating system's menus are less than intuitive when accessing the various features, but after you have used the system for several days, then the features become a lot easier to find, but it does take some effort to learn. Replacing the battery compartment case is often the most difficult of the GPS systems, because the lanyard is attached to the screw that closes the case, causing lots of twisting of the lanyard before you get the case securely closed.