Garmin Nuvi 50 Sat Nav Review

I genuinely do not know where I'd be if I had to rely on maps, I've got the worst sense of direction you could possibly imagine and I don't even know where to start with map reading; which way up does it go for a start?! Not only that, trying to navigate using a map while on your own in the car can't be safe at all! So when I was asked to review a sat nav as a safety and security tester for Tesco Compare* I couldn't pass it up, because I think that sat navs are one of the best inventions this century.

Some sat navs can be quite confusing in how they work, the screens can be too small and the instructions are sometimes vague meaning that it puts you at risk of being a danger to the road, however Garmin have obviously put safety first with the Nuvi 50 as it has lots of features to making navigating easy. The last thing you want to be doing while driving is squinting to see a tiny map but the extra wide 5 inch touch screen makes seeing the details maps and navigating around the options so easy. Everything is so simple with this sat nav; if you're not sure of a postcode you can find places by street name or by using the 'points of interest' feature which lists hundreds of thousands of different places sorted by type (for example if you were running low on fuel you could find a petrol station by just selecting 'POI near me' and 'fuel' and it would give you a list of petrol stations, nearest first).

Garmin Nuvi 50* £84.00 Amazon
When it comes to complicated junctions and exits the Garmin Nuvi 50 has lane assist which helps guide you into whichever lane you need to be in before it's too late; the screen view changes around a mile before the exit/junction to show you where you need to be in relation to your current position on the road. Another fantastic safety feature on this sat nav is the Cyclops Speed Camera system which shows real time warnings of any upcoming speed cameras as as well as an alert if you tip over the speed limit. It also gives instructions with the street name, so for example instead of it just saying 'turn right' it will say 'turn right down Smith Street' so there's no confusion as to where you're turning if there are several right turns in your vicinity.
Overall the Garmin Nuvi 50 is an excellent safe, user friendly sat nav and at £79.00 it suits lots of budgets. 
You can also buy and download maps for different countries to use on the Garmin Nuvi 50 so I think I'll be downloading one for North America because as you'll probably already know I'm going to Florida next month and a sat nav will be our saving grace when driving round. You can program any points of interest in before you go which is ideal, it takes a little bit of the stress away for when we get there, also the maps are only £34.99 which is only slightly more expensive than hiring a sat nav from eBay.