Map Functionality

You don't need to plug in, but a computer is pretty essential to create a route, in my opinion.
Once you create a route in Garmin Connect you can see it on your phone and send to the device then follow it.

For general outdoor navigation on a walk, run or ride I have found the maps brilliant - checking out a footpath direction etc.
I have not used it for navigating in town, but the 'near me' function does give turn by turn to points of interest, so if you could find your destination in the list then it should work well.

The map functionality is excellent. I'm very impressed with it.

There are three ways you can make courses:

1: on Garmin Connect which allows you to create courses with high fidelity - I use this for specific courses I want to go along

2: on Garmin Connect Mobile which allows you to automatically generate a route for a specified activity, general direction, and distance - I use this when I want to just go for say a run or a ride without having to think too much. Routing is done based upon popularity for that type of activity.

3: on the watch itself, doing a similar mechanism as on the mobile app, which is pretty neat, a touch slow, but doesn't require a mobile phone with signal to work.

You can during an activity start navigation, and search for the nearby food and drink places, shops, attractions etc, there is a huge number of details in the watch. Recently I used the feature on a hike to find the exact location of a pub we had been told about whilst on a hike. Again this functionality does not require a internet connection, and will route you according to your activity.

I also love having access to the map during an activity which is great for when I'm leading a bike ride and have the watch on my handlebars.

There are also various other nifty things you can do, I'd recommend having a look at the web manual for the device to see.

I agree that the map functionality is excellent. Let me add another way to make a course. You can export a GPX track from a variety of apps, Strava for example. This GPX track can be a course that was created or just a previous activity. You can then easily upload this into Garmin Connect as a course via the web browser and send it to the watch. I have done this using just my phone a few minutes before a group ride. Someone on the ride had created the route in Strava, I had them export it and send it to me via email. I uploaded it into Garmin Connect on my phone's web browser as we began to mount the bikes...sent it to my watch, synced my watch, and boom it was there. This took all of about 5 minutes.

I'll also add that you have a choice in the watch's navigation set up to either follow "course" or "map". The "course" option will give you small cues at the bottom of the screen along with a sound and vibration alert..I had trouble with this and missed some tuns and had to double back a couple of times. The "map" option will give you explicit turn-by-turn navigation with aggressive vibration and beeping to alert you of a turn. This works much better for me. With the "map" option I believe that the only caveats are that the routing can take a few minutes to build from your course and if you travel too far off course it will redo the route which may be different than your planned course. (I'm still studying this reroute issue..so if someone knows better, please chime in. This has only happened to me once. The rerouting may have just tried to take me to the next logical point on my course and then carry on from there, but I didn't wait to figure that out. I just ended the navigation, then restarted it with that same course. A few moments later I was back on track with my planned course.)

On iPhone, you can actually open the GPX directly into Garmin Connect Mobile and it'll import it - no need to even use your phone's web browser!

It'll open it in Courses and then allows you to say the type of course and then save and sync to the watch.

Wow... This works on the Android version too. Way easier!

I use Dynamic Watch to create custom routes and it works beautifully. I think you have to create them on a desktop computer, but you can use the watch app to download them to your watch.

With regards to mapping, I'm very happy with it for both urban and backcountry exploring. I was in Chicago recently and I exclusively used the watch for navigation by car and on foot. The TopoActive maps that come with the watch are great for the outdoors and include detailed trail markings in the parks I visit. For navigation by car I had to download some free maps but they work great and include businesses and points of interest. If you're looking for a particular store or restaurant you can search for them within the watch and generate directions on the fly. I haven't had any issues with GPS accuracy for navigation.

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