Finding your way around town happens one of three ways: Have experience in the city, get lost enough times to gain experience, or ask someone who knows where they're going. Rather than stumble around new surroundings aimlessly, using a navigation system can all but eliminate the bad directions, lost maps and other travel frustrations. Many people won't buy a GPS unit for themselves, but people who've given GPS units in the past as gifts know how thankful the recipient is once they've used them for a month or two. Join us as we break down the best GPS devices for the holiday season.

Features

GPS devices tend to group together similar features at similar price points. While they all share the most basic feature — GPS location and directions — some units offer additional perks, but typically are priced around $30-$50 per feature tier. The most basic feature tier allows for basic navigation from the current location to a desired location. All modern GPS units utilize a touch screen to interact with the device, so that's a given. Most low-end units also offer some form of point-of-interest mapping, which isn't going to give you a Google Maps level of search, but instead will offer basic places that users need to frequently find such as gas stations, hospitals, parking lots, and some businesses who have specific deals with GPS manufacturers to include their businesses on the map. Need to find a local restaurant? Chances are the low-end GPS device won't have any information about local businesses that don't directly relate to a car.

Normally, the most basic GPS units offer simple turn by turn directions, where the driver follows the commands of a mysterious voice, without really knowing on which street to turn. In the next feature tier up, which costs about $150-$200, GPS devices start to add features that make navigating a bit easier than simple "simon says." Units in this price range tend to have a text-to-speech engine, which tries to read the name of each street so drivers are more informed. Instead of hearing simply "Turn right in 500 yards," drivers would instead hear "Turn right on Sixth Avenue in 500 yards." The added convenience might help the experience, but for most users, it's not going to be a make or break situation.

As the prices continue to increase, users can expect built-in traffic receivers, which will let drivers know traffic conditions in realtime, larger screens, built-in FM transmitters for connecting the GPS unit to a car's radio, and some units that give advanced directions as to which lane is the best choice. As the feature set increases, so does the price. High end GPS units can cost around $500-$600.

Picking the right device

Since most devices in a similar price point have similar functionality, we'll break down our favorite groups of devices. Realistically, GPS devices can vary wildly in price depending on the store. Expect to be spending near the $100 level for the cheapest devices this holiday season.

Low-end units

TomTom and Magellan tend to pick up the low-end GPS clientele. This year, we've seen the original TomTom One unit going for as cheap as $100. The unit features a 3.5-inch screen with a 320 x 240 resolution. The unit has support for RDS-TMC, which is radio frequency traffic updates, though it requires an external antenna. On the other hand, Magellan's bargain basement unit, the Maestro 3100, replicates most of the same features of the TomTom, with a similar 3.5-inch touchscreen. For the bargain basement, we'd say look for the cheapest one and expect to get a 3.5-inch display GPS unit without any extra bells and whistles.

Mid-range units

Most of the cheapest GPS units are last year's models, and this year's new crop of low-end units cost about $50 - $100 more, but add some interesting features. Take, for example, the TomTom One 130S. The cheaper version, the 125, is a simple point to point navigator that doesn't offer too many bells or whistles. The 130S offers a text-to-speech engine, which means it'll try to read the street names. Widescreen is also starting to creep down into the new generation of products, too. Garmin's Nuvi 205W has a 4.3-inch widescreen display, though it lacks the text-to-speech engine of the Tom Tom 130S. Magellan's Maestro 4250 is priced at $300 by the manufacturer, but we've seen it at some stores for as cheap as $200. If you can find it, the Maestro 4250 is our pick of the litter, as it features a 4.5-inch widescreen display, has a Bluetooth speakerphone allowing the user to connect a cell phone, and our favorite feature on the unit is voice control so the person can use the device without touching it. We can't vouch for the accuracy of the voice command software as we haven't tried it in person, but even if the voice command software is poor, all the other features make the Maestro 4250 the best of the mid-range.

High-end units

We're not ones to spend $500 or more on a GPS unit, but if the road warrior in your life is constantly hampered by getting lost and stuck in traffic, these more pricey units could help your loved one out. One of our favorite units, the Navigon 7200T, is a bit pricey at the list price of $450, but the unit includes text-to-speech, so called "reality view" which shows the street signs how they're shown on the real streets, and free real-time traffic updates for life, with the ability to reroute around bad traffic. For the price, the Navigon 7200T is a pretty slick little unit.

On the more expensive end, there are other units like the Magellan Maestro 4370, which is pretty similar to the Navigon with a 4.3-inch screen and realtime traffic, though a yearly fee applies, but most notably, Magellan mentions a pedestrian mode which offers foot directions once a user has reached his/her destination. The privilege for foot traffic? $50 over the Navigon, for a $500 list price.

Even more expensive yet is the Garmin Nuvi 880. Our friends at CNET say the unit has the most accurate speech input they've tested, making hands-free entry a breeze. Add in a Bluetooth speakerphone, MSN Direct services allowing users to send the unit directions from the computer, and text-to-speech sign reading, and the Nuvi 880 is one of the most fully featured GPS devices around. However, the full features also come at a full price, which Garmin lists at $800 — though expect to find a retail price much less than that, likely around $600.

Which one is right for me?

We're of the opinion that most people will be fine with a low-end unit. If text-to-speech is your thing, expect to pay around $150, otherwise find the cheapest unit you can as most people simply need to know where they are, and where they're going. Southern Californians and other types who are sensitive to high-traffic nightmares might find one of the other units more suitable since they support real-time traffic updates.

One unit we didn't mention directly in the guide, primarily because it's been discontinued and has a less-than-stellar interface is the Dash Express GPS system. The unit's big feature is two-way communication of traffic, meaning each unit communicates its location and speed to a home server, which then relays the information directly to each other unit. The traffic analysis, as a result, is some of the best we've ever seen. However, the company recently laid off most of its staff, and has changed strategy from manufacturing individual units to creating a platform. If you can find one of these units, likely on Amazon for around $300, users in high traffic areas will especially appreciate the functionality, even though it's a little rough around the edges.

Which GPS device do you think you'll be buying? Can you justify spending the higher prices on more feature-laden units? Sound off in the comments and let us know how you're navigating your car.