City Navigator Israel Maps For Garmin GPS Devices For Just $72.14 Shipped From Amazon!

I’m in Israel right now on vacation. Before I came here I updated to a new Garmin on sale in Costco, one that accepted the Israel maps and bought the maps from Garmin (for regular price). It was cheaper to buy the maps than rent it from the rental places!
I recommend this to anyone coming to Israel and driving. If your destination might take you through a C area, it asks if you want to bypass it. We didn’t because we felt the Israelis are doing a good job in protecting those areas.
The biggest problem with the unit is spelling things like Garmin does. It’s a lot of trial and error. But once you get it, it works great. Things like Chaim may be called Kaim. Remember, there are a number of ways to get to a destination. I recommend carrying maps in your car as well.
If you’re going to Israel, have or are getting a Garmin (check that it’s an appropriate model for the Israel maps), and are driving there, it’s on sale, GRAB IT!

does it spell in hebrew?

@MuttyL:
Thanks for the review.

@sam:
You can spell street names in hebrew, I don’t think it will talk in hebrew though.

does tomtom have anything similar?

It is always best to enter the destination information in Hebrew as this avoids mistakes. There is only one way to spell the name in Hebrew but the transliteration is very sloppy.

its actually $67.15

I purchased the card for my Garmin when I went about a year ago. Loved it really helpful but I had one problem I could not do a search in Hebrew I tried everything until I decide to rewrite a Hebrew keyboard for the GPS and it worked wundrfull.
Again if you going to drive around a lot and buy it

How does avoiding Yehuda and Shomron work? Is it a menu option that you set, or does it ask when calculating the route?

Also, if I have two Garmins (yes, my own), can I use one map pack for both? Or do I need to buy two?

We did this for 2 units. Depending on the base unit you have, it tries to steer you away from Area C. For instance, it won’t naturally take you onto road 443. Great deal, though, especially if you have an old Garmin lying around.

@GW:
You need to have a compatible model number to search in hebrew.

@Moishebatchy:
Menu option.
It will work wherever you put the sd card with the maps.

any idea if this is the updated version? Garmin has a January 2012 version on their site. i tried to contact amazon to find this out but haven’t received a reply.

I currently have a mio gps for Israel that was given to me by a friend. He was forced to buy it from the car rental agency because its screen cracked. It is 3 years old. Does anyone know if it will still be up to date for my trip in feb. or should i get the Garmin maps?

haverim, bring your iphone or android phone to Israel and use what the locals use – waze. Look it up – awesome application, very useful, created in Israel, and FREE!

the maps are very good. They even tell you if you are going into an area that is “not safe” say going to jerusalem through modiin instead of kvish ( highway 1 ) echad.

If you know where you are going, i wouldnt take it too seriously, but be careful. ( the moddin way is so much easier for your car, not many hills )

@sholom:
Which maps are you referring to?

@yair:
The roaming charges that Verizon would charge me to use that app on my Android would far exceed the cost of the Garmin maps…

@Dan
I have the nuvi 1350T. and I bought the SD card in December 2010 it had everything in Hebrew the maps and settings but it was missing the Hebrew keyboard file so I could not search anything in Hebrew. Eventually I figured out how to make a Hebrew keyboard file and I added it to the SD card, it worked great.
Maybe in that version they didn’t have the Hebrew keyboard.

Anyway its still a good buy especially if you already have a compatible GPS its a better option then renting a GPS in Israel.

@GW:
Did you try calling Garmin for support?

Garmin takes the maps from Mapa, which has the best map for Israel to this date, till now the best map was from NavNGo (iGO), but Garmin’s far succeeds it, it even has phone numbers for almost all attractions, or any other POIs, as far as the Hebrew Keyboard, you should update the device software through their WebUpdater.
http://www8.garmin.com/products/webupdater/howtoinstall.jsp
And here you can download the Hebrew Voice (it’s not TTS though, this means that it doesn’t say the street names, but this is the only one Garmin currently has).
http://www.multiupload.com/4XG8H37PIP

And if for any reason you can’t get the Hebrew Keyboard on your device, here is the Hebrew keyboard for the nuvi 1xxx devices.
http://www.multiupload.com/JQX7VVOZWE

@Dan: Was using iGO Israel for iphone, but also used Waze – just download the maps when in a wifi zone and it won’t cost any data roaming (my data roaming was turned off).

I have a Nuvi 2555LMT and I purchased the city navigator Israel (because it was cheaper to buy a city navigator Israel map SD card for $35 than to rent one in Israel for $7/day for 2 weeks). At first, I was having the same difficulties that other users listed above, where I could access the Hebrew keyboard but was unable to search for locations or enter addresses in Hebrew. I WAS able to search for points of interest in Israel in English so I knew the Israel map was working. I tried following the link above to download a new Hebrew keyboard, but no keyboard updates were currently available. In the end, I called Garmin and spoke with a representative who was very helpful. After trying various things, we finally figured it out. Aside from changing the language of the keyboard to Hebrew, you also need to change the text language to Hebrew. This will change all the text on your GPS to Hebrew which could be challenging if your Hebrew’s not great, but it will probably be easier to search for points of interest. Good luck and hope this helps you.