Traveling to the Canada in the next few months? Instead of relying on information culled from the Internet, travel guides or tours, or friends up in the Great White North, GPS Tour Guide has another option: GyPSy Guide.

A handheld computer the size of the calculator, GyPSy monitors your location via GPS as you drive. When you near an attraction or point of interest, the computer speaks through your vehicle's FM stereo, providing information about the location, history, and even anecdotes. Says Jonathan Bulich of GPS Tour Guide, "They (tourists) don't need to tell it to play. There's no interaction. It just knows where you are." Note that suction cups are available to attach GyPSy in the vehicle.

Electronic "tour guides" using GPS are notthing new, but most are limited in knowledge and coverage. GyPSy Guide covers points of interests in most of Western Canada, Whistler and Victoria.

Most regular tour companies and guides are nonplussed about GyPSy.

 "A guided tour offers a lot more things," says Ms Winnie Yu, manager of reservations for Key West Travel & Tours. "Guides are very knowledgeable and personable and it's not necessarily cheaper when you drive because you end up paying everything at retail rate. In a tour company, especially the bigger ones, they get a wholesale rate and then they put together packages that are cheaper."

Full information of GyPSy's coverage, languages spoken, and daily costs can be found at the link.

[Source: Globe and Mail]