srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
Are the e-trex any good for cycling then? Or do you need one of those garmin cycle gps? I always wonder if there suitable for cycling - avoiding A-roads etc..?
Perfect. The cycle-specific GPS gizmos add cadence and heartrate monitoring functionality which aren't actually all that useful for touring - or for anyone who isn't in serious training and trying to get the last milliwatt of power out of themselves.
We toured France for three weeks with an Etrex vista, a netbook and a cheap PAYG mobile. All the hotels and B+Bs bar two had free wifi. As someone has said, you can expect two or three days useful activity from a pair of AAs, which is five or six times the battery life of an iPhone or similar. The netbook carries Garmin's own maps for the whole of Europe, so you're not paying data download fees to see a map, and are in no danger of losing your way because you can't get a mobile signal.