Garmin 010-01735-10 inReach Explorer+, Handheld Satellite Communicator with Topo Maps and GPS Navigation

I fly as a pilot over remote areas and thought this might be a useful addition for safety reasons. Turns out it is not so useful, given the unit price and service plan cost.

Garmin is evil. I signed up for an annual plan at $11.99 per month. After 6 months my car was broken into and my inReach stolen. I called Garmin and they say I still have to continue paying for my annual contract or I can cancel now, but I will have to pay the remaining contract balance.

I’ve tried a few. The worst by far was zoleo. This one might not be the most intuitive or have the best battery life but it’s solid all around and reliable.

The main selling point for me was the satellite text function & GPS tracker. I really like how you could plug in the waypoints for your hike, and add a route to help navigate. That all worked like a charm.

Beware! Garmin will continue to charge your card even when they are not providing services.

works great for tracking while hunting

Love my enreach.just used it in the yukon wilderness.Signal was perfect and texting back home was awesome. Highly recommend for a long away hunt to keep in contact with home.

This is an update to an earlier review.

Good communication device. Garmin Earthmate maps are outdated. Dont bother spending for the one with the screen as the maps suck and you can use the Earthmate app with any Inreach. That being said, even those maps suck as there is not much selection and they are old.

I mostly purchased this to communicate with my family members while out on the trails (Ocala National Forest and the Appalachian Trail) and for that it works great, all family members get my messages and I receive messages from them when I want or need to retrieve them (I set it this way so I dont get messages while I am enjoying myself!) Best thing so far is that while on a week long section hike of the AT my husbands knee locked up after a few days of discomfort and while we were only 7 miles from our end point we had a mountain in our path and there was no way to know if he was going to be able to make it over that climb. Thankfully we had the Inreach! I used the map feature to spot a cross trail that was .2 miles behind us that lead to a road about .5 miles down the trail. I was able to text a hiker shuttle guy who picked us up right at the end of that road! All from the Garmin Inreach! I have not had to use the SOS feature yet and hopefully I do not have to but so far I love it! Best $500 I have spent on gear!