GPS SYSTEM

Help needed for a FNG traveler. I use a Garmin 350 but use only street addresses. Is there any need to use coordinates and how do they translate to street addresses? Does it still follow the street routes or as the crow flies? Confused on why coordinates are still being used.
Richard from Alaska

Here is a link to the page from your manual which tells you how to enter coordinates:

Garmin 350

Confused on why coordinates are still being used.

Coordinates are more accurate and can point to any spot on earth. If I wanted to give you the location of Pass Creek Campground located in Northern California, there's no street address for it. This campground is located in the middle of the forest without addresses. However, the coordinates would get you exactly to a specified spot.

There's a use for addresses, but there's a use for coordinates as well. There are programs that can translate coordinates to an address, if an address exists for that coordinate.

Getting directions to a coordinate is the same as getting directions to an address. The only exception might be that there might not be any roads going to the coordinate. In this case, my Garmin will tell me to "travel off road" once it's given me street directions to as close as it can. If you have your GPS configured to give you directions, it will try to give you street driving directions (the same as an address). However, if you have your GPS configured to NOT give you directions, you'll just get an arrow pointing to the final destination.

I use the Google Maps to mark all the places I have been and want to go to.
I use coordinates extensively because it is more accurate and it is easy to plug into my GPS (TomTom 720).

It takes a little extra work to get coordinates from a map but it pays off in the long run.

Quite often street addresses are for an office or mailing address and NOT the actual location that I need to go to.