Find the best gear for your road trip

Planning a road trip this summer? Don’t hit the pavement until you check out these products to help you and your family have a more enjoyable experience.

Top GPS navigators

Preventing frayed nerves and avoiding getting lost aren’t the only benefits of having a global positioning system when you travel. Many of the newest models also make life easier with features such as traffic, weather and gas station info.

The Good Housekeeping Research Institute tested 12 units under $400 for ease of use and their ability to direct the testers. The four favorites:

Insignia NS-CNV20 ($350) and Garmin Nuvi 265T ($250) are easy to use and accurate. With Insignia’s Internet package, you get weather, news and traffic updates, and access to Google ($99 fee after a free first year).

Garmin has traffic included, plus an EcoRoutes function that lets you choose the most fuel-efficient route. With an upgrade to the MSN Direct package ($120 for equipment and first year, then $50 annually), you’ll be up to date with gas prices, weather and news, movie times and more.

Like Insignia, the less-expensive Nextar Q4 ($170) has a text-to-speech function that “reads” street names aloud rather than giving generic “turn left in 100 feet” instructions. Testers’ main quibble: its less-intuitive search.

The best buy, at $120, the Magellan RoadMate 1200 is not as feature-rich or large-screened as others, but it has easy-to-follow menus, multiple map views and ways to customize your route (fastest, shortest, avoiding toll roads).

Pocket camcorders

Why lug around your pricey camcorder? Pocket ones are lower-cost, kid-friendly and designed to record footage you can quickly upload to a Web site —- and even show on a big screen. Of the nine tested, these three overshot the competition.

Top accolades go to the Creative Vado HD ($230), for best overall video taken inside and out. While not 1080p HD, footage on the HD+ setting looked great on our 42-inch HDTV.

If you haven’t gone HD, Pure Digital Flip Mino ($180) was the standard-definition champ. Bonus: Customize its appearance with any pattern, image or photo you want.

From the front yard to the playing field, Kodak Zi6 ($180) blew the testers away with its crisp images taken in well-lit areas. By comparison, video was a bit weaker in low light.

Portable DVD players

As any parent knows, the No. 1 essential on a long trip is a portable DVD player. To make sure you get your money’s worth, the Good Housekeeping Research Institute checked the video and audio quality, durability and battery life of 14 new models. The stars:

Top performer: With a large, 8 1/2-inch swivel screen, easy-to-find-and-use controls and a sleek look, the LG DP885 ($240) won highest honors from our testers and engineers.

The Sony DVP-FX820 ($180) has an 8-inch swivel screen with the controls located just below.

The 7-inch Polaroid DPA-07046 ($130) has the most bang for the buck, with a swivel screen, remote and carrying bag.

Where to write: Good Housekeeping Reports, care of King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.