Sounds like a great trip, I'm jealous! I've been using the Escort 8500 for the past couple of years with good results, no tickets so far
knock on wood! I also have the smart chord which hooks up to either an iPhone or android phone via Bluetooth, which uses a social networking type of thing, allowing you and others to report police locations. I wired mine so that the detector is mounted to the visor and I use my iPad mini as the display. The whole thing works very well IMO.