A display method and apparatus for a navigation system promotes to quickly search a desired on a map image with respect to an order of distance from a current vehicle position or other reference position. On the screen of the navigation system, it displays a specially designed screen to implement the city search operation which includes a state selection box and a city selection box. The navigation system detects the search direction specified by the user and moves the cursor to the location of the candidate city in response to every operation of the input device in the order of distance in the specified direction. Thus, the user is able to find the city by its relative location to the current vehicle position or other reference location, thereby enabling to quickly and intuitively search the target city.