Finding a printable map

I have often had this problem, and resorted to an old fashioned approach:

I wrote [emailed] the local TI's, and have received great hardcopy maps, free.

Good luck!

I'll be interested to see what folks may be able to recommend but in the meantime on the rare occasion when I need a custom paper map, I have used Google Maps on my iPad. Find what you are looking for, zoom it out to full screen and take a screen shot of it. Then save it as photo on the iPad and/or send it to a printer to run a hard copy.

I hope there is an alternative source out there somewhere that fixes the big problem with both MapQuest and Google Maps, namely very low contrast images. I get real tired of looking at my map of Zermatt in white and very light gray.

Best of luck to us all.

Not sure how big an area you are looking to print. If I need to print a small area of a map, I'll take a screen shot and paste that into a Word document and print from there.

I’ll snip the areas I want to visit, then paste them into PowerPoint where I’ll add labels, addresses, distances between locations, or whatever. When done, I’ll print them. I also save them as a PDF and place it in Books and in the cloud on my phone and iPad. Now, with Google maps downloaded for offline use, and using saved places, I seldom use or refer to the printed maps.

I just started planning for a possible future trip to Eastern Europe, so I was looking at something that had Poland all the way down to Croatia. Was hoping for something simple, with a few of the main cities labelled, so I could pick some places and plan a route.

Have you looked on Amazon or at a bookstore near you for a European Atlas?

I always have one in the house - about A3 size and usually quite cheap - under £10 here in the UK.

Everything from the Atlantic to the Urals.

I love to have a paper map for where I’m going. I start by looking to see if the area is covered by a DK Eyewitness guide. They have wonderful maps, that I often copy May libraries have many of their books. Otherwise, Amazon often sells new or used copies. They also sell Michelin and other maps.

Rick Steve's sells a European Planning Map and AAA has something similar.

was hoping to find something online. highlight the area I want. Print.

This may seem like an odd source, but the maps at Geology.com might get you started. You can press on the picture and download the image in your pictures, print it from there or whatever.

Each map has basic cities and roads. You may need to get the maps for more than one country and string them together.

Here's a link to the Poland map. The list of countries by continent is down the left side of the page.

I found this by doing a Google images search for maps of Poland. I tried to find something including your complete "route," but the next step up seemed to be all of eastern Europe. I did see more detailed maps for each country.

Warren, if you actually sign in to Google maps and do some looking around, you will see that you can choose different map “bases” — I have found one that I thought made making my own maps much more legible than the default view that they offer.

Warren, there is an app “MAPLETS” that allows one to download Maps from a scale of a country to a city. There are Apple and Android versions available. Once you download maps to your phone or tablet they are available offline. You can zoom-in to specific areas.

And as others have said previously, you can print a screen shot if you want a printed map. The app was free in 2011 when I first started using it but it may require a purchase now.

Maps.me is free and you can download maps to use offline (just be sure do download when on wifi or else you use data ) ... but I'm old school so I have the big folded paper map from AAA or some other source also (you know, just in case) ...

Warren,

Michelin publishes detailed regional and country paper maps for most every European country. I've got a bunch from the thirty-some countries through which I've traveled, all by bicycle. I wouldn't use anything else. Other map makers are out there as well. Whose maps you choose depends on the scale you need and how you're traveling.

Have you considered using the snipping tool? It's on your computer. Go to Google maps (or any other application, call up the snipping tool, mark the area you want to save, save it as a jpeg. Then you can print as a photo (jpeg) or drop it into a word document and print that way. It's really easy and costs nothing. You want a really big copy? Save it to a thumb drive, or phone, or disk, and take it to a copy center and have them make a big one.

I played around with the snippet tool and it worked all right. In google maps do a direction from your northern to southern most location to get the largest map and snip and print.

I have tried to print maps from such sites, but the results are disappointing unless you focus on a very narrow area.

You can find excellent road maps for foreign countries for inexpensive cost on Amazon.

I have been using AAA maps. Not perfect but price is right for a member. Otherwise purchase Michelin maps. www.michelin.com for more detail driving maps. Not perfect but workable..

I'm really old school. I buy streetwise maps or red maps. Streetwise are my favorite. Maps in guide books help, also. There are also Nat. Geo. maps, lonely planet, Rick Steves, Marco polo, etc.. You may have to spend some money for electronic e-maps (Amazon.com, possibly Nat. Geo.)

Many online maps are not printable to protect the publishing/legal rights of the company that produced the map.