What do you recommend? Are the ones from Rick Steves website good enough?
I heard you can muddle through with the free ones you can get from the tourist office, train station, airport, etc., of the city.
During the travel, the smallest city I'll be visiting will be Rothenburg ob der Tauber(population 10,000) or Berne(population 100,000), and the biggest will be London.
Any thoughtful input would be appreciated :P
Thanks in advance!
Depends on the city. I had no trouble with the tourist office maps in Italy. In London, on the other hand, I would not go out the door without a really good Central London atlas. There are so many tiny streets that run every which way you can quickly lose your sense of direction.
Bear in mind that I am geographer wanna be and so adore maps. I love to have my own map. I went to Berlin with one of the Pocket Pilots. It was small, coated so that it withstands a bit of wet, had a transit map and a small street index. I have similar ones for Edinburgh, London, Venice, NYC, San Francisco, Chicago and was recently looking for one for Milwaukee! As I said, I like maps and find that I want to refer back to them after my trip--maybe while reading a book about a place? Local maps are useful too though as they often point out restaurants, new attractions and local information that you won't find on the commercial maps.
Pam
Billy,
Rick's country-specific Maps (ie: England) usually include fairly detailed Maps of cities such as London, showing all the main attractions. However I tend to rely on the local Maps provided by Hostels or Hotels for the most part. They usually have these on a large "pad" on the desk and just tear-off a page for each guest.
I find the single page Maps to be quite adequate for getting to most of the common sites, are a bit easier to use than having to unfold a larger Map, and also these tend to get somewhat "crinkled & worn" during frequent daily tours so better to use the free Map for that instead of the one that I paid $6.00 for!
Cheers!
For large European cities, I like the Streetwise series. They don't show the entire city, but highlight the most important areas for tourists. There's also usually a field that shows a map of the city's metro system, if it has one. And, they're laminated, fold easily, and fit in your pocket.
For smaller cities, I usually just get a complementary map at the hotel.
I second the motion on Streetwise maps. In addition to the pros listed above, I wrote on mine with a dry-erase marker to decide on a hotel. It wiped off perfectly. We bought an Inside Out book for Prague which is a mini book with a compass, pen and "pop-out" maps. It seemed ingenius, but by the end of our 2nd day in Prague, we'd worn out the pop-ups so much that they wouldn't fold in right. So it wasn't as handy as we'd thought. I love the Streetwise ones! They're about $8 and at every bookstore...
If you think you're going to return to a city, buy a decent map. I have a purse sized London A-Z that's about 25 yrs old but still useful. I also have a shirt pocket sized Paris par arrondissement which is small, cheap & readily available at a Paris news stand. They're the first thing I'd pack.
I just read about these cloth, waterproof maps.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-tc-trav-gear-0512-0517may17,0,1103691.story
My favorite have been the city guides maps, but they only have maps for about 10 cities, mostly in Eastern/Central Europe. You get it for free at hostels and information booths, and they have given the best restaurant recommendations I have seen. Sorry Rick, better than yours!
I am a fan of Streetwise maps and thanks for suggesting using a dry erase marker on them. Great idea. If you check Streetwise.com, there is a greater availabiltiy of different maps. I like to familarize myself with maps before traveling and of course during my travels. I use a variety of maps including the city maps at tourist kiosks. I have an old mini London atlas that was great for my first trip to London. Rick's books have good maps in them for the cities. I would definitely buy Rick's London Guide. Fodor's should have one. I have one for Dublin and I was very impressed with the maps.
Enjoy your travels!
Along with several others I, too, am a Streetwise fan. I like that they're reasonably waterproof and compact. However, for some cities, particularly the large ones like Rome, I also carry a Michelin full-city map. There are times I want a larger view than the Streetwise maps provide. I always get these maps in the language of the city, not in English, so the names I see "on the street" are the same as what I see on the map.
I know this sounds crazy, but in all my trips, I have never taken a map..
I just use free maps in hotel lobbys, and tourist info sites. And, when I don't have that, I just ask someone, a desk clerk, a person on the street, whatever. I sometimes get lost, but I always eventually find my way,, and often discover some hidden gems and " back doors" of my own.
Obviously if one planed on driving this would be different.
In Paris I use the freebie maps given out by the department stores, and in Rome and Venice I have just used hotel issued maps( you know , the kind that show where the hotel is located in relation to main sites) . In London there are free maps at hotels and the tube map helps too!
One of these days I should get some sort of proper maps.. but then, perhaps I would never get lost again!
By the way, it's streetwisemaps.com -- not just streewise.com. That took me to a site about living wise on the streets. :)
Oops, sorry about that Thomas. Thanks for the correction. Streetwisemaps also publish little pocket size maps also. I can't imagine traveling without a map . . . it is the geographer in me (yes, do have the degree). It is all about planning for the trip.
In one trip to Europe I took a whole variety of pocket-sized maps including: Streetwise (Rome and Amsterdam), Pocket Pilot (Venice), Popout (Florence), and DK Pocket Guide & Map (Barcelona). I'm happy to report they all worked out great for me. I especially liked the Popout for Florence and I'll be taking it back with me this fall because it was so small but still plenty accurate enough. With any of the maps, I didn't get lost (except when I intended to!). In Brussels and Vienna, I got by with the TI map just fine. For smaller cities like Bruges and Siena, the little cartoony scribbles in Rick's book plus the TI maps were more than fine. For bigger, more confusing cities (such as London) I think it'd be advantageous to buy a map in advance because you can "study" it a bit, plan your sight-seeing in ways that make convenient geographical sense and you can start learning your way around a bit (and writing things right on your map should you so desire).
A to Z pocket sized map-book for London. Outlines all the touristy areas and fits in your pocket. Each page is a mpa of an area, easy to read, all tube stations noted, etc. Best 4 pounds I ever spent!! I bought it at a souvenir shop but you can get them online beofre you leave. Here is a link for the Map & Walks of London A-Z..
http://www.a-zmaps.co.uk/?nid=60&iid=3399&pts=1,2,3,4,5,6,&s=london&t=5885&st=1
Streetwise! I tried others and ended up wishing I had stuck with Streetwise. I guess it's just what I am familiar with so it works easiest for me.
