For those of you that have driven around the Peloponnese region, would you recommend buying a roadmap in the United States before leaving? Any favorite maps?
I haven't used a paper map for 15 years, but when I did, I always got a Michelin map here before going over.
Since then, I've used a combination of GPS and offline Google Maps.
This one gets good reviews:
I never go anywhere without a good map.
One of the problems with using GPS Only is ... GPS Is dumb. Each of the sections, on mainland or on large islands like crete, may have a town with same name -- Episkopi, for example is in several different areas in Crete. Thus, dumb old GPS may send you zooming off in wrong direction. Having paper map (hopefully, in the hands of a traveling companion sitting shotgun) will allow a reality check. Oh, another thing ... GPS sometimes doesn't understand slightly different spellings. For instance, in Crete, most sources translate the word foro a famous Minoan Ruin as PHaistos -- but others spell it as Festos (that's because Greek/Roman alphabets don't have all the same characters). GPS doesn't know that.
On the first Greek trip where we were planning a Pelopoonnese drive, luckily we picked up a Road Edition map right in the Airport at the newsstand... it worked fine, and I still have it, lovingly marked up in memories. But you can't count on it.. numerous maps are sold on internet.
If I’m going to be driving I always bring a paper map so I have a good idea of the direction I need to go. I’m partial to Michelin maps. I use my phone, and prior to that a Garmin, but they are not foolproof.
I'm a big map guy!! I like to visualize where I am going before I go. We bought the Michelin Greece map #737 before our trip. Not sure if they have on just for Peloponnese. I was able to highlight towns and routes beforehand so I had a better idea of the roads when we got there. Once in the car, we used Google maps and/or Waze. Both of those apps worked well enough to get us to final destinations.