Streetwise Maps: A nice bit of serendipity

Score. I love my Streetwise maps too.

Thanks for explaining whats going on with them.

That's great! I am visiting Venice for the first time now. We thought we'd have a leisurely stroll back to our apartment one afternoon... 2 hours later we'd made almost no progress on what could be a 15 minute walk going directly. It was fun getting lost when we had the time, but if you are trying to get somewhere quickly you'll appreciate the map!

Stan: I, too, was puzzled until Laura from the RS office happened to mention in a forum comment that the company had gone under.

sarah_atx: Good to hear it might come in handy, after all! And I'm jealous that you're in Venice now. Enjoy!

There's something really "off" about Amazon posting prices north of $100 for these maps - I thought it was some crazy glitch on their end. You can still see these maps at Barnes and Noble. The one I can't live without is my Manhattan map - I can go anywhere just using that single map (it even includes the subway lines on it).

I think the ability to read and interpret a normal, hard copy map is slowly becoming extinct among the population. Now people just want to look at the blue dot and follow it on their cell - I don't get it.

A Christmas miracle for sure. I love the Streetwise maps and hope maybe some other publishing company takes up the mantle now that they are no longer being produced by the original printer. Some cities, like Vienna, go for beaucoup bucks if you can even find someone willing to part with theirs.

Agnes: You're right, I assume the market for high-quality hard copy maps like these is rapidly shrinking as people rely on their phones and other devices. It's too bad, because sometimes you just want to unfold a map and scratch your head over it.

Nancy: I think quite a few of the Streetwise maps for larger cities are still fairly readily available. But it's hit and miss, and when they're gone, they're gone for good unless someone else picks up the brand.

BTW, I lived in Corvallis for a year. Beautiful place, but a tad wet. ;-)

Maybe they'll be sold on eBay (they may be already, I haven't checked) and will become a collectors item, somewhat like antiques. I love these maps but, if the supply is not increasing, the prices will go through the roof. I'm sure some people have these in their collection but no longer rely on paper maps, so the trick is how to get them to people who will value them (but not for astronomical amounts).

Agnes: I bought the Florence map on eBay, but it was only a few dollars above the list price. I guess that person just hadn't realized yet that he had a collector's item. The Venice vaporetto map is widely available, but the Venice city map is just about impossible to find, except at those inflated prices, which may be partly the result of automated algorithms responding to dwindling supplies, much like airline fares.

Interesting information. I bought 3 maps for my trips this year and was going to wait to get a few for my trips in 2017....so I just snatched those up early. I have many (most) of the ones I want for Europe and love them. Sorry to hear they will soon be difficult to find.

I just looked in the RS shop and they have only six cities available, with Budapest, London and Madrid now marked "out of stock."

Oh, such bad news! My favorite maps. Love that you can mark an itinerary and erase it when you are done.

Maybe RS could produce them?

Amazon still has London, Rome and Paris. The website says there are only 8 Paris maps remaining in stock.

"Nancy: I think quite a few of the Streetwise maps for larger cities are still fairly readily available."

Here's a link to a thread from earlier this year about this same issue, that's where I found out about the Vienna map being extremely hard to get.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/austria/vienna-street-map

And, stoutfella, it may be wet here in the winter but it's a darned site warmer than where you are now. Don't get me wrong I like Illinois a lot. Lived in MN for years and did many road trips through there and to points east.

Thanks for the link, Nancy. I might have missed that discussion. Can't remember the topic in which Laura from RS chimed in to say the company had gone out of business.

I'm listening to the wind howl here in Siberia, er, Illinois. Wind chills well below zero tonight. I moved to Corvallis in 1984 for a job as news editor of the newspaper. One day during "winter" I ran an Associated Press graphic about calculating wind chill factors. The next day, no one in the newsroom could understand why anyone would care about such a thing. Cuz, you know, it doesn't really get that cold and windy in Corvallis.

The summer there truly was lovely, though.

Cheers!

They're also great for sitting on when a bench, step or low wall is less than clean.. 😊

Abebooks has many used ones available:

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=Streetwise+map

I learned of the shortage when Intried to buy a Streetwise map for Vienna--it was $60 or more on Amazon! ( as if anyone would actually pay that). So I posted here that I was looking for one, and was able to trade my Venice map for a Vienna one with a very gracious forum member.

I still have quite a few, including Madrid, London, Rome, Manhattan, and others. I guess I will hold on to them!

A map is very useful in Venice if you can manage to orient yourself. A compass is very helpful . . . but I've seen tourists struggling with a map and a compass. Getting lost is fine if you aren't trying to get somewhere.

I find it easy to get around Florence with a simple map, but I get lost in Rome even with exact directions. It's often hard to find street signs (anywhere - not just Rome). So I'm planning to get a decent, small compass to take with me.

Check out the maps from Marco Polo. I really prefer them to the Streetwise maps.

Speaking of getting lost in Venice, my husband and I thought we were really clever and took a picture of the shops beneath our apartment rental, so that we could easily find the right row of shops leading to "our" place. HAHA! When it was time to go home after dark, all the shops had those accordian metal garage like doors pulled down over the windows. So the picture was absolutely worthless! (We did eventually find our way and it was fun wandering...) Ciao and Merry Christmas to all!

Thanks for this post. I've seen good comments about the Streetwise maps in the forums but didn't know they were out of print. I stopped by my local Barnes and Noble today and managed to pick up maps for our spring trip to Amsterdam, Venice, Naples, and Rome. I noticed the Naples map was updated back in 2007, but I figured what difference does 10 years make to a 3000 year old city?