individual Michelin maps or the atlas

It's a matter of personal preference and how many individual maps you'll be needing. I find a spiral bound book easier to use as it lays flat and pages can be bookmarked. On our last trip to France, I ripped out the pages I wouldn't need to cut down on the weight. The atlas has everything that the maps of the same scale have.

If you have specific places or routes between places in mind, you can print maps for free at the via michellin website. In addition to the cost savings, you will be spared the extra weight and space of carrying around a lot of maps you won't need.

Stacy,
I like the atlas. It is MUCH easier to handle, especially if you are in a small car and are lost. Nothing is worse than trying to navigate and wrestle a map at the same time.

The atlas, no question. It´s so much easier to look at while driving (yes, I know I shouldn´t be doing that...). The combination of a Michelin atlas and following the copious road signs in Europe, in my opinion, is a much more accurate method of navigation than using a GPS, for most travelers´purposes.

I purchased the France atlas and when it arrived it was BIG & HEAVY! I ended up color copying the pages that I would need and highlighting our routes and we drove all over the Southwest coast of France & Provence.

You don't say where you are going, but we have used the AA Road Atlas for Great Britain and Ireland several times and the one for France in 2008. It's 4 four inches to the mile and has markers for every battle, castle, stone, etc. you could think of!.....You want the one with large pages (I think maybe 12 by 18), not the spiral bound one. If Amazon doesn't have it, try Amazon.co.uk. We also buy for planning the orange Michelin regional map for the appropriate region. But for use when actually driving, the AA atlas is superior. We use these instead of GPS and have never got lost.

This is my fourth year living in Europe. Michelin maps are so much better than the AAA maps. Much more detailed where it's needed. I'm not familiar with the atlas, but you can always get the maps then ditch them as you're through with them if you're worried about weight.