Maps

[R-dubb]

OK, I'll admit it. I'm a mapaholic. Can't have too many. Let's talk World Maps - South America, Africa, Asia and such.

The single best investment to date has been the MacMillan World Atlas. This a large, heavy tomb with very legible, highly detailed full color maps in double page sections organized by continent, not country. So the seams end up wherever, but overlap is large enough to keep that from being a problem.



The best part about this Atlas is the road detail. It really is remarkable. Complete with KM's between points on the map. The level of detail gets down to some light grey "donkey" tracks that appear pretty sketchy. Detailed maps are at 1:4.5 million which is large enough scale to get very precise with the excellent graphics.

As for fold-up paper maps the best overall, country by country coverage, at least for South America has been Nelles. At 1:2.5 million the scale is larger than the atlas and detail somewhat greater as well. I find the graphics easy to read and the points of interest, archaeological sites and city notes are a big help. Some of the roads appear dated, as in gone. I can't tell how old the data is. Distances are easy to read and fairly detailed. They cover over 60 countries and are easy to order on Amazon at about $10 per copy. The paper is well printed (both sides) but not very strong.

http://www.nelles-verlag.de/cms.php/36/0/0/11/0/0




An alternative is Collins, but their graphics really suck and the detail is much less comprehensive.


Now for the best... Rough Guide Maps are the cat's ass!! Awesome detail and coded road surfaces. The scale is fantastic at 1:1.6 million. When the map shows a road, they mean it. It appears that most abandoned or permanently closed roads have been eliminated from the maps. This is a very good thing. The legibility and graphics, including elevation shading is second to none. Best of all they are printed on waterproof, tear resistant plastic paper. They cover a fair number of "world class" cities as well. Now for the bad news. They only cover a relatively few countries and are difficult to get a hold of (frequently out of stock). I recently had a major ordering snafu. One of the best sources appears to be Powell's book store in Portland. Here is a link to all the maps in the series.

http://www.roughguides.com/website/t...s/default.aspx



Any one else got some favorites out there?

[Lone Rider]

A good source for moto porn (maps) is www.omnimap.com.

[CourtFisher]

try www.borch.com for lotsa South America (and other) maps;

another good map porn distributor:
http://store.maplink.com/store.aspx?nav=MS

[Eyes Shut]

I like Mad Maps, but I'm only familiar with their California series:

http://www.madmaps.com/

Adventure Cycling also has maps that are made for bicycling, but they focus on scenic, less-traveled routes, show campgrounds and services, and historical/cultural areas of interest:

http://www.adv-cycling.org/routes/maps.cfm

[Mountain]

Great thread idea. In regards to Africa, R-Dubb was kind enough to pass along the whole slate of Africa maps.

http://www.maps.com/maps.aspx?nav=MS&cid=4,60,105

I have heard from others that they use the three Michelin maps that cover the whole continent. Anyone else know of others that they would recommend to supplement these?

[R-dubb]

Originally Posted by CourtFisher

try www.borch.com for lotsa South America (and other) maps;

Be nice if you give us a little Pro/Con evaluation of how these maps stack up against some others. i can't really tell much from the web site. thanks for the link.

[CourtFisher]

Originally Posted by R-dubb

Be nice if you give us a little Pro/Con evaluation of how these maps stack up against some others. i can't really tell much from the web site. thanks for the link.

Sorry, would like to compare, but (for South America) I only have country-level Borch maps of Argentina, Chile, Peru; not from another publisher, e.g. Nelles or Rough Guide, at same level of detail. The Borch maps appear good detail, 'plasticized' waterproof, same fold size as most. I wish Michelin did South America, 'cause elsewhere, Michelin orange regionals are usually most accurate & easiest to read for aging eyes . A real comparison would require having several publishers of same region/ detail to compare visual quality + on-the-road experience to judge relative accuracy.

[BigDogAdventures.com]

R-Dubb-----thanks for this post. Have you seen a Rough Guide map of mainland Mexico ----if so---did it seem much better than other Mexico maps ???? I've got a bunch of Mexico maps---all horrible, but better than nothing.

[Tama's Tigre]

Thank for all the map suggestions. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a good internet mapping/directions source for Mexico, a la mapquest.com. Expedia has a service, but it only wants to take you down major interstates, even if they take you way out of your way.