Posted: 19 November 2015 9:01 PM Subject: European Road Atlas
Just joined
Posts: 7
Hi All,
I am planning a three month tour for 2016. Can anyone recommend a road atlas for motorhome touring? - there are so many to choose from! We plan to visit France, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.
Google maps online when available and a TomTom sat nav complete our mapping needs and this book is handy for Aires in lots of countries if you want just one book.
Posted: 19 November 2015 9:35 PM Subject: RE: European Road Atlas
Forum master
Posts: 2302 Location: Stockport 2014 Autosleeper Warwick Duo 2.2 130bhp
You do ask for an Atlas, not a series of books, but for France especially I would recommend the Michelin 1 : 200,000 book of maps. This Atlas has a wealth of detail and is virtually as detailed as a British OS map. You will discover places that might otherwise be missed: highly recommended.
Posted: 20 November 2015 1:17 AM Subject: RE: European Road Atlas
Pillar of the forums
Posts: 683 Location: Sydney Australia 2020 ADRIA Coral XL 660SCS.
We use both the A4 spiral bound map books from AA or Michelin. We have both a set of country books and a European book. Both brands have suited our needs. We often take the folding maps from Michelin that are really good for fine detail. Currently using these to plan our trip to Italy next June. We purchase all our maps online from Mapworld in Melksham, even with postage much less expensive than we can buy here. They have a very good range and service has always been excellent. We always take GPS with us as they are a great guide to finding our bed for the night. Only problem is that I am out numbered by two to one with Karen on the Tom Tom and the co-driver often with two different direction instructions!
Posted: 20 November 2015 8:21 AM Subject: RE: European Road Atlas
Location: MODERATOR - 2015 Rapido 640F LHD 2.3ltr 150bhp
Collins, AA, Philips and Michelin all offer road-atlases covering Europe (GOOGLE-search on “europe 2016 road atlas”)
Some of these publications are available in both A4 size and the larger A3 size that is easier to read but more cumbersome, but any should be adequate mapping-wise. (I'd prefer spiral-bound A3 format, but A3 won’t fit my Ducato’s central glove-box so I’ve opted for A4 size instead.)
Might be worth looking at what’s on the shelves at newsagents or book sellers to see if the ‘look’ and/or format of one of the atlases is particularly appealing to you, though buying on-line is likely to prove cheapest.
Posted: 20 November 2015 9:54 AM Subject: RE: European Road Atlas
Forum master
Posts: 3758 Location: Vanless in Hampshire
Geeco - 2015-11-20 1:17 . Only problem is that I am out numbered by two to one with Karen on the Tom Tom and the co-driver often with two different direction instructions!
Cheers,
It's a woman thing Gary!!. I do the same , don't always agree with TT.
Interestingly, my Oh bought a new car with a sat nav built in, so as he was not too sure how it worked, we programed it and our TT, to take us to Yorkshire. We do know the way, so this was just a test. They both tried to take us different ways!! The car one, apparently can foresee road works.
You think you have problem with wife and TT, mine had wife/TT and car telling him!!
PJay
Posted: 20 November 2015 10:59 PM Subject: RE: European Road Atlas
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Posts: 7
Thanks everyone. Plenty of useful advice there - I'll get busy on the internet. Also the perfect excuse to spend a couple of hours in Waterstones (this will need a long time love!), while by good lady goes to all the boring shops.
Posted: 21 November 2015 9:59 AM Subject: RE: European Road Atlas
Location: Vanless in Evesham.
Billggski - 2015-11-21 9:01 AM
Who will be using it most?
If it's the good lady, I would let her choose.
With the advent of sat nav the position of navigator became redundant and we were able to give up the need for my wife to have her head buried in an atlas whilst we travel.
Now she can just sit back, enjoy the ride and the views, and tell me when she thinks I have gone the wrong way and that I should have stopped half a mile back so she could look at something that caught her eye as we passed it!
Posted: 21 November 2015 5:43 PM Subject: RE: European Road Atlas
Location: East Sussex. Motorhome: Knaus Boxstar 600 Street
Motorhome Medic - 2015-11-19 9:01 PM
Hi All,
I am planning a three month tour for 2016. Can anyone recommend a road atlas for motorhome touring? - there are so many to choose from! We plan to visit France, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.
Europe atlases tend to be a bit rudimentary as the small scale mitigates against detail. Just about OK for trip planning (though I prefer the Michelin 1:1,000,000 scale folding maps for that) IMO, but not that much use for actual navigation.
For navigation, I prefer individual country atlases, somewhere around 1:200,000 scale, where available published in the countries to be visited. That way, you can be reasonably sure that the spelling of place names will match between atlas and direction signs (useful if you get into the Slavic speaking countries, or Greece!).
So, for France - Michelin, for Germany - ADAC (also published in UK by the AA), for Italy - Touring Club Italia, Austria - Freytag & Berndt, Croatia - Cartographia, Hungary - Cartographia, Czech Republic - GeoClub, Slovakia - VKU, Greece - Anavasi. I use a Michelin of Spain/Portugal, which is not as good as the Michelin France edition, but is the best I have so far found. From memory, most, if not all, were bought on-line from Stanfords, here: http://tinyurl.com/osgpqke
My final comment is to try to get to a good map shop and look at the maps, especially the publication dates, before you buy. We all have different preferences for the way the mapping is presented, and this gets more important if one gets onto minor roads, many of which are omitted for clarity on the smaller scale maps.
Posted: 4 December 2015 7:38 AM Subject: RE: European Road Atlas
Just joined
Posts: 6
Location: Leicestershire
I read so where that the Lorry driver or "trucker" road atlas are good as they indicate narrow roads and low bridges etc. Has anybody had experience of these?
Posted: 6 December 2015 8:41 AM Subject: RE: European Road Atlas
Location: MODERATOR - 2015 Rapido 640F LHD 2.3ltr 150bhp
For Britain there seem to be only two ‘trucker’ road atlases currently available - Philip’s Navigator Trucker’s Britain and the AA Trucker’s Atlas Britain. And for France there is the Michelin France Pro
These specialized atlases tend to cost more than the common-or-garden versions and (based on on-line comments) may be updated less often. Adverts for these atlases also indicate that some of their features will be more applicable to trucks than to motorhomes.
I notice that an A3 spiral-bound ‘fully-updated’ version of the AA atlas is being offered for £8.99
and the extra minor road height/width/weight restriction information might be worth having.
(There don’t seem to be any earlier comments on these forums to suggest that any member actually uses a trucker atlas and, if motorcaravanners feel a need to be aware of road height/width limitations, the usual approach nowadays will be to obtain a specialised ‘camper’ sat-nav.)
