Which European map?

[kevandali]

Have finally decided to head for Italy and take a recommended route (cheers catinou) that covers France, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Italy.

 

I intend to add as much info as poss into the sat nav but also want to buy a decent European map so I can check out the route.

 

Could you veterans of the road advice me on the best one to buy?

 

Not that bothered about great city details as long as it covers the whole route.

 

(might even take the route recommended by Brian, decisions decisions)

 

Thanks for the help

 

kevandali

[Brian Kirby]

Michelin has a 2008 road atlas of Europe for £11.99 (but check Amazon), covering Scandinavia, Iceland, Faroes, the whole of the EEC, all of the former Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Turkey (excluding Anatolia), Moldova, Belarus, and a chunk of western Russia.  The scales vary for different chunks of that selection.  However, my own preference would be for individual atlases for the countries being visited, ideally published by mapmakers based in the individual countries to be visited.  Main reason is to get the spellings of towns etc as they are locally signposted (for example, Turin is Torino in Italy) and because the local map is likely, though not guaranteed, to be more up to date and accurate than one produced elsewhere.  Clearly this involves several atlases and is more costly, but to date we have done all our navigating without sat nav, so have been entirely map dependent.

If you go to Stanfords website (Google Stanfords, they sell maps and guides) you can see the range of motoring atlases available, and can also get an online sample of the mapping they provide.  You may find some of the atlases cheaper at Amazon.  Both do very good on line sales, but check the delivery options and rates before you split your order, since the rate for the whole lot is likely to be better than two or more lots of delivery charges - if you see what I mean.

[kevandali]

Cheers Brian

Good point about the individual spelling of place names, might purchase individual maps enroute.

 

[colin]

I've got a 'Europe Overland'? map which covers all europe on two sides and use for intial route planning then an AA europe road atlas for a bit more detail along route.

[colin]

Bit I meant to add above but missed out.

If you look at a european road atlas, look at UK then you will see how detailed (or proboly not) they are

[BrianR]

If you go the individual atlas route, I would recommend Michelin for France, or possibly IGN (the French equivalent of our Ordanance Survey) and Touring Club Italiano for Italy.

[Minstrel]

Brian says he doesn't use satnav. We do but wouldn't be without maps as well, as tom tom sometimes chooses weird routes.