Sparkle Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 We're planning to do more travelling around Europe in 2013 and were given a voucher for Amazon for Christmas, so I thought I'd use it by getting a really good map book of Europe to use in our motorhome Mr Ben. SO.. my question is..... do you use a single map book or separate maps country by country? Which would you recommend? We have a Tomtom, but it's good to plan on paper when out and about. Many thanks!! Happy camping in 2013 to you all. Apologies but I doubt I'll reply after 1st Jan as we're off on travels once more! But thanking in advance!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwyn Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Being somewhat belts and braces and not trusting sat navs, we have a big europe book and also map books for each country we are aiming to visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Always Michelin for me. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laimeduck Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 chris - 2012-12-30 10:31 AM Always Michelin for me. Chris Ditto :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George.. Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Hi, We tend to use Autoroute on the computer for pre trip browsing then Michelin single country maps and our faithful Garmin sat nav(now the new Dezl 560 camper version ) when away. Happy travels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Strachan Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Hi, We use Philips country maps like George pre planning on autoroute. Carry the maps as back up to Sat Nav Snooper S6000, just updated the maps on it ready for 2013. Have a great wander. Cheers Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mondo Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 The AA do some really good Euro Maps..Whatever you decide on get a LARGE SCALE map.it shows more detail..plus )as me old Sgt Major would say)..you get lost more easily!! I had the AAs BIG France atlas..lots of detail..try this link http://www.theaa.com lots of info there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Depends what you want :-D If you want to get from A to B the RAC / AA maps are good at a sensible scale for planning If you are a map addict and want to know how high bridges are, every twist and turn etc the Michelin maps are good. The only problem with the Michelin is that it is difficult to tell Peage/Toll Road from Auto-route in dimmed lighting We tend to plan on the Michelin maps, Sat Nav the Route and monitor whilst on the road with the AA Maps. Happy motoring Rgds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 We've been using the same spiral bound 2004 AA Road Book of Europe in conjunction with a TomTom sat nav since 2004 and it has served, and continues to serve us well from Gibraltar to the Nordkapp. Even the TomTom is original from 2005 and we never - well not often - get lost. My definition of lost is only when we are somewhere we really don't want to be - and it matters not whether we intended to be there or not or even if we don't know where we are - as long as we can find a way out!! As we only use it for planning - not that we do too much forward planning as it always seems to change after the second day away - it does not matter that it is going slowly out of date. We did treat ourselves to a new AA Easy Read road map of France last year so I can let you have our 2005 version cheap if you like as there isn't much difference between the two! Happy new year Kathy & Bruce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Sparkle - 2012-12-30 8:04 AM We're planning to do more travelling around Europe in 2013 and were given a voucher for Amazon for Christmas, so I thought I'd use it by getting a really good map book of Europe to use in our motorhome Mr Ben. SO.. my question is..... do you use a single map book or separate maps country by country? Which would you recommend? We have a Tomtom, but it's good to plan on paper when out and about. Being a bit of a map fanatic, (have a huge collection of OS maps which have to go up for sale sooner or later if anyone is interested), I tend to buy separate AA maps to various european countries. They get well 'hammered' from folding into more useable 'squares' which sit on my passenger seat when driving. On top of that I always have a spiral bound AA map of Europe. Which brand name you go for is a matter of personal preference, clarity and ease of reading being priority for me hence the reason I don't like the Michelin maps which tend to be too cluttered. All my route planning is done on Autoroute which is permanently installed on both desktop and laptop, then I use HB (soft) pencil to highlight routes and places on paper maps. Like anyone else I also use SatNav. Tracker - 2012-12-30 5:09 PM We've been using the same spiral bound 2004 AA Road Book of Europe in conjunction with a TomTom sat nav since 2004...... Richard Look after it well.......because you will be very disappointed with the later ones! I bought a 2012 AA Europe and hardly used it when touring earlier this year as the print is far too small for my liking. Never opened it when I bought it as i've always bought AA maps, but had an unexpected surprise when I got back home and looked at it. Unfortunately my old 2000 AA Europe map has practically fallen apart and beyond use now but that was much better to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Purely for route planning, a map that shows all European main roads on a single sheet can be very useful. Just about the only way you can stick a straight edge between point of departure and destinations to readily see which is the shortest way there. For individual countries I always try to get road atlases made by local map makers. Mainly because they get the spelling of towns right, so what is written on the map will be what appears on the road signs! So, Michelin for France. Haven't found Spanish or Portuguese publishers, so tend to use the Michelin atlas the them as well, though it is not as good as the spiral bound Michelin France road atlas. I have a three atlas set of Italy by Touring Club Italia - which have served well, but should now be replaced! ADAC atlas for Germany that was published in UK by the AA as the Big Road Atlas of Germany. Freytag and Berndt for Austria, Cartographia for Croatia and Hungary. Michelin again for Benelux. Shocart Geo Club for Czech Republic. Kod & Kam for Slovenia. VKU for Slovakia. Anavasi Digital for Greece. Most were obtained from Stanfords or Amazon. Stanfords website is very good for sniffing out odd maps of almost anywhere, and they are pretty reliable over details like the publication dates. Amazon also very good, but less information on publication dates. It may seem a small detail, but no map is ever completely up to date, so when buying I always like to get the most recent available. If you get a Garmin with lifetime map updates you can download either MapSource or BaseCamp from the Garmin website that will allow you to install, view, and use the maps on a PC as well as on your sat nav. This makes checking tricky bits of routes on a reasonably up to date map far easier than using just the sat-nav screen itself, which can be useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparkle Posted December 30, 2012 Author Share Posted December 30, 2012 Excellent - some really helpful stuff - thanks guys!! I knew you'd rise to the challenge! Will get browsing and shopping I reckon!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowtelse2do Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Brian Kirby - 2012-12-30 8:24 PM Purely for route planning, a map that shows all European main roads on a single sheet can be very useful. Just about the only way you can stick a straight edge between point of departure and destinations to readily see which is the shortest way there. For individual countries I always try to get road atlases made by local map makers. Mainly because they get the spelling of towns right, so what is written on the map will be what appears on the road signs! So, Michelin for France. I have a three atlas set of Italy by Touring Club Italia - which have served well, but should now be replaced! ADAC atlas for Germany that was published in UK by the AA as the Big Road Atlas of Germany. Freytag and Berndt for Austria, Cartographia for Croatia and Hungary. Michelin again for Benelux. Shocart Geo Club for Czech Republic. Kod & Kam for Slovenia. VKU for Slovakia. Anavasi Digital for Greece. Most were obtained from Stanfords or Amazon. Stanfords website is very good for sniffing out odd maps of almost anywhere, and they are pretty reliable over details like the publication dates. Amazon also very good, but less information on publication dates. It may seem a small detail, but no map is ever completely up to date, so when buying I always like to get the most recent available. Brian, a straight edge is no good, the Earth is round. You'll be telling us next that you use a theodolite :-D What's your payload like on the van with all those maps? 8-) I agree with you on getting the local maps especially when in Eastern countries. Me..No sat-nav, just a 2004 Michelin Europe atlas, 1999 Michelin France atlas, ADAC for Germany and BauMax-x for Austria. It does get interesting sometimes :D Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flicka Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Some are now available for the Kindles. (Phillips & Collins) Not sure how useful/user friendly they would be but could help storage issues, especially with the A3 size atlases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterjl Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Re I" If you get a Garmin with lifetime map updates you can download either MapSource or BaseCamp from the Garmin website that will allow you to install, view, and use the maps on a PC as well as on your sat nav. This makes checking tricky bits of routes on a reasonably up to date map far easier than using just the sat-nav screen itself, which can be useful." I thought this sounded great. I have a Nuvi 2495 with lifetime maps so I downloaded Mapsource. The problem is that I can't work out how to import the maps into the program. Has anybody achieved this? And if so how. There seem to be no instructions that cover this in the website unles I am missing something. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Brian Kirby - 2012-12-30 8:24 PM If you get a Garmin with lifetime map updates you can download either MapSource or BaseCamp from the Garmin website that will allow you to install, view, and use the maps on a PC as well as on your sat nav. This makes checking tricky bits of routes on a reasonably up to date map far easier than using just the sat-nav screen itself, which can be useful. If you don't have access to MapSource or BaseCamp "Tyre to Travel" is an excellent freebee program that works in conjunction with Google maps allows you to plot, save routes & download them to Garmin or TomTom devices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterjl Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Thank you for that tip Lenny. Unfortuneatly when i went to website it is not compatible with the Mac - sooo its back to square one. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Peter, why not run a windows emulator program on your Mac, most people I know with Macs do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 peterjl - 2012-12-31 10:35 AM Re I" If you get a Garmin with lifetime map updates you can download either MapSource or BaseCamp from the Garmin website that will allow you to install, view, and use the maps on a PC as well as on your sat nav. This makes checking tricky bits of routes on a reasonably up to date map far easier than using just the sat-nav screen itself, which can be useful." I thought this sounded great. I have a Nuvi 2495 with lifetime maps so I downloaded Mapsource. The problem is that I can't work out how to import the maps into the program. Has anybody achieved this? And if so how. There seem to be no instructions that cover this in the website unless I am missing something. Peter Hi Peter. Possibly, though from your later post I gather you have a Mac, and I don't know how Mac compatible the Garmin programs are. I seem to recall Derek Uzzell saying he couldn't use MapSource on his. That may depend on which MacOS you are using - I hear "Fluffy Pink Rhino" is OK! :-) However, assuming they have Mac flavoured variants, you won't get the mapping onto your computer until you have downloaded your first map update. When you do, you need to select the option to "download to device and computer", when the mapping will install into a "Garmin\Maps" directory (folder in Mac-speak?) as well as to your Dezl (just accept the proposed directory). As you have already downloaded MapSource (MS hereafter), it should have installed to the main "Garmin" directory (easily checked). When you open MS, it should then find the maps and display them on screen. It is a slightly "clunky" program, and I have limited success transferring routes from MS to our Nuvi, but it is fine if used to generate routes to see what the Nuvi is likely to do. The routing logic in MS is not identical to that in the Nuvi (presumed also true for the Dezls), so there is no guarantee both will take exactly the same route at all times. The divergences are usually fairly minor, but if MS does daft things I run the route on the Nuvi, and then check if it too, is going daft. I then create a "favourite" on my preferred route, and add that to the route, which gets the Nuvi on the right road. Usually applies at towns with rather circuitous by-passes, when Nelly-Knowall at times goes straight through because, knowing nothing of traffic lights, parked vehicles, school patrols, and pedestrian crossings, she calculates the straight through route will be half a nano-second quicker. Wrong! The by-pass is invariably quicker, and far easier! :-D However, you can create POIs directly in MS, and can also view any you have downloaded from the net. These can be assembled into sub-directories on the computer, so that when loaded to the Dezl via POI Loader (assuming this remains true for a Dezl) campsites, aires, supermarkets etc are categorised and easily identified. This brings me to the "piece de resistance" of MS, which is that with a POI centred on your computer screen, you can pull down the "view" menu, at the end of which is "view in Google Earth", that will open and navigate to the same spot to give the aerial photography of your POI, showing the POI marker on the ground. Also then possible to switch to Streets, and get the ground level view, still retaining the POI marker. This has proved invaluable when checking the POI is correctly located, for example in urban areas, where one-way streets can make navigating to the entrance to a supermarket car park frustrating if the original coordinates were for the exit! Sooooo much nicer to be guided straight to the entrance, especially if you know other entrances have height barriers, but that one doesn't (thank you Google Streets!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterjl Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Thank you Brian, that was v helpful. As you say my Mac has the wrong os system ie its 3 years old and they do not support. i used to dual boot with windows but ran out of hard disk so scrapped that! i have an old netbook which is slow bit mamnaged to get basecamp to load. it is slow so the jury is out. Anyway, i will go back to programming the garmin direct and using paper maps till i get back in a coiuple of weeks and have time to play. Once again many thanks Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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