Essential online travel maps
Modern day globetrotters no longer need to lug around A-Zs of every city or resort they plan to visit as it's easy to find travel maps online and either print out the sections required or download the information to a laptop or mobile phone. Even better, some websites will give you a bird's eye view of a city, photos and/or videos of the best sights, driving directions and even up–to–date weather reports. Here's a selection of what's available online. Log on to these and you may never buy a map again.
Best for street maps
Just type in the name of the town, attraction or the postcode of the place you plan to visit and you get a map, an aerial view and sometimes even a bird's eye view of the destination.
You can use the arrow keys to explore around the area and zoom in and out to get a better look at something that catches your eye. You will also get a weather forecast for the next 5 days, the co-ordinates, the nearest airport (though not necessarily the closest international airport) and the nearest railway station. You can get directions to where you are going by the quickest or shortest driving route or best walking route, which includes the distance, estimated travel time and your carbon footprint, based on the average car.
Best for route maps: The Automobile Association
You don't need to be a member of the AA to log on to its website, and get driving directions from your home in the UK to any other UK or overseas destination. As well as directions, driving distance and estimated journey time, it warns of speed cameras en route and shows traffic blackspots.
You can print out or download a map of your route, which gives the terrain (very helpful if driving in the mountains) and get SMS traffic alerts, costing 50p each, sent to your mobile if you key in where and when you're going. Well worth it to avoid jams.
In order to be more sure of your journey time it's a good idea to compare your personal road map and route provided by theaa.com with other websites offering the same service. These include the RAC website, www.rac.co.uk and viamichelin.com. Bear in mind that viamichelin.com does not include ferry crossings or any non-road element of the journey in its timings, though this site also gives an estimated cost for the entire journey, taking into consideration petrol and tolls.
Best for photos and sightseeing: Google Maps
The best thing about this site is that you can see photos and videos of the area you plan to visit so you can work out where the main attractions are, making it easier to plan your itinerary before you leave. You can also find local businesses, such as hotels and restaurants, get directions from one location to another, so it's easy to work out how long it will take you to go from one attraction to another, and search the surrounding area for interesting things to see and do.
Google Maps currently has full functionality in the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain. There is full functionality in Japan, with the exception of driving directions, and more limited functionality in China.
Best for creating your own world travel map:
Travbuddy lets you click on the countries and states you have visited and then it will create a map with shaded areas to show where you've been. It will also tell you what percentage of the countries of the world you've visited. You can use it on myspace or your own personal webpage to show off to your friends. Most important, it makes you realise how much more of the world there is still to see!
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