Does one need to buy detailed maps of cities and Australia before heading out?

Or can one download what they need from the Internet or pick up when we get there?

Just thought 1-2 maps maybe be better than all the single sheets of paper, etc.

I suggest treating Australia the same as an unfamiliar city or region in your own country. I can think of better things to do than blunder around hopelessly lost, so I always make sure I have reasonably detailed maps of places I'm driving through.

Judging by your other posts I doubt that 1-2 maps will get you by, though. Most of Australia's state capital cities range from 1 to 4 million people and, to understate the matter, may not always be straightforward to navigate. Outside the cities you're in a country the size of the lower 48 states of the US but, with 1/15th of America's population, less highway infrastructure.

You may wish to familiarise yourself with the areas you'll be driving in before departing for Australia, in which case download some by all means, but I'd get something better after arriving.

For navigating the cities there's no need to pay for a book-format street guide, but you should have a decent fold-out map showing main and secondary roads. Same for regional/country areas. Assuming you're from the US and a AAA member, the AAA has reciprocal deals with Australia's motoring organisations, which are state-based and can supply maps and accommodation guides. For New South Wales - www.nrma.com.au; for Victoria www.racv.com.au; for Queensland www.racq.com.au; for South Australia www.raa.net. Their sites are worth checking out for trip planning aids anyway.

I'm a map nut, so my advice is almost certainly overkill. I know that I've spent more time looking through my Lonely Planet driving atlas of Australia than I spent in the country itself!

I think it's an excellent idea to familiarize yourself with the layout of the entire country even if you're only visiting parts of it. That way you'll have at least a faint notion of what people mean when they say "up in Queensland" or "over in Western Australia", and you'll be able to grasp just how big a place it is, and how empty the middle bits are.

For the cities, I am eternally frustrated by the inadequate maps in the guidebooks, which always fall in the middle of "too close" and "not close enough". If you find one that's perfect for the CBD of Sydney, it'll be useless for Paddington. this applies to pretty much all of the usual suspects -- Lonely Planet, Streetwise, Let's Go, Insight.

So I like to stock up before I go with the best ones I can find, which if you're lucky will be at a proper map store that sells only maps; if you're not, you'll be buying whatever you can manage at a chain bookstore. Either way, you may have to settle for one of the above publishers, rather than a native one.

But I always, always find better options after I get there. Neil is correct, you won't need the book-format city guide (but a freak like me can live in one for months on end). But you will want one good (accurate, complete) folding map for each city you intend to walk around in. Complete is important; you're on foreign ground, and you will have no idea if that little alley that you just passed counts as a street or not in your generalized guidebook map. Ideally it will also have a larger-scale area map that shows you just how the heck far away is Glebe, anyways.

A detailed map is also a useful tool to tell you if you're being realistic about your travel goals -- nothing is worse than finding out after you get there that it's too far to drive in a day or too far to walk in those shoes.

An excellent maker of a large range of maps for all or most Aussie cities is UBD, which you will probably not be able to find in the states.

In addition to the complete map, another thing I always do is take whatever the best closeup map I can find of the exact area I'm going to be in, and tearing it up until I've got a pocket-size version, preferably the size of a credit card -- to refer to when I can't remember the order of the streets in Melbourne or even to figure out what direction I'm facing when I'm up against an unfamiliar intersection. If this map shows, for instance, the tram line numbers in the CBD, even better.

I found that in Australia, unlike some places I could mention, the very sight of a street map causes the locals to hustle over and give you unrequested but correct advice. Best in the world in this regard, you Aussies.

Just to add a bit -- I dug out what I consider to be the best tourist map of Sydney, with the most usable combination of inner-city detail and regional overview. It's not a UBD map (though those are excellent): It's a Gregory's City of Sydney, Map 210 (22nd Edition). It's foldout, copyright 1998 but current enough for a tourist. It had an ISBN code stuck to the plastic sleeve it came in, which I've thrown out.

All of the Gregory's maps were excellent, as were UBD and the Melway maps of Melbourne.

For FNARF999, I'm a map freak as well. You mentioned a Lonely Planet Driving Atlas but I can't find one at their website. Can you please give me a clue as to what you have and where you got it?

Many thanks,
Big Blue

I got it at Wide World Maps in Wallingford, Seattle, USA. It's called "Australia: Travel Atlas" by Lonely Planet. I must warn you I've never used the thing to drive in the country; only "driving" my way through travel books (my wife will not allow me to drive on the wrong side of the road, after some shouty moments in Scotland). Here's an Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1864500654/

I have no idea why this is so expensive; I certainly didn't pay $60. More like $20. There are a number of other country-wide atlases available for Oz; you might try the AA one. I know that when I was in Sydney in a large CBD bookshop (can't remember the name, sorry) I was bowled over by the variety of maps available there.

if you are looking for road atlas', I can highly recommend the HEMA road atlas for australia. it's quite large, but if you are planning to to drive in lots of places it's definitely worth having - it gives you a lot of freedom to pick the little side roads you'd like to go on. if you look at http://www.hemamaps.com.au/ you can see the different maps they have. I had the previous edition of the road atlas.

in sydney, there is a great map shop in pitt st called map world - http://www.mapworld.net.au/ but you should be able to get the hema atlas at most reputable bookshops (in Oz, these include Dymocks, Angus&Robertson, Collins, Borders Books). Most of these booksellers have an online store as well. I had a look on amazon, but could only find the previous edition - as there is a new edition, I'd definitely get the latest one (think it's 6th edition).

you'll also find most tourist info centres have maps and brochures of their areas - particulary cartoscope ones, which are free. i love tourist info centres, they are great!