Buy Maps Now or Wait until Arriving in Europe?
 

With your help in this forum, we're finally leaving for Europe in 5 days! Hoping and praying that the Volcanic activity won't affect our travel plans. I googled the places we're going to be and have an idea where it is located in relation to our hotel. My question would be... Do they provide tourist Maps in the airport, train station or hotels? Do I have to buy the maps now before leaving? We're going to London, Paris and Italy. Thanks for all your help. It's greatly appreciated.

Paris and London have maps for sale and the department stores in Paris give them away. I do have my Streetwise maps purchased form Borders or Barnes and Noble that I prefer to use.

I have all the books, with maps, but I get the free one from the hotel each day and take a small highlighter and mark my location, then I don't have to hunt for the street again when I start walking to my next destination. My niece likes the Streetwise maps, we love Barnes and Noble for these purchases.

I would buy any maps you need now. Any maps you might find at an airport, train station or hotel are not likely to be very detailed and will probably only be for the most major destinations. So maybe in Paris and London you find some maps of each of these cities but they'll still likely only highlight major streets. Hard to say for sure without knowing your whole itinerary and methods of travel. Not that you won't be able to find good maps while you are here but why not just be prepared and not waste vacation time? I suggest Michelin maps.

I agree with FrenchMystique - purchase good street maps (I prefer Michelin - have tried many others) of Paris & London before you leave home. The department store maps are worthless for navigation purposes, IMO. My wife & I spend 2 months in Europe each year - mainly France & Italy, and I have over 4 feet of booksheves reserved for various Michelin & IGN maps of France.

Stu Dudley

There is an English bookstore on Rue di Rivoli in Paris that sels the Streetwise maps. I think it is called W. Smith.

>>So maybe in Paris and London you find some maps of each of these cities but they'll still likely only highlight major streets.<<

Excuse me? Of course you can get maps of any city in that city, in a wide variety of levels of detail. Those given away free may vary in quality and detail, but in my experience, one ends up with more free maps than one really needs, and it's really not difficult to buy a reasonable quality map pretty well anywhere, reasonably cheap. How else do residents learn to get around?

I'd buy the maps at home, if for no other reason than I wouldn't want to use my time at the destination looking for the right one. I like the laminated ones which don't tear with use.

Good luck with your travels; hoping that the volcano gods don't get too upset!

If you are driving I would say you definitely should buy your map before you go. Car hire companies vary hugely in the maps they provide and if you are picking up a car at the airport you will be limited to what you can obtain there.

Patrick, I was responding to the inquiry about finding good maps in hotels, train stations and airports (which are generally not detailed). And I followed with a comment about being able to find plenty of good maps while here but why not save time and be prepared ahead of time.

Also in London there are vending machines that sell good maps for a quid on most tube stations that get a lot of tourists.

But there are free maps everywhere (the advertisers pay for them)

I used to buy a StreetWise map of any city/area we were in for EACH member of the family.

Now I still buy the Streetwise maps (available at Borders and Barnes&Nobles) but not for each member. I have found that those free hotel maps work just fine, and the family members can lose those at leisure.