A little tip for all you travel planners: I have been using www.communitywalk.com for mapping out all the places to visit for our trips to London and Paris. This website is such a great planning tool! You can add a marker to your map, enter the name of a business or an address, and it will plot its location on the map for you. You can plot as many places as you like. I think it's a great tool to help organize your trip. So far I've plotted about a million pastry shops and bistros on my Paris map based on all your recommendations!

Very cool. It's a keeper.

I can also see using this at home to map out meeting spots for visitors - or friends who get lost a lot.
Thanks!

lacohn, I like your plottings! Since you've gone to all that work and can't possibly hit a million on your trip, share your plottings, and I'll try to help you cover them all!

bookmark

Thanks for the site. I already registered. Now I just have to figure out exactly what I want to plot for Italy.Maybe for Mother's Day I will have my son help me

Here's my map so far--I've never been to Paris, so this is just based on what I've read. Any suggestions would be welcome!

http://tinyurl.com/23bjg9

Since this is a thread that many may want to bookmark, I'd like to help out a little. You do not have to reply to this thread to bookmark. Just go to the top of the current page and click on the title of the thread "Great mapping website." Then you're ready to bookmark. Go to the very tippy top of your screen and click on Bookmark (Mac) or Favorites (PC), and click the "Bookmark this Page" and follow the simple instructions.

That is very cool. Thank you!

Communitywalk.com could turn out to be a great thing for Fodor's forums: anyone can create a map showing where their hotel was, favorite restaurants, etc.

In a little playing with it I have noticed that it's not perfect yet: my apartment is located wrong side of the street (small matter, as anyone with the address would figure that out); my sister's address shows up a block away from reality. Not sure how accurate it is with businesses yet.

I did note that two different maps I tried opening were apparently HUGE files (for instance, "Vegetarian Restaurrants Worldwide" too several minutes to open). It would probably be a good idea to avoid world maps there, if they are so huge: I had to end up closing the window on both because they were just causing my computer to do flips.

But it is a great tool that could be a lot of fun = unlike a typical downloadable map, you get to customize with your own markers, even icons, and draw your own drive/walk route for guests, clients etc. Nice.

Is there a nice printout for the whole thing..? Or does one just highlight the list of places, copy/paste into word and print..?
I've been playing with it - it's quite fun.