Having looked at a few maps of Spain I am left confused that the same road, seems to get a different road number depending on the map. <BR> <BR>For example the road bewteen San Pedro and Ronda is called the 376 (EuroMap) on some maps and the A473 (Foders, AA) on some others. <BR> <BR>Any ideas why ??? or which map I can trust ??? <BR> <BR>Regards, <BR>Kevin

I found Spain to be much like Italy in that you should just plain ignore road numbers, other than the major autoroutes. The roads usually aren't well marked with numbers anyway or if they are, the numbers seem to change with the whim of the local town. Instead you need to follow a map more for direction and primarily follow the signs directing you to the next town or city that you need to pass through. At least that worked for us and I don't recall getting lost a single time in about three weeks of driving in Spain last summer.

Kevin, <BR>Highway numbers in Spain, particularly Andalucia, constantly seem to be changing. You can't depend on them. I have the new 2001 Michelin Spain map whose numbers don't agree at all with my Michelin atlas or Campsa atlas that are only a year old. (Lots of wasted money on atlases!) And to make matters worse, when using the route planning sites like geostar.com, viamichelin.com, mappy.com, guiacampsa.es, their road numbers don't always agree either. Grrr.... <BR>Heed Patrick's sound advice and just follow the signs direting you to the next city/town on your route. <BR>From San Pedro de Alcantara, you just follow signs that lead you up to Ronda. That, at least, will be clearly marked. Plus there's only one road that will take you up there-you can't miss it. It's currently called the A376 (used to be the A473), but that may change by the time you reach it! <BR>

The same driving conditioins hold true for Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. <BR>You need to know the name of the next major town. And at times you use a little educated guessing to keep on the correct route! Route numbers are not posted like they are in the USA. <BR>

Many Thanks for the replies, all useful - and it's good to know my euromap has the latest road number a376 ;-) for the time being at least. <BR> <BR>Regards, <BR>Kevin

Me again, Kevin, <BR>Make that shellgeostar.com for route planning; seems I'm about as accurate today as your old maps! <BR> <BR>(need my own personal oops!thread...)

Kevin, If you know where you plan on going, I would use expedia.com. I printed out driving directions for Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary for my trip in Sept. It put me on roads that I would never have found but was totally accurate. Even some roads that had no numbers and roads thta changed numbers.

I found www.michelin-travel.com to be pretty good and VERY up to date with roadworks.(much better the www.mappy.com)

It is true that, throughout Europe, road navigation is performed on the basis of the major city in the direction of which you are moving, and not according to North, South, East and West. You simply need to look at a map prior to your trip, which anyway you also have to do in a road number scheme to find out the road number and the direction you need to follow. <BR>You should also be aware that a Europe-wide scheme has been developed on top of the national schemes. It is the E-road system, and refers to the major roads crossing Europe. The signs are posted with white characters against a green rectangular background. Numbers remain consistent across borders. For example, the E.19 starts at Paris, goes to Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Den Haag and ends up in Amsterdam (and vice versa of course). The E.19 sign is consistently displayed all along the way.

A good guide for choosing the road is that there is a jerarchy in the road numbers. <BR> <BR>Well, those roads with an 'A' at the begining of its name will be a highway (in Spanish, autopista) with 2 or more lines in each direction. <BR> <BR>The 'N' means national road, sometimes it is also a highway, but normally are good roads, but with an only line. The main National Roads have only one digit (N-I), and the rest of them have 3 digits (N-311). <BR> <BR>The worst roads use to start the name with the same letter than the province in wich you are ('M' in Madrid, 'C' in Catalonia...)