We are visiting all three cities and I have a Time Out guidebook for each one. There is an overview map that shows the metro lines and then maps for individual areas. Will this suffice? We've never been to these cities and I am wondering if we should buy street maps for each? If so, what do you recommend?

I am a huge fan of Streetwise laminated maps. I have about 10 of them of different cities. They are water-resistant and hold up very well.

They are about $8 each.

Alternatively, I think Lonely Planet guidebooks have the best maps by far among all guidebooks. I like using them because of that reason, and I also think the descriptions are good, and the portion of contents (hotels vs sights vs restaruants) is just about right. My local library tends to carry lots of LP guidebooks, so I just borrow them for my trips if I don't feel like buying guidebooks/maps.

I second the Streetwise maps, I have used them in all 3 cities you are going to, they're great (clear, good in the rain b/c they're laminated, and they don't fold out really obnoxiously like most maps). And I leave the guidebooks in the hotel room when I travel (hate to lug them around), but that's just a personal preference.

This is great. I agree Laura, I really didn't want to lug these books around in my purse lol. I will try to get my hands on these Streetwise maps. Thank you to both of you!

BTW, when you arrive in London, you can pick up a tube map as well as a "bus map for dummies" (aka, bus map for Central London) either at Heathrow or any tube stations. They are free and are more useful than any tube maps you have in guidebooks or the Streetwise map, as these TFL maps are constantly updated and will show you any station closure.

Here's the tube map in PDF
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...d-tube-map.pdf

and the bus map for dummies in PDF
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...al_bus_map.pdf

I want to put in a plug for The Paris Mapguide (Michael Middleditch--I think mine came from Amazon) which I thought was fabulous: a little 64-page booklet, with 26 maps (scale 1:10000) of central Paris, an index, a metro map, easily readable print, & NO folding.

Free London map (hard copy from any Tube station): http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...on-bus-map.pdf

Downloadable London bus sightseeing map: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...al_bus_map.pdf

Free <I>Grand Plan de Paris</i> (hard copy from any M&eacute;tro station): http://www.ratp.info/orienter/f_plan...secteur&fm=pdf

Downloadable Paris bus sightseeing map: http://www.e-teetimes.com/paris/touristic.pdf

For London, you could pick up a copy of the A-Z if you plan to do a lot of walking and especially outside of Zone 1. It has ALL the streets. I prefer the spiral bound version myself.

ps. otherwise Streetwise is a great series. I have them for many cities in Europe. TimeOut maps are pretty good though - especially if you plan to go to places within that guidebook (i.e. the restos and shops/hotels' streets would show on the map...)

I'm not sure why everyone is suggesting to by some maps. Don;t do it - every hotel in Europe has free maps for their customers. Those maps would do in most cases. Use it unless you really need something very-very special to see, that is not usually on the map of the city attractions.

IME, the free maps in hotels are abbreviated maps. It shows the main streets/boulevards, but definitely NOT the smaller streets. It is fine in case of finding the major monuments, but inadequate if I want to follow a walking route, or if I need to find a restaurant, or a smaller museum/gallery.

I also dislike those free paper maps which you have to fold out and it flaps around in the wind and disintegrates when it gets wet.

However, I will use them if I don't have any other alternative. I also like the metro/subway inset in those free maps - I usually tear them out and use it to supplement my own map.

Even maps in fodors guide books are abbreviated. If you look at the restaurant location maps in Fodors, you'll see that it's just a dot in an approximate area. (that's why I wrote above that I like the Lonely Planet guides because they have detailed maps.)

I don't go out and buy a Streetwise map for every place I am going to visit (or have visited), but for places that I know I will go back again, or for places I'm staying for more than just a couple of days, I find the map a good investment.

I have used my London, Paris, Manhattan Streetwise maps many times. My family and other friends have borrowed these Streetwise maps and others that I own many times.

A second from me for the Paris Mapguide, which I would never go to the world's greatest city without.

I agree that generally LP has the best guidebook maps (although the ones for Morocco weren't that great). And I find the Fodors maps really annoying - they only get you to the general area. Maybe they're designed for drivers not walkers?

For London I use an old mini A to Z, but I use Streetwise for Paris and it works fine. Love the London Transport and RATP bus maps, too, buses in London are so much easier to use than they used to be.

I always use Streetwise too. They are lightweight and sturdy enough to shove in a bag and go. I have never not found anything I was looking for in Paris, London, Madrid, Vienna...anywhere I've used it. The only place I really didn't think it worked as well as usual was Venice with its numerous unmarked or hard to keep track of alleys and canals but I'm not sure any map works perfectly there...

Do your Streetwise London maps include the South Kensington area? Mine does not. Did I get a dud?

Carolyn, my Streetwise London (2000 version) has S Ken. The SW corner of the map includes Parson's Green tube station; the Western edge includes Earl's Court Exhibition Center, and NW corner goes to Westborune Park. It barely includes the Holland Park tube station, but the actual park fell off the edge of the map.

My only complaint is the Paris Streetwise as it doesn't include much in the 14th arr. Its cut-off is pretty much at Montparnasse.

yk wrote <i>" I don't go out and buy a Streetwise map for every place I am going to visit (or have visited)..."</i>

but this is exactly what I do. LOVE the Streetwise series and find them invaluable in trip-planning. I think it's helpful too, to pre-plan using the map you'll actually use on the street.

(When someone asks for a gift idea for you, they're very easy to find, or if you're buying a book on Amazon and need to "plump up" your order to get free shipping, or check eBAY.)

Then, they make a lovely, compact souvenir and people do like to borrow them!

Here's another recommendation for Paris Mapguide (also for London).

I love streetwise maps - check on amazon for used ones. They are the BEST!

The DK guides have pretty good maps but those books are definitely heavier to carry around. I still carry the books because they will have details on sights and attractions which I may encounter walking around.

Actually, I've been in Rome the past week and find the free maps distributed by the tourist offices to be pretty good.

I have also used Google Maps to create custom maps with pinpointed locations (with annotations of comments from Fodor and Slowtalk forums) for restaurants and other destinations I wanted to check out. Printed out some of them but it's easier to just check them out interactively (I take my laptop on trips and try to make sure to get Internet access).

There are a couple of iPhone apps. which show the metro layouts of various cities. The free ones at least are just scans of the PDFs. What would be cool is if you could get the route calculation engine which the TFL and ATAC sites offer. Only problem is that you need a data connection and international data roaming is too prohibitive. No reason why they can't let you download their complete database with a query engine which will display the maps in an iPhone app. though, so that it could be run standalone offline.

But obviously, TFL, ATAC and other transportation agencies are mostly serving local citizens, who would have local iPhone subscription plans and can use live data, not so much US tourists who can't or shouldn't be using international data roaming.