I love it...but I've not used other services. This topic is spawned from "Name of Town on the west side of Tappen Zee bridege? (or, why does Mapquest stink?)"

What's your pleasere? Mapquest, Rand McNally, other?

I use good old fashion road maps and atlas. I like to plan my own trips.

I like Mapquest, but it's not always accurate in local addresses. Good for long term distances and planning though.

Try:
http//www.freetrip.com

MapQuest is good for pinpointing a location but I don't like their directions...except as a general starting point.

AAA has a decent program as well. However I agree with kkj. I do my own, thank you very much.

I never rely solely on MapQuest -- it can get things way out of whack, it doesn't give you critical street names, etc. etc. I let it find something if I have no idea where to look, then I transfer what it found to a "real" paper map or another on-line map and compare the two. Usually, MapQuest gets me in the neighborhood but I have to use something else (good old AAA or Rand McNally) for accuracy to actually GET there.

Of course I always look at old fashioned road maps (who doesn't?) but I look to sites like Mapquest to give me estimates of driving times, alternate routes, etc. Mapquest is not very good. I just discovered Rand McNally and right from the home page it offers alternatives and is easier to use.

They could really improve their site by adding options, or asking which route (interstate) you would like to take. I'll have to check out AAA and Mapblast, which I also just learned of, to see which is the easiest to use and offers the most options.

I think Mapquest.com is an example of being the first (and therefore most popular) site of it's kind, but not the best. It's number one, it doesn't have to try harder.

Howard: checked out freetrip.com. The directions were quite good (better than MApquest) but the times stated leave a lot to be desired. Example: For a route I requsted the time to get from 14th ST and 3rd AVe. to the Holland Tunnel was 3 minutes. Not in this lifetime. It takes 3 minutes to get to 5th Ave. if you are lucky.

I hate Mapquest too. For online maps I use Expedia maps. Great driving directions too.

One very cool thing about Mapquest (learned from another poster in a Hawaii thread): they have "Aerial View" tabs on many of their maps. I could see my house in clear detail!

Their directions can be downright silly though...

I agree. On our family's recent trip, the directions given on their trip-plan were often reversed, which was very confusing {ie turn left instead of right}. It wouldn't have been so bad if they reversed the directions consistantly, but they didn't. Ended up chucking the map program altogether and using our "old fashioned" road atlas!