What maps/ways of mapping for european countries

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pocketrocket

pocketrocket

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A friend and i are planing a trip to the french/italian alps next year and i was wandering how people map out what route they were taking?
I appreciate that i could just go and buy a paper map a physically draw a line on but what i mainly wanted to know is there an app etc that i can use on my tablet like memory map to plot a route on some known routes/roads/tracks and scenery spots?
We`ve got around 18mnths yet so im a little early in asking for advice but dosnt hurt to get the ball rolling! :car:
 
Ive used
Google maps.
Add place marks and transfer them to tomtom to make sure it takes you where you want ot go.

At the same time I use a eeepc with gps reciever and Autoroute to track where Im on the map. It has a red dot that follows the roads like something out a spy film :)
 
Thanks for the replys chaps, ill have to take a look into what you've both suggested, see what works best for us, ill be taking a satnav anyway as a matter of course its aust it somtimes it dosnt like taking you the long way round (but scenic) in our case.
Any other tips what to look out for when plotting a route? Usualy when im plottin for a laning day I look for close contours etc I dont want to take us up a track for 2 miles to find it impossible to drive :S
Thanks again
 
The satnav on its own is not much use if you have a plan. It has a mind of its own and will take you the most stupid places. With tomtom you need to prog. it with an itinerary. Say you want to go over a mountian pass then you add a waypoint(s) on the road you want to take to force the satnav to go that way. You also need to watch towns is it'll send you through housing estates, along main streets etc when its much quicker to maybe follow the bypass, so you have to have an idea where your heading and watch the signs :)

Dont know about offroad/tracks but I can point you to some good tar roads/passes. The road in/out of Val-d'Isère takes you over the highest paved pass, Col de l'Iseran, in the Europe, its worth a look :) But anywhere in the alps is nice with some amazing roads. Ive been over most of the high Swiss passes, some a few times and I'll be back for more but this year its the Pyrenees.
 
I have a shed-load of French maps in Memory Map format, Pete. They are nowhere near as good as OS, but might help. I'll burn 'em to cd and pass 'em on next time we meet. It's not a complete set, but hopefully they'll cover the areas you need.
 
As above, google maps is excellent. I use Garmin's basecamp free software, excellent for mapping and up loading routes/tracks to a garmin device.

Have fun, cheers Mark
 
We went through the Pyrenees this new year in the 90 and found google maps to have some really quite good tracks on it. It was good to be driving, see the start of a track and then have a look on the map to see where it went. Some were even starting to push my beginner 4x4 driving skills and I was surprised they were on the map. The only snag was the data charge at £5 a day it soon added up!
 
I use alpinequest app...you can use your old memory map (qct files) and if you use the 1.8 version of mobile atlas creator, you can create offline maps(bing satellite etc) in the format that alpinequest can read. It can also save a download itself for offline reading of topo maps and a lot more besides. You can try it out first.
 
Of everything everyone has suggested I would be putting my money (or torrent) into Memory map and getting the maps from Paul D. These are IGN maps which are the French equivalent of OS in the UK (but not quite as clear or accurate). They will show you pistes/unsealed routes, passes etc.

Ozi works really well but I am unsure where you would get the map data from.

Ignore the Googles and sat nav, they wont show you much off tarmac.

Pikey suggested Michelin. Once you spot the right route to look for (solid black) then you start to uncover a load of route options. I would buy the French Michelin map for planning purposes and then look at the IGN maps for more detail.

If you didn't want to go digital or it is too costly then wait till your down on the Italian border where you can buy the Italian 1:50k scale maps of the region for about 7quid. These are also a good backup.

To get you started have a look at my trip report (Sirocco Overland | ??????? ???????? | Solo Vehicle Dependent Exploration, Travel & Adventure). You want to be looking around Embrun/Gap for the Col de Parpillon. A gravel piste with an unlit tunnel at the top. You want to be looking for the Asseti Crest near Sestriere in Italy and the route which forms a horseshoe over Tende which passes old fortresses.

There is also another route which takes you to the highest accessible point in Europe 3000m ASL but I cant remember the town nearest sorry. Its to the north of the Susa valley though.

Spend a few hours scrolling around a michelin map (use via michelin on their website) and all will become clear.

Ow yer and the highest asphalt pass is the Col de Bonnette not Iseran

G
 
Griffdowg said:
Of everything everyone has suggested I would be putting my money (or torrent) into Memory map and getting the maps from Paul D. These are IGN maps which are the French equivalent of OS in the UK (but not quite as clear or accurate). They will show you pistes/unsealed routes, passes etc.

G
Click to expand...

Heheheh, completely forgot about this!!! I have the IGN maps for Memory Map, not all of them, but most. Soon as I can I'll sort them out Pete, maybe for the first SY meeting .. :)

Sorry ... ;)
 
If you want to avoid getting bogged down in tech mapping, plot your route the old fashioned way, look at your long/lats on an actual map and plug them into google street view/google maps where street view is unavailable and you'll get a picture of what's actually there!
It'll give you a solid itinerary to start plugging into clever sat navs and apps.
TSC
 
I've driven a lot of europe using a Tomtom XL europe. it's absolutely fine. That plus an OS as back up.

Are you planning on off roading or green lanes (what ever the french equivalent is)?

If your just road driving why make your life difficult. Get a tom-tom with europe maps off ebay for £30
 
I use a 5" Garmin Nuvi with full Europe maps for the road, then MotionX on the dash mounted ipad for the pistes. The ipad is the cellular version so has a pretty good GPS chipset built in. I'm off over the French Alps mid August and I've cached about 10gb of topo maps on MotionX on all zoom scales of the areas we want to cover. This is a new setup for me so I'll let you know how I get on in my trip report. Oh and I always take paper backups... Michelin maps are good... we used these solely in Morocco along with the Garmin, we marked pistes and waypoints on the paper maps with coloured dots - we were finding red and yellow dots everywhere for weeks! :D
 
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