Maps, travel and exploration

  • Maps Everywhere NJCU exhibit

So you want to design a map for Tourists

One thing I like about a good paper tourist map is that place names, buildings and parks don’t appear and disappear every time I touch it. They are all in exactly the same place as the last time I looked at it.

I hear you. You are saying, “Why would someone pick up a map, wouldn’t you just use your phone?” Sure, the phone is great, but many people I’ve met while traveling do not pay for data while abroad. They use wifi when they can find it, but they rely on paper maps.

Since I’ve been traveling, I’ve picked up several free tourist maps. A paper map can give you a good overview of the area. If it’s designed properly, you can see clusters of attractions and determine which direction you want to head in. A good tourist map will tell you all you need to know for the first 48-36 hours in a place. It can also transfer a feeling about a place. They can be good for navigating without your phone (gasp!), but only if some simple graphic design rules are followed. I’ve used some good ones and not used some very bad ones.

What makes a well designed map for a Tourist?

Hold on, let’s start with the question that should preface any design project, no matter how big or small. Who is the audience for this design?

Who is this map for? It is for the Tourist. Let’s dig deeper.

Who is the Tourist? Our Tourist is a casual explorer, with limited amounts of time, limited experience with the language and customs and who knows next to nothing about where they are. They want to see the sights and have a good time. The more adventurous Tourist may take mass transit, but most will walk, blisters and all, from morning until night, for days, probably in new shoes bought especially for the trip (rookie mistake #1).

It is important to understand that everything the Tourist sees is brand new to them and often not understood. Common things look different in different countries. Stores sell different products. A coffeeshop (one word) in Amsterdam is not where you get a cappuccino. This Tourist is grappling with many things simultaneously, more than how to get from the church square to the world-class museum and back to the hotel. Let’s just say, the Tourist could be confused, hungry, tired, and/or possibly in pain, in any combination, at any given point.

This is why a tourist map must be clear and concise and make the Tourist feel comfortable. It must be easy to use.

tourist map example

Ok, so how do you design a map for the average tourist?

Oh wait – there are more questions before we start.

What is a map? A map is a diagram, or schematic representation of a specific place. A map is primarily made of lines, colors, text and some type of imagery. A map has a scale, meaning there is relationship between the sizes and distances on the map and those sizes and distances in reality. The map can be for one street corner or an entire country, or continent, or anything in between.

What is the purpose of a map? A map of a place can be made for many reasons. It can show property borders, or geological structures, or it may indicate heights of mountains and directions of rivers. A map explains a complex three dimensional space in a two dimensional form.

This post is about general tourist maps, so let’s conclude the tourist map must 1) inform the Tourist of the location of major attractions, restaurants, retail stores, notable neighborhoods, and transit hubs, 2) provide street names, and 3) help the Tourist navigate comfortably in a place for a few days.

Now that we have defined whom the map is for and what the person should do with that map, we can start to think about the map in terms of design.

Hierarchy. What is the most important thing on this map? It will probably be major tourist attractions, and streets with street names. If you receive the map at your hotel, conveniently your hotel is prominent on the map as well. Hierarchy on a map is created through the use of color or pattern, line weights, scale, typography and images.

tourist map example

Simplify. If you mapped ten blocks around any given point in any city, you’d find hundreds or maybe thousands of things to map. Newstands, doctor’s offices, shoe stores, bus stops, dry cleaners, museums, police stations, cab stands, bakeries, jewelry stores, repair shops, grocery stores, delivery services – a slice of an entire cast of characters and scenes that make up any city. The Tourist does not need to know about 95% of this. Leave it off the tourist map. Too much information makes the map confusing and thus confuses the Tourist and makes them uncomfortable.

Did you know that you are demonstrating a bias when you add or subtract things from a map? All maps, like all designed things, have a point of view, even if you try to project a neutral voice. Choose carefully to create a balanced overview of the area. Due to limited space on your map, you may have to make some hard decisions.

tourist map example

Contrast. A tourist map must make full use of contrast. This is not the place to be subtle. The Tourist wants to find things fast. Contrast can be easily achieved with color and scale. At times, spacing can also be used, but generally speaking, spacing is set by the streets on the map.

Color. Where is the tourist when they are looking at your map? Are they sitting comfortably at home with their favorite pup or kitty in their lap, with a warm cup of tea and good lighting? No. They are standing on a busy street corner in a foreign country, staring at a map, wondering how a street name can have 17 letters and only 2 vowels. And they are getting hungry. This is not the time to use all pastels or put lots of small white type on a black backgound, or even worse, a yellow background. Use pleasant, but contrasting colors, to make things stand out and easy to find.

The colors you choose should relate to your subject matter and can help convey your message or invoke time period. Color can set the scene for the Tourist as they explore.

tourist map example

Scale. Maps have limited space by virtue of the street plan and the size of the paper they are printed on. You can manipulate scale by changing size and also by making things out of scale from the rest of the map. On a tourist map, scale (distance) does not have to be entirely accurate. Areas of interest for the Tourist can be larger and out of scale , just keep the sequence of things in order. Main streets can be made a little wider, or attractions can be moved a bit to accommodate place names. When designing indicators for the map, you can use different sizes for groups of things. Attractions might be one size. Restaurants might be a little smaller.

tourist map example

This map also educates the viewer on the structure of Barcelona’s street plan, with the square blocks of Eixample surrounding the cramped blocks of the old city. Also, as I discussed in another post , the city is oriented with the sea and Eixample parallel the paper. North would be pointing toward the upper right corner, not the top of the paper. —

Typography. No teeny tiny type please. Your Tourist’s feet hurt, their phone ran out of juice and they are already supposed to be in line for their 15:30 Van Gogh Museum tickets. They have to locate the museum on the map, determine which streets will get them there, all while they figure out what time 15:30 really is. They need clear, legible type on everything, even if it’s small. Keep the flowery stuff for the cover panel. You can use serif or sans serif, just be sure it has enough space around it and contrasts to the background. If you use upper and lower case, don’t let your descenders touch the lines of the streets. Type in all caps should have adequate spacing above and below. Avoid italic type on maps unless you are trying to highlight information.

tourist map example

Symbols. Yes, please use symbols, or very abstracted (simplified) drawings. Symbols are good shorthand for maps and other information design because they can be understood quickly. Symbols, or icons, are most effective when you have to indicate different locations for similar things, like monuments. Using one symbol to signify “museums” is good. Creating an individual symbol for every different museum on your map will be confusing. Your Tourist will have to always be consulting a key to decipher the symbols. If you have room on your map, pair the symbol with the name of the place for double information. Your Tourist can use all the help she can get, because her feet are killing her and she’s carrying her coat because it’s hot now.

tourist map example

Images. Remember, the Tourist doesn’t know anything about where they are. Aside from the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and the Empire State Building, most people do not know what specific buildings in other cities look like. Small, simplified drawings of buildings or attractions, placed on the map are very very helpful. In my opinion, drawings are easier to “read” than photographs. Photographs have too much unnecessary information, such as surrounding buildings or trees.

tourist map example

Lastly, the overall map as a piece of design should be balanced . You can’t move streets or rivers (too much), but you can play around with the other map elements, such as titles, information keys, the scale indicator and various text boxes or other images. You may embellish the map with illustrations or photos. As you design, hang the map upsidedown and stand back to look at it. Right away you’ll see what is sticking out or too big or too small. This is a trick you can use to see if any design is balanced and holding together.

Here are a few more maps in my collection I just have to share…

tourist map example

I found this cheeky little map of Lisbon in an “alternative” shop. It has fun commentary and a friendly, hip look and feel. This map is geared toward a more specific audience (perhaps those that know the virtue of using a Nikon). Numbered discs are keyed nicely to explanations and photos on the opposite side. It’s interesting it uses pink and blue like the other Lisbon map I got. It’s got a wicked sense of humor and is worth enlarging the images to read the text. —

tourist map example

Ok, you know you’d love to have this map in every city! This map from Belfast hits all the marks, although that’s easy when you limit what you want to present. A wall of clean white tiles greets you on the cover. The title borrows familiar international visual language for restrooms, merging humor with comfort – you don’t need to read the text to understand the content of this document. The map itself has been simplified to the basics, streets, the major attraction to orient you and numbered discs that are easily keyed to more information. The bonus on the back is photos of that ever important facility. Bravo! —

A tourist map can be a good free souvenir, especially if it’s designed well. Every time you look at that map, you will be filled with memories from your trip. I’ve collected many more than I show here!

–All of these maps are used without permission!

Categories MAKING THINGS

Tags Amsterdam Barcelona Dresden Dublin Lisbon paper Prague research travel try this! Vilnuis wayfinding

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tourist map example

How To Make A Travel Map [Tips and Free Template]

Planning a trip abroad? If you want your trip to go smoothly, especially if traveling with a group, you'll want to make a travel map.

Chelsey Roney

Chelsey Roney

CEO, Co-Founder

tourist map example

Putting together a travel map can be a fun and insightful exercise that helps you throughout your journeys. Any seasoned traveler knows that planning and anticipating your trip is an enjoyable part of the process. And they also know that, when it comes to having a positive experience, a little bit of planning and preparation goes a long way.

That’s why we put together this guide on how to make a travel map. We hope that you find this advice useful during your itinerary. You may even find that your travel map is a wonderful way to remember your trip long after the travel dates have come and gone. Without further ado, let’s dive into some FAQs about travel planning maps.

What is a Travel Map?

A travel map is any kind of representation of the places you’re going. It can help you keep track of places you want to go and the information you need to remember. Back in the old days, a travel map would be on paper. While some people may prefer the nostalgia of putting together a paper map, most people in the 21st century prefer a more high-tech solution. You can put together a group travel map on many types of mapping software.

Those who use Google maps or Apple Maps may lean towards their preferred daily navigation tool. However, there is also value in finding a more niche solution to this exciting project of putting together a personal travel map . Before we dive into the specifics of how you can put together your very own travel map, let’s take a look at some of the benefits that a travel itinerary map has to offer.

Benefits of a Travel Map

First and foremost, having a travel map will help you keep your itineraries organized. If you’re hoping to make the most of your trip and see every site that you had on your bucket list, a bit of organization goes a long way. After all, you don’t want to waste precious time and energy on your vacation or travels trying to figure out basic logistics that you could have researched beforehand if you were more diligent.

A travel map can also be a good opportunity to share information and collaborate with your travel partners. Different people have different visions of the ideal journey. Therefore, collaboration and communication are quite important. Some tools (such as Proxi) offer the opportunity to build a travel map together on a single platform from multiple accounts. This can help reduce miscommunications and frustrations over poorly planned Itineraries.

What to Include in Your Travel Map?

Now that we’ve talked about the benefits of putting together a travel map, let’s take a look at a few of the most common elements that you want to consider adding to yours. We’ll start with some basic trip amenities that any traveler will need to consider. From there, we can talk about the specifics of your journey.

Hotels and Accommodations

On your trip, you will obviously need a place to stay. The exact hotel that you choose will depend on your budget and your plans during your stay. But a few things to always look for are location, quality, and price.

You want a hotel that is located close to the attractions you’ll be visiting. It’s also worth considering if the area your hotel is in is walkable and if it has connectivity with local trains, buses, bike shares, and other transit options. Checking Google reviews and other customer feedback can help you decide between the hotel options.

Price is a concern for most travelers to some degree, so you will want to understand the cost of each option as well. Once you have chosen a hotel, your travel map can help you remember key details such as the address, check-in hours, and where you will be heading out to once you leave your hotel

Sights and Attractions

Add attractions your want to see. Now that we’ve taken care of accommodations let’s dive into the attractions! You can find information about the attractions in the area you’re traveling to by creatively scouring the web. Platforms like Yelp, Reddit, and even Quora are good places to start . If you can find a travel blog or YouTube channel with more personal and subjective content from creators you love, that may help even more. Once you’ve chosen the attractions you’d like to visit, you can use your travel map to keep track of information such as the address, the ticket page, the hours, when you will go, and any relevant links to reservations.

Travel Arrangements

A Travel map is also a good place to keep track of your arrangements. There’s nothing worse than arriving at an airport or train station and not being able to find your boarding pass. So why not keep your ticket links directly in a unified and cohesive travel map? You can also note down information such as station location, transit to the airport, and departure times of all your journeys.

When traveling with a large group, these situations can be particularly chaotic or even stressful if not managed well. In order to coordinate your party when heading to the airport, train station, or bus terminal, digital tickets and a readily accessible itinerary are invaluable.

Food, Drinks, and Dining

A key part of experiencing any local culture is finding the food fare. If you do research beforehand, you can take note of the restaurants you would most like to visit. Of course, you can also add information on hours, menu items, reservations, and the address for any dining establishments you will be patronizing.

With a digital travel map, you can start researching (and anticipating) all the amazing food, drinks, and experiences you will have. And all that research can be stored and accessed, making for a wonderfully seamless chain of events.

Additional Tips

By now, your travel vision is really beginning to take shape. The big day is approaching, and soon you will be on your way to experience new things and build memories that will last a lifetime. Here are some final tips to put the finishing touches on your travel map and be fully prepared for everything that life – and your journey – will throw at you.

Take Advantage of the Cloud

Use an online map maker so you can access your map anywhere. There’s nothing worse than putting tons of work into a map that you then leave in the hotel at the most crucial moment. An online map will allow you to access the same information from multiple devices, and it will make it easy to share that information among multiple people.

While there is certainly some nostalgic value in a paper map, we would recommend buying one for a souvenir if you really want one but relying on a more modern and robust digital solution for your day-in and day-out travel necessities.

Get Organized and Create Categories

Group map pins into different categories to help keep things organized. For example, you may wish to group all of the museums you will be visiting into one category and all of the architectural sites you wish to experience in a different one. Things such as accommodations, hotels, and transit can also deserve their own categories.

The exact division of locations into distinct categories is ultimately up to you, but you want to pick a consistent theme that is practical for the purposes of your particular travel experience. Grouping pins in this fashion can also help make sure that everyone on the trip gets to have their own input. Group travel is sometimes challenging, but good communication can help.

Add Photos and Organize Memories

A digital travel map with pins is useful for more than just planning. The great thing is that you can later use the pins to upload photos of your vacation if you are using a proper travel map software such as Proxi. You can upload photos of your vacation to each respective pin, turning your map into a photo album.

With Proxi, you can also embed this on your blog, so others can follow along with your journey. Our platform was made with adventurous and creative travelers like you in mind, so make sure to check us out and see everything that proxy has to offer. It will help you make the most of your trip and will also help you organize and share all the memories and experiences that you take in along the way.

Check Out Our Travel Map Template

Ready to start creating your travel map for your upcoming trip?

Spend some time exploring our free Travel Map Template for group trips.

Just pick the city or region you’ll be traveling to and start marking down the information that is most useful to you. Our design is intended to put powerful map-creation tools into the hands of everyday travelers like you. We hope you’ll enjoy our work. But most importantly…be sure to enjoy your trip!

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Get Inspired

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How would you like to plot your course!?

tourist map example

Roaming the Americas

How to Use Google My Maps to Plan a Trip (Ultimate Guide)

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Note: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a commission at no additional cost to you. More details are  here .

tourist map example

I love a good map. I’ve got maps hanging on my walls. I go to the bookstore to read maps. Whenever I navigate my way home using only a map, I feel like I must have some innate bushcraft skills. And if you’ve read my posts about traveling in Maine , you’re probably sick of me talking about the DeLorme Atlas by now.

But while reading paper maps will always inspire a sense of get-up-and-go adventure for me, I’m not totally opposed to using tech for planning my trips and navigating on the ground.

And one of my favorite techy solutions? A secret little trip planner called Google My Maps, buried inside of everyone’s favorite map tool.

Google My Maps lets you create shareable custom maps with multiple layers, plus location pins with icons and notes. It’s a great way to brainstorm travel plans or create a trip itinerary from a desktop. And since the map can be viewed in the Google Maps app, you can use it to navigate on the go. 

To give you an example of what this post will show you how to do, here’s one of the custom Google Maps I’ve created for a trip.

Keep reading for an overview of how to use Google My Maps to plan a trip, plus a video tutorial of how to set it up—all updated in 2023. I’ll also share answers to commonly asked questions and some lesser known tips to help you get the most out of this tool. 

A quick note: Creating a custom map in Google My Maps is distinct from Google Lists of saved places. Check out our Google My Maps vs Lists comparison to see all the differences and our full guide to using Google Maps Lists .

8 Top Google My Maps Features

(AKA Why It’s Awesome)

Google My Maps allows you to see your trip itinerary. 

This is so helpful, especially if you’re a visual person or enjoy using maps. But even if you’re not, it’s still really useful to see where everything is in relation to each other as you plan your trip, vacation, or holiday because it helps you be realistic about your plans.

It connects with other Google apps. 

Setting aside my (ahem, very rational) fear that they may take over the world soon, I love all things Google. My Maps stores a copy of the map in whatever Google Drive account you’re using. (Am I the only one who has six of these?) So if you like to create Google Docs or folders to store trip planning information, documents, photos, or itineraries, it’s nice to have your map easily accessible in the same folder.

You get additional location information since it’s part of Google Maps. 

If a location is on Google, you can see their website, phone number, address, reviews, and website when you add it to your custom map. (Note that you can’t see this information when clicking on your saved pin from the Google Maps app, but you can from desktop.)

You can add your own extra notes and photos.

Customize your map even more by adding notes, photos, or videos. Use the notes during planning to add website, hours, or tips. If I hear about the location from a particular website, I usually add that link and what was noted in the article about the location (e.g., it’s a great sunset spot, which dish on the menu is recommended) so I can reference it later.

You can view your route by creating a layer with directions. 

When I traveled to Burlington, Vermont, I wanted to see the length of the bike trail on the map, so I used the directions feature to show the whole route. (Check out the Burlington travel guide for an example of the travel map I created that includes the bike path route.) And while I haven’t done this yet, you could also use Google My Maps to plan a road trip itinerary for a longer adventure. 

Caveat: As I’ll discuss later, you can’t use directions layers to get turn-by-turn directions (but I mention an alternative below). For this reason, I only use these layers to visualize my route.

It’s highly customizable. 

Don’t mind me while I swoon over the color coding and organization options over here. Use custom icons, layers, and colors so it’s easy to see what things are at a glance. For example, you can give different locations individual styles: a coffee cup icon for cafes, a bed icon for hotels, and a swimming icon for beaches. You can also use layers in many different ways, such as one layer for each day of your trip or one layer for each category (like dining, lodging, and things to do).

In-depth planning on your computer. Easy, on-the-go access from your phone. 

While you can’t edit the maps from the Google Maps app on iPhone or Android, you (and anyone you’ve shared them with) can view them. You can click on icons and see your notes, as well as navigate to those locations. 

Note that there used to be a dedicated My Maps app on Android, but this has been deprecated. 

It’s easy to share it with a friend or with the world. 

If you’re planning a trip with other people, it’s easy to share the map with others . And if it’s something you want to make available to everyone (like I do on my travel guide posts), just change the privacy setting and share the link or embed it on a website.

3 Ways to Use Google My Maps

Brainstorm and store ideas for future “maybe” trips. 

I often come across a really interesting hotel, restaurant, or fun thing to do in destinations I want to travel to in the future, and I want to make sure I don’t forget about them. I have so many bookmarks in so many places (Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram), but Google My Maps is the place I’ve started storing ideas for future trips.

Plan your trip itinerary. 

Want to use Google Maps for route planning? When you’re ready to plan an upcoming trip, plot it out visually by using Google My Maps to create your itinerary. If you like structured itineraries, you can easily create a detailed day-to-day plan. 

Or, you can use a looser itinerary structure like we usually do by adding all the places you might like to go. 

For example, on a day trip to NYC, we added tons of places to eat on the map (thank you, Tiktok). As we were walking around doing other activities and started to get hungry, we were able to easily see which saved restaurants were closest to us. 

Navigate on the go.

Whether you’re using your map loosely for ideas or for a structured itinerary, you can pull it up on your phone anytime and get directions to your next location. 

Not sure what you want to do today, or want to see what the closest restaurant from your list is for dinner? Pop into your custom map to jog your memory from the notes you made or to get directions to your next location.

Recommended: Need an organized backpack to take on the road? Check out my favorite luggage for camping, road trips, and flying: the Cotopaxi Nazca 24L and Allpa 35L !

How to Use Google My Maps to Plan a Trip

How to create a new custom map.

Go to Google My Maps from your desktop browser . Check the Google icon in the top right corner to make sure you’re using the Google account you want to. Click “Create A New Map” and a window will open with a blank map. To give your map a name and description , click the map name (“Untitled Map”).

Google My Maps Create New Map

You can also change the color and style of the base map if desired. At the bottom of the layer panel on the left, click the arrow next to “Base Map.” You’ll get a window with nine options, including terrain, light political (a very light version of the standard Google Maps), satellite, and some different colored versions. Note that changing the base map style on desktop won’t change anything when viewing on mobile in Google Maps.

How to Add and Edit Layers

When you create a new map, the first layer will already be created, so you’ll probably want to rename it. To give your first layer a title , click directly on the title name like you did with the map name, or click the 3 dots next to “Untitled Layer” and then click “Rename Layer.” Clicking these 3 dots next to a layer title is also how you can delete a layer if you add one accidentally or change your mind. In this example, I’m changing my first layer to “dining” and will add all restaurants to this layer.

You can use layers any way you want to, or simply stick to one layer if you don’t need multiple. To add new layers , simply click “Add Layer” in the gray section below the map title and description.

To move a pin between layers , click the pin on the layer and hold down the mouse, and then drag it to the desired layer.

Google My Maps Create New Map

How to Add Location Pins

There are various ways to add location pins to a layer. First, make sure the correct layer is chosen by clicking anywhere in the white area on the layer. You’ll see which layer is selected by looking for the blue bar on the left of the layer.

  • In the map search bar, type either a place name or an address. Click “Add to Map” to add a pin for this location . This is how I add most pins.
  • If you don’t need an exact location or don’t have an address , you can click the pin marker button below the map search bar (“Add Marker”). It will turn your mouse into a T and you can click anywhere on the map to add a blank pin. You’ll immediately be prompted to add the pin title and description.
  • If you’re dealing with very remote locations (or you just like geeky map stuff), you can also use latitude and longitude coordinates in the search bar.

To delete a pin , simply click on it and click the trash icon.

Google My Maps selected layer

A few tips and best practices for adding pins:

  • If the place you’re searching for does not have a listing on Google, you’ll have to use an address. One thing to note is that sometimes Google Maps listings aren’t correct or don’t take you to the right place, so you may want to double check the location if you’re not using a street address to add the pin (especially if it’s a small business without a website).
  • I have also found that hiking trail heads are frequently on Google Maps, but they’re not always correct in terms of navigating there by car. I usually add them to my map to get a basic idea of where they are while planning, but I use a paper map or atlas to find them while traveling.

How to Customize Location Pins

To change the title and add notes to your listing, click on the pin on the map, and then click the pencil icon (“Edit”).

To change the color and icon of the pin , click the paint bucket icon (from the pin itself or directly in the layer). Click “More Icons” to view all the icon options. You can color code by type of activity, by layer, or any way that makes sense to you.

To add photos or videos to a pin , click on the pin on the map, and then click the camera icon (“Add Image or Video”). This is another way to make your map interactive, especially after you’ve visited a location and want to share it with others.

Google My Maps Change Title & Notes

How to Add A Directions Layer

I find that directions layers are helpful for showing the route of a walking tour, bike path, or road trip you want to take, but I don’t find them useful for directions while traveling since I can simply use the maps app to navigate. 

I use directions layers whenever I want to show an entire route on a map , rather than a specific location. Think of this as the 2024 version of mapping out a trip with AAA paper maps and a highlighter (if you’re old enough to remember).

Click the arrow icon underneath the search bar, which will create a new directions layer. On the legend, click “Driving” if you want to change this to walking or biking directions. Add a location name or address to Points A and B in the legend. If you find that the pins are not exactly where they should be, you can drag the points on the map.

Continue adding points by clicking “Add Destination” on the map. You can either type the information into the legend or hover your mouse to a spot on the map and double click it. (This is especially useful if you’re tracing a route on something like a bike path or hiking trail that won’t have an address.)

Rearrange the order by dragging the items around in the legend. Just like altering directions on Google Maps navigation, you can click on part of the route and drag it to a different road if you want to change part of the route after it is complete.

If you need to access the directions so you can see the distance of your route or the time it will take, click the three dots on the layer and click “Step-by-Step Directions.” Note that you can’t actually use this to get turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps.

Google My Maps Add Directions

How to Share A Google My Map

There are several options for sharing your Google Maps trip plan.

Open up your map, then click the share button in the gray bar above your layers. To allow others to view your map (which includes embedding on your website), click “change” under the section “Who has access.” For embedding, you will need to make this setting public.

Otherwise, if you want to allow others to edit your map, add their email address in the “invite people” section.

Google My Maps Trip Planner - Sharing a Map

How to View Your Custom Map in Google Maps (iPhone or Android)

Open Google Maps and go to the Saved icon at the bottom. Scroll to the bottom of this screen and click “Maps.” Choose the My Map you want to view. The layers with your custom icons will now be visible on your Google Map. You can click on any pin to view your details (such as description or photos), as well as to navigate there. 

To close a map, click on a pin and then click “View Map Legend.” There, you can click the Close icon.

From the Map Legend, you can also toggle layers on and off, and then backing out to the main map (don’t click Close—just the back arrow or back button).

How to Navigate with a Custom My Map (iPhone or Android)

To navigate to one of your pins, open your map, find the pin for where you want to go, click it, and then click “directions.” When you do this, you won’t see your custom map anymore but will be looking at the regular navigation of Google Maps.

You can’t use a My Maps “directions layer” for navigation. If you’re looking for that functionality, I recommend just creating a route in Google Maps and sending it to your phone (or sharing with others). See here for more details. 

How to Import Locations from Google Sheets, CSV, or Excel

Importing locations to a My Maps layer can be helpful in a few scenarios:

  • You have a significant amount of locations to add to your layer
  • Your data is already in the form of a spreadsheet
  • You want additional fields included besides the default Name and Description
  • You want to create groupings of pins (for example, a list of 50 restaurants could have a column for “Cuisine,” which will give you the option to group and style the pins by cuisine)

The process is simple, and you can import a variety of file types, including CSV, Excel (XLSX), or directly from Google Sheets. There are also special file formats that import map data from other programs, but this section is focused on spreadsheet-type files that you create and format.

Create a spreadsheet with the desired column headers. At a minimum, you need place names and either addresses or latitude-longitude information . 

If you want to group your pins by some type of categorization, you should include that as a column. Other columns you could include: website, phone number, description, or notes. While Google Sheets allows you to include photos in a cell, Google My Maps will not import photos in this way (it will include the column as a field, but will be blank). 

Once your spreadsheet file is ready, click “Import” on a blank layer (if your map already has layers, you will need to add a new layer to see this option). If uploading a CSV or XLSX, do this from the Upload tab. If using a Google Sheet, click the Google Drive tab and choose your file. 

Choose which column has location data (address or latitude-longitude) and click “Continue.” Choose the location name column next and click “Finish.” 

To change the icons individually, click “Uniform Style” next to the paintbrush on your layer. Under “Group Places By,” choose “Individual Styles.”

To change styles by a category column (such as Cuisine), click the link next to the paintbrush and choose to group places by the desired column. You can then give each category its own color or icon.

You can manually add new pins to this layer, and they will include all the fields you imported from the spreadsheet columns. 

You can also add more items to your spreadsheet, and import this new data. Click the three dots on your layer. Under “Reimport and Merge,” click “Add More Items” and choose your file. It will add the new rows to your layer.

How to Import a Route from Google Maps Timeline History (KML) or GPS Data From a Fitness App (GPX)

Google My Maps can import routes and locations you’ve already traveled to via special file types that are very easy to download from certain apps. This could be useful if you want to share a walking, biking, or driving route that you’ve taken without having to recreate it on a directions layer. 

Note that this only works as well as the GPS satellites were able to track your location while you were traveling.

If there are a lot of clouds, dense forest, buildings, or anything else blocking the GPS signal, your tracked route will be much less precise. I’ve noticed that Google Maps sometimes has my route showing somewhere I couldn’t have walked or driven. 

If you have your location history turned on in Google Maps, you can download a KML file from a trip, which will include the route traveled and location pins for any stops. Sometimes it misses a location name or adds a pin in the wrong place, but overall it’s pretty good.

Go to your Google Maps Timeline and locate the day you want to export. Click on it, and you should now see your route highlighted along with any stops you made. Now click the gear icon on the bottom of your map, and click “Export this day to KML.” Go to your My Map and on a new layer, click “Import.” Choose the KML file you just downloaded. You can now edit each portion as needed—changing the color and thickness of the route line, changing the location icons, as well as adjusting the route where desired.

If you have other apps that track your location, such as fitness apps, you may be able to download a GPX file that shows the route you took. The instructions for doing this will vary from app to app, but I was able to easily find it in Samsung Health by looking at the detail of a particular workout/walk and clicking the three dots to download a GPX. The import process to Google My Maps is the same as above.

With both methods, you can make adjustments to points/stops along the way or even add more pins. With the Google Maps KML file, you can also adjust your route by moving the small white dots.

Google My Maps Tutorial

Here’s a walk through video to show you how to use Google Maps to plan a trip, along with several of my own Google My Maps itinerary examples. Coming soon: a 2024 update!

Google My Maps Examples

Here are a few more examples of My Maps I’ve created for sharing recommendations, trip ideas, and actual vacation planning.

Screen shot of desktop view of a custom My Map for Hawai'i

Google My Maps FAQs and Tips

As great as Google My Maps is for planning a trip, there are some limitations to using it. Lots of questions have also come up about more specific uses and ways to use its features. Thanks to all the readers who have asked or shared tips in the comments as I’m always looking to make this a more robust guide. I’ve organized the questions and tips here since it makes it easier than scrolling through the comments.

How many layers can you add to a map?

Google My Maps limits you to 10 layers. If you are planning a longer road trip and want to create a layer for each day, this limitation may prove frustrating. 

Here are a couple of workaround ideas: You can create 2 maps, and have the entire master route as 1 layer on each (showing the very basic route for all 12 days—say from city to city) as a reference. Then build individual layers for each day. As a second option, you could add multiple days to 1 layer and change the titles to start with the day they correspond to (so it would be “1 – Name of Place” instead of just “Name of Place.”) However, this option may not be ideal since you can’t see the titles until you click when you’re on the phone.

How many location pins can you add to each layer?

You can add up to 2,000 pins per layer, and the entire map cannot exceed 10,000 lines, shapes, or places total. I haven’t tested the limits, and it’s possible adding this amount of items could slow things down. My guess is that most travelers wouldn’t need anything so large, but it is possible according to Google . 

Are custom Google My Maps available offline?

No, but keep reading for a workaround and alternative. 

One of the biggest complaints about Google My Maps is that you can’t download your custom map and pins to use offline, unlike the rest of Google Maps. 

However, I have been able to use it in areas with spotty reception. I pulled the map up when I did have reception, and I left it running in the background. It would stay loaded in the app and I was able to pull it up to look at it later when I was out of reception. I’m not sure I would rely on this as a surefire workaround, but it can work in a pinch.

Another alternative, especially if you’ll be traveling in another country where you’ll be completely offline, is to use Google Maps Lists, which can be edited from desktop or your phone but don’t offer the option for separate layers, unique icons, or adding photos. 

Is there an app for Google My Maps?

There is no separate Google My Maps app, but you can view your maps within Google Maps. Just make sure you’re signed into the same account, and all your maps will sync. 

(There used to be a dedicated My Maps app on Android, but this was deprecated in 2021.)

Can you create or edit maps from your phone?

No, the maps cannot be edited from the Google Maps app. Google My Maps can only be created or edited from the desktop version of the site. This is another huge advantage Google Lists has over Google My Maps because Lists allow you to add new places or entire lists from any device—iPhone, Android, tablet, laptop, or desktop.

Is there a bridge height filter?

No. For RVers and others who need to plan ahead for height limitations, there is no bridge height filter available in Google Maps. Since I haven’t had to use this feature myself, I am not confident in an alternative to recommend. However, from a bit of digging around, there are some apps and GPS units for truckers that may be a good place to start looking if you have an oversize vehicle.

What is the difference between Google Maps Lists and Google My Maps?

They both allow you to create custom maps with pins, but there are some key differences, such as offline access, layer capabilities, customizable pins, and creating/editing within the app. Check out the details on how Google My Maps compares to Lists (including a features comparison table).

How many stops can you add on a directions layer?

You can only add 10 stops per directions layer. This is also the maximum number of stops you can add for navigation in Google Maps. As some readers have pointed out, this can be limiting when you want to use this feature for a long road trip.

Can you use the directions layers on your phone for navigation purposes?

No, you cannot create a directions layer and then access those turn-by-turn directions for navigation in the Google Maps app. 

So…are directions layers totally useless? What’s the point of having a Driving Directions layer in My Maps?

Personally, I still like to use these layers, but only to show a route for my very visual brain, rather than to actually create custom directions. 

Can you send a custom created route (layer) to someone else so that the other person will take that specific driving route on google maps?

No, you can’t do this from My Maps, but there’s a workaround I can suggest.

Forget My Maps, and use Google Maps from desktop or mobile to plot a route. You can add up to 10 stops, and then you will be able to share your custom directions. 

From desktop, there’s an extra step in first sending the directions to your phone. If you’ve created the directions in the mobile app or once you have them pulled up there, you can share them with anyone by clicking the 3 dots next to your list of locations (sharing must be done before clicking “Start”—if you’re already in the navigation, you need to back out of it to share). When you share, it will list all the steps as well as send a link for the other person to open the directions in Google Maps directly. 

An important caveat to sharing custom routes: Google Maps will reroute the directions as it normally does according to current traffic at the time of driving, so this method cannot be relied upon if you’ve mapped a specific route for bridge clearances. As a workaround, you can add “stops” on the desired interstate (zoom in and add this literally on the road itself so navigation doesn’t try to take you off an exit), which will force Google Maps to take the driver that way. This is what I do when driving south from Connecticut to PA because Google Maps always wants me to take its beloved George Washington Bridge and I always don’t want to. I add a stop to force my route across the Tappan Zee Bridge. However, I’m not sure I would rely on this workaround as a sole method for RVs or truckers.

Can you see how much time the directions will take?

Yes, on desktop you can view the details if you want to know the distance or how long a route will take. To view distance and time for a directions layer, click the 3 dots on the laye, then click Step-by-Step Directions. 

Of course, this doesn’t really help when you want to get this information on your phone or use the directions for navigation. As mentioned elsewhere, the “directions” layer functions best as a way to visualize a route. If you need turn-by-turn directions, see the steps mentioned above to save and send directions in Google Maps. 

This post was originally published on July 27, 2017 and has been updated in May 2023.

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How to Read a Map

Last Updated: November 15, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by wikiHow Staff . Our trained team of editors and researchers validate articles for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 666,405 times. Learn more...

If your GPS is on the fritz and you need to know how to get from point A to point B without getting lost, there’s no need to admit defeat by stopping to ask for directions. Just pull out your trusty map! Whether you’re hiking the Swiss Alps or planning a cross country road trip, knowing how to read a map is practical skill that everyone should possess. And contrary to popular belief, it isn’t particularly difficult. Once you understand what key markers like scale, longitude and latitude, and topographical lines mean, you’ll be able to travel just about anywhere with a few quick calculations.

Understanding the Map's Layout

Step 1 Choose the right type of map.

  • For example, there are road maps to help drivers navigate back roads and interstate highways, topographical maps telling campers how to reach campsites and lodging areas, and even tourist maps highlighting famous landmarks for sightseers.
  • Maps can be found just about anywhere, from gas stations and visitor centers to restaurants and popular attractions.

Step 2 Check the map’s orientation.

  • North is considered a “neutral” orientation which provides a reference for the other directions. It can be used to help travelers get their bearings.

Step 3 Refer to the legend (also called the Map Key) to make sense of the map.

  • Here you’ll find symbols representing roadways, town and city limits, and prominent landmarks, as well as color-coded environmental features like mountains, forests, and bodies of water. [4] X Research source
  • These elements are designed to educate travelers on how to interpret and safely traverse their surroundings.

Step 4 Make a note...

  • The Equator and the Prime Meridian were chosen as handy reference points because they’re located roughly in the center of the globe.
  • If you’re just making a trip to the next town over, longitude and latitude won’t come into play. For long-distance journeys, however, they’ll be invaluable for coordinating your positions.

Step 5 Pay attention to the scale.

  • You’ll usually be able to find the scale at the bottom or off to one side of the map.
  • Depending on the type of map you’re using, the scale will be adjusted accordingly. For instance, an explorer map (used for hiking, cycling, kayaking, and similar short-range activities) will have a scale around 1 : 25,000, while the average driving map will be closer to 1 : 50,000. [6] X Research source
  • On a roadmap with a scale of 1 : 100,000, for example, 1 inch (2.5 cm) of space on the map will be equal to 1.578 miles (2.540 km).

Using a Map to Get Where You're Going

Step 1 Figure out where you are.

  • Some common features that can help you identify your location include outstanding natural features, like rivers and mountains.
  • One useful trick for establishing your whereabouts is to start with two landmarks within seeing distance (for example, a water tower and a small town) and draw a straight line between them. The point where they intersect is your rough location, give or take a mile or two. [8] X Research source

Step 2 Make sure the map is aligned correctly to your compass (optional).

  • It’s a good idea to keep a compass in your vehicle or gear bag whenever you embark on an expedition where becoming lost is a distinct possibility.
  • Nowadays, most smartphones have compass apps that are remarkably accurate and don’t need to be connected to the internet to function.

Step 3 Pinpoint your destination.

  • Calculating the distance to scale will help you to track your movements more precisely.

Step 4 Plot your course.

  • Remember, interstate systems are most often laid out left to right and south to north, while city streets are arranged in a grid pattern for more efficient navigation. [10] X Research source
  • One shortcoming of traditional maps is that they won’t be able to alert you to road closings, construction work, renamed streets, and other potential obstacles.

Step 5 Follow the selected route to your destination.

  • The exact course you take will largely be a matter of preference—in some cases, you may be pushing it to get to your destination on time, while in others you might be traveling at a leisurely pace and want to make the occasional stop to do some sightseeing.
  • If you’re traveling with someone else, assign the navigating duties to one person so there won’t be any dispute or confusion over how to interpret the map.

Step 6 Create checkpoints to keep from losing your way.

  • Every time you stop, record how far you’ve come, and work out how much distance you still have ahead of you.

Community Q&A

Community Answer

  • Make sure you keep your map where it can easily be accessed at all times. Thanks Helpful 9 Not Helpful 0
  • You can also use a compass to navigate your way. Thanks Helpful 7 Not Helpful 0
  • Pick up a complete roadmap of your area before you set out on a road trip. One of these maps will contain the names and configurations of the interstate system and all major highways, and can come in handy if your GPS navigation goes out. Thanks Helpful 5 Not Helpful 2

tourist map example

  • Avoid tearing, smudging or misplacing your map. Without it, you’ll really be in trouble! Thanks Helpful 7 Not Helpful 0
  • Try to stay on marked roads and trails as much as possible. It may be tempting to find a shortcut or cut straight across open expanses, but the further you venture into uncharted territory, the harder it will be to find your way back. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 4

Things You'll Need

  • Pen or pencil
  • Compass (optional)

You Might Also Like

Give Directions

  • ↑ https://jalopnik.com/5329157/how-to-read-a-paper-map-like-an-old-timer/
  • ↑ https://blog.geogarage.com/2016/12/map-orientation-north-is-not-always-up.html
  • ↑ https://www.outsideonline.com/2202086/how-read-map
  • ↑ https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/homework-help/article/how-to-read-map-symbols
  • ↑ http://www.gaorienteering.org/Education/BeginnerGuide/map_reading.htm
  • ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkzXYWDm9OE&feature=youtu.be&t=26
  • ↑ http://www.compassdude.com/compass-triangulation.php
  • ↑ https://gizmodo.com/how-to-use-a-map-and-compass-1680534317
  • ↑ https://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/preK_6_MapActivitiesSummary.pdf

About This Article

wikiHow Staff

To read a map, start by looking at the compass rose on the top of the map to make sure you are holding the map correctly. The top of the map should be North. Then, determine what direction you are facing by using a compass or your GPS. Once you are oriented, circle where you are and where you'd like to go on the map. Use those 2 points to plot out a course, making note of any turns or changes in direction that you will need to take. You can determine how far you need to go by looking at the map's scale. To learn how to read a map's key and determine longitude and latitude, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Creating Maps for Tourist Guides

tourist guide maps

Whether it’s a metropolis like New York or the rugged countryside of the remote Highlands of Scotland: travelling to far flung places will always hold an allure for people. To make sure people find their way around these places, publishers produce a staggering amount of tourist guides. And what tourist guide would be complete without comprehensive maps to illustrate routes, points of interest and the like?

In this guide we will show you how to create the perfect tourist guide maps.

What to see on a tourist guide map

Points of interest, or short POIs, are places usually indicated by a marker on a map. In tourism, POIs are vital, as they show tourists where sights, gastronomy or lodgings can be found.

tourist map example

As with any map that should help people find their way around, the base cartography used should at least include the road-network and place-names, allowing people to see at a glance how to get there. Topography, that is hill-shading and the like, is only of minor importance in that regard.

Also, in order to quickly denote what kind of POI it is, signifying its role with the right icon is vital. In order to do this, make sure you use symbols which are commonly recognizable, like an airplane for airports, a burger for a place to eat, or for those more interested in liquid nourishment, a wine-bottle with a glass for places to drink.

tourist guide map

Hiking routes

Many tourist destinations are used by visitors to go out and enjoy nature. For readers to be able to find the best routes for hikes or walks, it is advisable to map out routes. As opposed to the above described maps for POIs, in these kinds of maps the inclusion of topography is most important, so visitors will see at a quick glance, whether they’ll be walking up-hill or along a plane that won’t test their fitness.

Taking advantage of Printmaps

tourist map example

Once our geocoding engine has converted the addresses to their respective coordinates, you can go ahead and change the type of marker, the colour, icon or their size. All POIs will be saved in a separate layer, so once you’ve downloaded your map in Photoshop format, you can open it up and fine-tune the positioning of your POIs.

But wait, there’s more

tourist map example

Using shapes will not only help guide the viewer’s focus to the area you want to show off, but will also remove areas you don’t want to be visible on your map, whatever your reasons may be.

tourist guide map

Creating routes with a few clicks

Adding maps with hiking routes is a walk in the park as well. Our route editor not only lets you draw your routes free-hand, it also utilizes a wizard that magnetically snaps to existing roads, allowing you to literally create routes within seconds.

But that’s not all. If you have ever recorded your routes with a GPS-enabled device, you can upload these files – usually in GPX-format – to the editor and they will then be displayed on your map. Another great thing about it: You can upload as many routes as you want – and can fit on your map.

It is what you make of it

Crafting printable maps for publications involves more than just having the right geo-tools; it’s about leveraging your own designs and ideas. With Printmaps, you have complete flexibility, whether it’s choosing the type of cartography or selecting the features to include in your map.

But the customization doesn’t stop there. Once you’ve created and downloaded your map, the possibilities are endless. Want to enhance points of interest with additional details? Add your own logos, graphics, or text? Our maps are delivered in a layered PSD format, allowing you to modify every aspect, right down to individual points of interest.

Why not give our editor a try and discover how you can effortlessly transform your ideas into the perfect map tailored for publication?

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Maps: Tourist maps

  • Printed maps & atlases
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  • Historical maps
  • GIS & remote sensing
  • Directorate of Overseas Surveys
  • World War II
  • Maps of Reading and Berkshire
  • Tourist maps

Tourist maps give an insight into changing patterns of tourism in the last 150 years or so, as well as showing how the way tourism is depicted has changed.

“Tourist maps are central tourist devices, especially in urban locales, for planning day activities, finding the way to different sites, identifying major tourist attractions, and so on.” (Farías, 2011)

Tourist maps are often topographic maps with added information (Medynska-Gulij, 2003) eg walking, skiing or cycling routes, mountain huts or watersports facilities.  They may have added pictorial symbols to show tourist attractions eg stately homes, good beaches, theme parks.

This type of map started to develop in the second half of the 19 th Century.  Sport and tourism clubs such as the 'Alpine Club' or the 'Touring Club de France' promoted tourism and sponsored maps in selected areas.  Often, when visiting relatively remote areas, it was difficult to plan transport and accommodation, so maps which indicated railways and villages where accommodation might be found were very useful. They tended not to have extra ‘tourist’ information added, but were basic topographic maps marketed for tourists.

Later, pictorial maps showing sites or buildings of interest, which may help the tourist plan their visit became popular.

We have a few pre-World War I maps specifically aimed at tourists:

  • Nouveau plan ou guide de l'étranger dans Paris, 1852
  • Bennett's tourist route map of Norway, 1895
  • Cook's plan of Paris, 1900

There was an explosion in tourism at the start of the 20 th Century, despite the interruption of two world wars:

  • Black's large tourist map of Scotland : district 5, Glasgow, Trossachs and Oban, 1930?
  • Übersichtskarte der Staatlichen Postkraft-Fahrlinien in Österreich, 1934 [Overview map of the state postbus routes in Austria]
  • Mürren (Switzerland), 1923
  • Exkursionskarte für das Brüniggebiet, 1946 [Excursion map of the Brünig area (Switzerland)]
  • The Maltese Islands, 1950?

Post 1950 tourism expanded as people in Western Europe (and North America) gained more money and leisure time, and more remote areas of the world started to be opened up to tourism. This created a market for maps of these areas, and these were increasingly published in English or other European languages:

Nairobi Royal National Park, 1956

  • Khartoum tourist map, 1963
  • Western Samoa tourist map guide, 1970?
  • Tourism in Peru, 1985
  • Tourist map of Korea, 1989
  • Tourist map of Esfahan, 2002?
  • Everest base camp : Kalapatthar-Gokyo-Renjola Pass -Chola Pass- Kongma La, 2014

The twentieth century also saw the emergence of specialist tourism maps eg maps of waterways, or aimed at cyclists, hikers or skiiers as well as maps for the traveller in general eg road maps, urban plans:

  • Vízisporttérkép : a Duna, Esztergomtól Budapestig, 1958 [Watersports: Danube, Eszertergom to Budapest]
  • Jugoslavenska obala Jadrana = The Yugoslav Adriatic coast, 1959
  • [Monuments de Paris], 1960?
  • Born's kaart van Nederland met de scheepvaartwegen, spoorwegen, schutsluizen, 4000 plaatsnamen en de internationale klasse-indeling van de vaarwegen = with navigable waterways, railways, locks, 4000 names of villages and the international classification of waterways, 1960?
  • Cotswolds cycling map, 1996
  • Dive atlas of the world, 2003
  • South Downs Way, 2005

If you want to see these maps please speak to the Map Librarian – many are not on the Enterprise system, or have only a basic record.

References:

Farías, I. (2011) Tourist Maps as Diagrams of Destination Space Space and Culture 14 (4) 398–414

Levet-Labry, E., Schut, P.-O. (2014) Sport and tourism - An effective cooperation: Canoeing and mountaineering in France before the First World War  Sport in History 34 (2), 276-294

Medynska-Gulij, B. (2003) The Effect of Cartographic Content on Tourist Map Users, Cartography , 32 (2), 49-54

Roma : pianta monumentale, 1937

Rome pictorial map extract

This street plan of Rome shows important buildings as pictures within the map.

Shropshire Union Canal

Shropshire Union Canal map extract

This map was published by GEOprojects (UK), with the co-operation of British Waterways, in about 2000, and a scale of approximately 1:60 000.  It shows information for boat users, including locks, turning points, towpaths and mooring points as well as general and tourist information, such as built-up areas, pubs, roads and footpaths. The map is confined to a strip either side of the canal.  It includes enlargements of towns and other useful information eg. marina and boatyard facilities.

Bennett's tourists' route map of Norway, 1895

Norway 1895 map extract

This English language map was published by Bennett's Tourist Office in Christiania (Oslo) in 1895.  It shows major and minor posting roads (solid red lines), steamer routes (blue lines) and bridle paths (dotted red lines) as well as railways.  The text includes information about telegraph and telephone stations and tables of distances and travel times between places.

Kraftwagenfahren der Österreichischen Postverwaltung, 1934

Austria 1934 map extract

 This map shows the network of postbus routes in Austria in 1934, and how they link in to the rail network.  It is lavishly illustrated with photographs of beauty spots, often with a charabanc (an early motor coach) full of tourists in the foreground

Exkursionskarte von Kandersteg

Switzerland tourist map extract

This map of the Kandersteg area, Switzerland, was produced in the 1920s for walkers by the local tourist office, and published by Kümmerly & Frey. The scale is 1:30 000. It is a topographic map with relief, glaciers, roads, railways and built up areas.  In addition it shows marked footpaths and hotels, and there is also an overprint indicating the colours of the route markers. Similar maps were produced for popular areas all over Switzerland, and some also showed ski-routes.

Kenya 1956 map extract

This extract is from a 1:30 000 map of the Nairobi Royal National Park published in 1956, by the Survey of Kenya. It aims to help the tourist navigate within the park, so shows forests, roads and tracks, signposts landmarks (eg Lion Corner, Warden's Camp) and settlements.  The legend is decorated with a photograph of a lion, and there is an accompanying list of mammals and reptiles, classified by likelihood of observation.

  • << Previous: Maps of Reading and Berkshire
  • Last Updated: Feb 13, 2024 9:21 AM
  • URL: https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/maps
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How to Make an Illustrated Map in 8 Steps

Release your inner explorer. Here’s a way to relive, commemorate or envision a favorite place in the world by creating an illustrated map.

tourist map example

By Nate Padavick

Travel and travel planning are being disrupted by the worldwide spread of the coronavirus. For the latest updates, read The New York Times’s Covid-19 coverage here .

Many of us are in the same situation: homebound, a little restless and a lot distracted. Not only are our future travel plans on hold, but even our local outings and excursions — a quick trip to the market, a stroll in the park, a walk with the dog — are limited. That doesn’t mean we need to curtail our wanderlust or stop exploring the world around us, and within us. Here is an idea that will help fill the void left by travel restrictions and social distancing, redirect our attention to the immediate worlds we know best — either before our eyes or in our minds — while keeping our creative juices flowing:

Make an illustrated map!

The rigid and scientific rules of cartography simply do not apply here! Nope. While an illustrated map is often a wildly useless tool for providing directions, it can be a beautiful and highly personal reflection of a place you, friends and family know quite well. It can tell a story, a personal history, or be a unique lens through which one can experience a special place. An illustrated map can be loose and hand-drawn, filled with fun drawings and doodles that together make a sometimes inaccurate, but always spot on record of a memory or a place from one’s own perspective.

As a freelance illustrator who specializes in map illustration , I find that my clients — hotels, travel magazines, colleges — ask for an illustrated map because they want to excite their visitors, encourage them to learn more about or visit a specific place. You can use a comparable tactic to create your own illustrated map. Which place do you enjoy the most or know the best? Maybe it’s a favorite vacation spot or even your immediate neighborhood. Using illustration to recreate and interpret a place rewards your creativity and shifts your imagination into a dreamy space of idealistic representation and positive recollection.

Follow these eight steps to make your own illustrated map:

1) Pick your destination

Will you illustrate a place you know and love? Maybe your last vacation? Your own neighborhood?

Or will you illustrate a place you’ve never been? Maybe the first place you plan to visit once travel is safe again? Or the No. 1 city on your bucket list? Or even a fictional place, like the city in your favorite book, film, or series?!

2) Make your list of go-to sites

What sites are there to see? What activities and experiences are there to have? What landmarks or natural wonders exist at your destination? Pick eight to 10 specific sites in and around your destination.

Consider a fun theme, like all the historical landmarks or public parks or favorite trees or interesting buildings — the possibilities are endless! You could even build a narrative into your map, so that it tells the story of an adventure or illustrates a specific itinerary or captures the memories of your time at this place. For example, create a memory map of your childhood world!

3) Plot your sites

Before I start illustrating a map I use an online mapping tool, such as Google Maps, to plot all the sites. This helps me understand where they all are in relation to each other. This is totally optional — doing it from memory sometimes produces hilarious results!

Using a large sheet of paper, start with the most important site on your list. Maybe this is your home or a hotel you’ve stayed in, or a famous landmark. Lightly sketch a little numbered marker for this site in the center of the space (you’ll erase that marker later.) Next, place similar markers all around your central site.

It’s OK to distort your map by reducing the distances between places — throw accuracy out the window!

4) Sketch icons for each place

An icon is a little spot illustration that represents a site. It does not need to be a drawing of the actual building — it could be anything! A bagel, a taco, a movie camera, a dog walker, an elephant, a rainbow, whatever is super fun and reminds you that specific site. Start with your central site: Erase the little marker and draw an icon in its place.

5) Place your title

Find the biggest empty space left on your sketch and use it for the title of your map.

6) Add roads

It’s important to include at least a few major roads. These give viewers good points of reference.

7) Include other map elements

If you have more room, consider placing a compass, an inset map and a legend, too!

8) Fill it in with fun details

This is my favorite part! In the empty spaces on your map, illustrate trees, birds, animals, flowers, clouds, rainbows, cars, swirlies, dots, doodles, whatever you want!

Show us your illustrated maps! Tag us at @nytimestravel on Instagram to have your work featured. You can also email us at [email protected].

Follow NY Times Travel on Twitter , Instagram and Facebook . Get weekly updates from our Travel Dispatch newsletter, with tips on traveling smarter, destination coverage and photos from all over the world.

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Home » Mapping » How Illustrated Mapping Styles work well with different tourist attractions

How Illustrated Mapping Styles work well with different tourist attractions

The definition of the world ‘illustrated’: – ‘to provide with visual features intended to explain or decorate’

When we look at the literal meaning of ‘illustrated’, it’s obvious why so many commissions for tourist attractions and visitor destinations use this form of map. The illustrated approach can bring a subject area to life, providing the user with a unique visual experience through the use of interesting graphics. This cartographic design can also help enormously with the fundamental purposes of a map – orientation and navigation. Let’s take a quick look at how illustrated maps use this technique.

Waterfront City Plan – Hamilton, Bermuda

The City Council of Hamilton, Bermuda, were looking for a highly illustrated style of map to showcase the waterfront aspect of the town, being the key arrival point by sea. The design uses 3D buildings and frontages to great effect to help the first-time visitor orientate themselves. Simple call-out boxes label these key buildings for additional interest and assist with wayfinding. This is a common style of information board map used at key arrival points in tourist locations.

Lovell Johns Case Study Image Illustrated map Hamilton Bermuda 1

Cycling and Historic Walks – Perth and Kinross

This map covers a fairly large area, centred on a 4.5 mile long historic path. The purpose of this activity map is to encourage outdoor use of the area but rather than a being a traditional 2D map, the design incorporates some subtle graphical elements such as illustrated points of interest, allowing the cycling and walking information to stand out. The map is produced in a leaflet format and is available as a download from the council website (PDF) .

Perth and Kinross Illustrated Map Case Study Image 3

Villages and smaller Local Attractions – Great Missenden

This entirely illustrated map provides a town plan in an artistic style and is both fun and interesting for the user. The key points of interest, brought to life as illustrated vignettes across the piece, were agreed with our client and encourage the reader to linger and learn what the town has to offer. The labelling is also drawn in this water colour hand-lettering illustrated style. This style of map works well on signage and notice boards.

Illustrated Map of Great Missenden - Lovell Johns Case Study Image 1

Major visitor attraction – Holyrood Park

The Holyrood Park map is also drawn in an illustrated style, albeit using a more realistic digital tone than the previous softer water colour example. With as many as 5 million visitors a year and many of those tourists, the map was designed to be deliberately realistic in style and extremely user-friendly. The illustrated style also helps to give a sense of the changing height across the site, something just not possible with many 2D traditional maps.

Artistic Map of Historic Environment Scotland Holyrood Park image 1

Artistic illustration for luxury hotel

In some ways less a map and more of a graphic illustration, this depiction of a Florence hotel and landscaped gardens is drawn from the best angle to show the frontage of the building and beautiful terraced gardens. Great care has been taken in choosing the appropriate illustrative style to replicate existing branding. This map gives the user many reference points for orientation and navigation and describes the site in great detail.

Belmond Luxury Travel Map 1

From large display boards in town centres, through to brochures, leaflets and high resolution website images, the illustrated map is proving increasingly popular with the travel, leisure and tourism sector. These are just some examples that show how hotels, parks and villages are using better mapping techniques to inform and help their audiences, giving these pieces a real sense of identity and unique graphic illustration.

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Home » Articles » Types of Maps

Types of Maps

There are thousands of types of maps. here are some of the most popular., article by: hobart m. king , phd, rpg, and map junkie.

Types of maps

Different Types of Maps: Here are a few examples of the different types of maps discussed in this article. Clockwise from top left: weather map, topographic map, political map, digital street map, income map, and geologic map.

Table of Contents

Millions of unique maps.

Millions of unique maps are in use throughout the world. Most of these maps can be placed into one of two groups: 1) reference maps; and, 2) thematic maps.

Reference maps show the location of geographic boundaries, physical features of Earth, or cultural features such as places, cities, and roads. Political maps , physical maps , road maps , topographic maps , time zone maps , geologic maps , and zip code maps are all examples of reference maps. A variety of reference maps have been created for almost every country of the world.

Thematic maps show the variation of a topic (the theme) across a geographic area. Weather maps showing daily high temperatures across the United States are familiar examples of a thematic map. They are made by starting with a reference map of the United States. Then temperature data is plotted atop of the reference map using colors to communicate the temperature forecast. Income maps and resource maps are other types of thematic maps.

In the sections of this article below, you will find several examples of commonly used reference maps and thematic maps.

Political Maps show boundaries between countries, states, counties, and other political units. The most commonly used political map in the United States is a map like the one above that illustrates the 50 states. Many people find this type of map by going to a search engine and making a query for "us map" or "united states map". Geology.com has some of the most frequently viewed political maps of the United States and world countries on the internet.

Political Maps

"Political maps" are among the most widely used reference maps. They are mounted on the walls of classrooms throughout the world. They show the geographic boundaries between governmental units such as countries, states, and counties. They show roads, cities and major water features such as oceans, rivers and lakes.

Political maps help people understand the geography of the world. They are usually the first type of map that students are introduced to in school. They are also known as "reference maps" because people refer to them again and again as they have questions.

Political maps are often printed on paper or another physical medium, but they can also be produced in digital form, suitable for viewing online. Every day millions of people visit search engines to find political reference maps. Some of the most popular searches are for " united states map ", " world map ", " europe map ", and " florida map ".

Thousands of different political reference maps have been prepared to show the current geography of the United States. There are maps of the entire nation, maps for each of the 50 states, maps of the 3142 counties (parishes in Louisiana, and boroughs in Alaska) that make up the states. Most counties, boroughs and parishes are further subdivided into even smaller political units. An incredible number of political maps have been prepared just to display the geography of the United States.

The maps most commonly seen in classrooms and offices are political maps of the world, countries and continents . They are often annotated with push pins, sticky notes, photographs, marker flags and string to show the travels of a family, locations of a business, or other locations and activities worthy of display.

Election Results Map: Sometimes considered to be a different variety of "political map", "election results maps" show the results of an election by geographic subdivision or voting district. The most famous of election maps are the red-state / blue-state maps of the United States presidential election. In recent years they show states won by Republican candidates in red and states won by Democratic candidates in blue. The example above shows the results of the 2016 Presidential election of the United States. Map and caption from Wikipedia .

Election Results Maps

Election results maps might be considered to be a variety of "political maps". These maps show the geographic areas where a candidate for public office received a majority of support from voters. The geographic areas are usually political subdivisions of a country (states), of a state (counties), etc. The most famous examples of election results maps are the red-state / blue-state maps of the United States presidential election. States won by a majority of votes for the Republican candidate are known as "red states", and those won by a majority of votes for the Democratic candidate are known as "blue states". The accompanying map is an example. It maps the results of the 2016 United States presidential election.

These maps might be considered "thematic maps" while the election is in progress and while the results are in the news. However, shortly thereafter they might be considered as "reference maps" of historical significance.

Physical map of Eurasia

Physical Map: This physical map of Eurasia shows the topography of the land in a color-gradient relief. Dark greens are used for near-sea-level elevations, and the green grades to tan and brown as elevation increases. The highest elevations are shown in shades of gray. If you are familiar with the physical features of Eurasia, you can probably recognize the Himalaya Mountain Range, the Tibetan Plateau, the Alps, and the more subtle Ural Mountains. Lake Baikal, the world's largest freshwater lake by volume, can be seen in central Asia .

Physical Maps

Physical maps are designed to show the natural landscape features of Earth. They are best known for showing topography, either by colors or as shaded relief. Physical maps often have a green to brown to gray color scheme for showing the elevation of the land. Darker greens are used for near-sea-level elevations, with the color grading into tans and browns as elevations increase. The color gradient often terminates in shades of gray for the highest elevations.

Rivers, lakes, seas and oceans are usually shown in blue, often with a light blue color for the most shallow areas and darkening in a gradient or by intervals for areas of deeper water. Glaciers and ice caps are shown in white colors.

Physical maps usually show the most important political boundaries, such as state and country boundaries. Major cities and major roads are often shown. This cultural information is not the focus of a physical map, but it is often included for geographic reference and to increase the utility of the map for many users.

google map

Google Map of Washington, D.C. : Google Maps has become the most commonly used online mapping service in the world. It superbly presents road and street maps. It is also the world's favorite route planning and street view service. The service has been specifically designed for those tasks. Google Maps also has special tools that enable you to query "nearby" restaurants, hotels, bars and pubs, museums, pizza, bike shops, schools, attorneys, etc., and the map will populate itself with icons showing their location. If you allow Google Maps to use your current GPS location, you can use the "add destination" tool to plot a car, walking, bike, or public transportation route. Google Maps will even estimate the amount of time required for your trip. The author uses this feature of Google Maps more than any other mapping tool.   :-)

Road, Street and Highway Maps

The digital mapping revolution caused an explosion of map creation in the 1990s. In 1996, MapQuest , the first popular online mapping service, allowed anyone with internet access the ability to create customized maps of almost any location in the United States.

Within a few months, millions of people had become "cartographers". They were soon producing more unique maps in a single day than had been created during the entire history of paper cartography!

Today, Google Maps is the world's most popular online mapping system. In addition to maps, the service also provides travel route directions. It can create directions for people who are driving, taking public transportation, walking, cycling or taking a plane.

Billions of unique maps, millions of travel routes, and millions of street views are created each day with Google Maps. It is the first place millions of people go to plan any type of travel.

Google has another product named " Google Earth " that allows people to view streets, roads and satellite images within a single interface. Google Earth is a free download - the software installs on your computer and fetches the image directly from the Google Earth server.

Finally, for people who want printed maps, the DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer is a series of books that contain state-wide map coverage for individual states (or pairs of small adjacent states). The maps present a combination of road, topography, cultural and recreational information. These "hybrid maps" are a favorite of people who work and play outdoors in rural areas.

Topographic Map of an area within Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky. This map shows Earth's topography using brown contour lines with a contour interval of 20 feet. Roads, place names, streams and other features are also shown. Areas on the map where the brown contour lines are close together have steep slopes. Areas where the contour lines are spaced far apart have gentler slopes. If you would like to view the full 7.5-minute map of this area you can download a PDF file here . This map is a very large file (over 30 megabytes) and will take a few minutes to download on some desktop computers and mobile phones.

Topographic Maps

Topographic maps are reference maps that show the shape of Earth’s surface. They usually do this with lines of equal elevation known as "contour lines", but elevation can also be shown using colors (second map), color gradients , shaded relief and a number of other methods.

Topographic maps are frequently used by hunters, hikers, skiers, and others seeking outdoor recreation. They are also essential tools of the trade for geologists, surveyors, engineers, construction workers, landscape planners, architects, biologists and many other professions - especially people in the military.

Topographic maps also show other important natural features such as lakes, rivers and streams. Their locations are determined by topography, making them important natural elements of topographic maps.

Important cultural features are also shown on topographic maps. These include roads, trails, buildings, place names, bench marks, cemeteries, churches, schools and much more. A standardized set of special symbols has been developed for this use.

Topographic maps have traditionally been printed on large sheets of paper with their four boundaries being lines of longitude and latitude. The United States Geological Survey is the most widely known organization for producing them. They produce a series of 7.5-minute topographic maps covering most areas of the United States (a 7.5-minute map shows an area that is 7.5 minutes of longitude by 7.5 minutes of latitude). These maps and maps of many other scales are available from USGS in both print and digital form.

Commercial publishers of topographic maps include the DeLorme Atlas (paper maps in books with state-wide coverage) and MyTopo (a source of digital and paper maps in traditional topographic and topophoto formats - we are affiliates of MyTopo and receive a commission on referred sales).

world time zone map

World Time Zone Map: On this map, the world's 24 time zones are shown as colored bands. By looking at the numbers along the top and bottom of the map, you can determine the time difference between two locations. Time zones do not follow lines of longitude. Instead they mostly follow political boundaries, with many variations made for social and commercial convenience. Click to enlarge this time zone map compiled by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Time Zone Maps

Time zones are regions of the world where people set their clocks to display the same time of day. This synchronization of time has many commercial, navigational, and social benefits.

By international agreement there are 24 time zones around the world. These 24 zones are shown in the accompanying time zone map. In each of these zones, 12:00 noon occurs at the approximate time of the solar mid-day. The actual solar noon occurs a little earlier in the east side of the time zone and a little later in the west. This variation is caused by Earth's rotation.

Time zone maps are reference maps that people use to determine the time in different parts of the world. For example if a person in New York City wants to phone a person in Los Angeles, he can look at a time zone map and determine that New York City time is three hours ahead of Los Angeles time. This helps people to avoid placing calls outside of business hours and helps people in different time zones schedule meetings and phone calls at mutually agreeable times. Time zones are usually superimposed on a political map of the world or a map of a large single country such as the United States.

geologic map of an area near Richmond, California

Geologic Map of an area near Richmond, California where the Eastshore Freeway makes an overpass above San Pablo Avenue. The roads and city streets can faintly be seen through the translucent colors of the geologic units. The western portion of the map is underlain by Quaternary sediments, while the eastern portion is underlain by folded and intensely faulted bedrock. Dotted lines show the probable traces of faults buried below the Quaternary sediments. Geologic maps of this area can be important first tools in conducting an earthquake hazard assessment. Source: Geologic Map and Map Database of the Oakland Metropolitan Area, Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco Counties, California; by R.W. Graymer, U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies MF–2342 , 2000.

Geologic Maps

Geologic maps show the types of rocks and sediments present immediately below the surface of a geographic area. Sediment cover is shown in shades of yellow, and rock units are shown in a variety of colors, often based upon their lithology. Rock unit contacts, faults, folds, and strike and dip measurements are plotted in black.

Geologic maps are important data sources for many types of work. Certain types of rock are used for construction materials, and a geologic map shows where they are located at the surface. Other types of rock might contain valuable minerals , and a geologic map can be used as a preliminary tool for deciding where to drill or prospect.

Areas near volcanoes might be underlain by lava flows, lahar deposits, pyroclastic flows or other volcanic products. Geologic maps can be used to conduct a preliminary volcanic hazard assessment of an area.

Construction projects require good foundation materials and sources of crushed stone and other materials. Geologic maps can be used for the preliminary work of identifying potentially stable sites near economic sources of suitable construction materials.

Geologic Cross-Section illustrating the subsurface structure of rocks in the map area above. This cross-section represents a southwest-northeast slice through the map area, showing folds, faults, a sediment lens and a view of the creeping portion of the Hayward Fault.

Geologic maps are made by geologists in the field who identify, sample, and measure the rocks. Because rocks are not exposed in all locations - especially in areas with heavy vegetation - they are often based upon fragmentary information. This fragmentary information can be supplemented when construction projects, landslides , stream erosion and other events expose rock beneath previously unobserved areas. As a result, geologic maps can be refined and updated as new information is obtained.

Most geologic maps are usually accompanied by at least one cross-section that illustrates what is expected to be seen if a "slice through the Earth" was cut across the map area. These cross-sections illustrate the geologic structures inferred by mapping the rocks and sediments above.

In the United States, most geologic maps available for public use or purchase are prepared by the United States Geological Survey and the State Geological Surveys . They do the fieldwork, prepare the maps, publish them, and offer them to the public in digital and paper formats.

Zip Code Map: This map shows some of the zip codes in the state of Connecticut.

Zip Code Maps

Zip Code Maps are maps that show the approximate boundary of zip code areas used by the United States Postal Service. They are usually plotted over a base map that shows the roads and streets within the zip code area.

The United States Postal Service assigns zip codes for a section of a street, a collection of streets, an establishment, a structure, a group of post office boxes, or the area serviced by a single post office for the delivery of mail. Rather than consisting of geographic areas, zip codes are more in conformance with a group of mail delivery routes. In sparsely populated areas, a single zip code can cover many square miles, but in cities a zip code can be assigned to a single building or to an organization with a campus of buildings.

Businesses make valuable use of zip code maps by matching them to zip code tabulation data compiled by the United States Census Bureau. This data characterizes the population within a zip code by age, gender, race, national origin, income, housing, and much more. Companies can use this information to determine if they want to market to people within that zip code and how they want to market. They can also coordinate their mailings with the United States Postal Service to deliver their marketing materials to zip codes where demographic data suggests a high density of potential customers.

Weather Map showing projected high temperatures for Sunday, July 29, 2018. This is one of the many types of weather maps prepared by the National Weather Service of the United States and published online for anyone to use. Visit their website at weather.gov .

Weather Maps

People use an incredible number of weather maps. They are used to show predicted temperatures, predicted precipitation, storm warnings of various kinds, wind speed and direction, chance of precipitation, type of precipitation, snow accumulation, frost prediction and many other aspects of weather.

All of these weather maps are continuously updated to communicate the most current information. They are the world's most frequently consulted thematic maps. Weather maps are presented in newspapers, television programs and especially on websites. Delivering weather maps on websites and through web apps gives people around the world instant access to weather information.

Many weather maps are animated maps that show historical or projected changes in the weather. These are extremely useful for people who need to know how changes in weather will impact their travel, workday, recreation, and many other plans.

Species Distribution Maps show where certain plant or animal species can be found. This map shows where different types of bears live in North America.

Species Distribution Maps

The area normally inhabited by a plant or animal species can be mapped. These maps are made by compiling the locations where qualified people have repeatedly observed that species in the wild. The presence / absence of the species defines its geographic range.

The resulting maps show (by color or pattern) the geographic area where that species is encountered. These maps are known as "species distribution maps" or "geographic range maps."

Geology.com wanted a map that displayed the geographic distribution of bears in North America. That map was made by overlaying the geographic ranges of black bears, grizzly bears, and polar bears on a single map. Because the geographic ranges of these three species overlap, it is possible to be in an area where a person might encounter one, two, or even three different species. There are also areas of North America where a person would not expect to encounter a bear. The resulting map is shown in the accompanying image.

Income Map

Income Map: Map showing the median household income of the United States using individual counties as enumeration units. Map by the United States Census Bureau. Click to enlarge.

Income Maps

Income maps are a very common type of thematic map. They show variations of income across a geographic area. The standard mapped variable for an income map is median household income.

Income tends to be highly geographic because rural portions of a state or country often have lower median household income than urban areas. Within urban areas, income can also be highly variable because neighborhoods tend to be populated by people with similar income levels.

The United States Census Bureau is a regular producer of income maps for the United States and individual states. After each major census, the Bureau updates its set of income maps and makes them available to the public. The Census Bureau also makes "change in income maps". These show which geographic areas have experienced economic growth or economic decline over a specific time interval.

Resource Map

Resource Map: Map illustrating the the photovoltaic solar resource of the United States. It is clear from this map that the solar resource of the United States is greatest in the southwestern part of the country. Citizens, companies and governments can use this map to make decisions about investing in a solar power solution. Click to enlarge.

Resource Maps

Thematic maps are often made to communicate the geographic distribution of natural resources. These maps might show countries with the highest diamond production or the geographic extent of an oil or gas field . The map shown here illustrates the geographic pattern of solar generating capacity for the United States.

Resource maps are important because they help governments understand their natural resource assets and the natural resource assets of their allies and potential enemies. Resource maps help mining companies target their exploration efforts. They are also important for assessing the transportation opportunities and problems associated with the distribution of resources and the location of where they are consumed.

Intensity Map for the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906: This is the most devastating earthquake in California history. The earthquake was felt throughout most of California and into Nevada and Oregon. The earthquake and resulting fires caused an estimated 3000 deaths and $524 million in property loss. The map above shows the intensity of ground shaking across the felt area of the earthquake. Intensity levels are shown as a color sequence where red areas experienced the strongest ground shaking and green areas experienced ground shaking that was much less severe. A collection of intensity maps for numerous California earthquakes can be viewed here .

Earthquake Maps

Earthquake maps focus on the scientific aspects of earthquakes or on the impact and mitigation aspects. There are many types of earthquake maps. Here are a few:

Epicenter Maps show the geographic location of earthquake epicenters (the point on Earth's surface immediately above where the vibrations of an earthquake originated). They can show the location of one earthquake or the geographic distribution of many earthquakes. They have scientific value for understanding the distribution of earthquakes and mitigation value because they reveal areas where earthquakes frequently occur. Each epicenter is plotted as a symbol, and the symbols can have different colors, sizes and shapes to indicate the earthquakes' strength, depth, or date.

Fault Maps show the geographic location of faults. Faults are fractures in the Earth from which earthquakes and their vibrations emanate. Fault maps are of interest to scientists, and they are a geologic hazard map because future movements of the fault will generate the vibrations of an earthquake.

Intensity Maps show the geographic distribution of ground shaking caused by an earthquake. The intensity of shaking is measured using the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale ( explained in this article ). Intensity maps are produced by obtaining intensity values from many locations within the felt area of the earthquake, plotting that data on a map, and contouring that data into areas of equal intensity. Intensity maps can be used as a measure of future earthquake hazard.

Earthquake Hazard Maps show geographic areas subject to specific types of hazards. They might show areas prone to the liquefaction of soil, areas prone to landsliding , and areas underlain by soft sediment that might cause unusually intense vibrations.

Plate Tectonics Map

Plate Tectonics Map: A portion of a map showing the geographic extent and boundaries of Earth's lithospheric plates by the United States Geological Survey.

Plate Tectonics Maps

Plate tectonics is a branch of the geological sciences that deals with the movement and interaction of Earth's lithospheric plates. These plates move and interact with one another to cause earthquakes , volcanic activity , mountain building, the production of new lithosphere, the destruction of old lithosphere, and other geologic processes. Most of this activity occurs at lithospheric plate boundaries.

Geologists produce and use many types of maps in the study of plate tectonics. The most commonly referenced is a plate boundary map . These maps show the geographic extent and boundaries of the lithospheric plates.

Other types of maps used in the study of plate tectonics include: earthquake epicenter maps, volcanic activity maps, ocean floor age maps, plate movement direction maps, and many others. Much of the work done by geologists involves the production of a map.

Bathymetric Map

Bathymetric Map: A portion of a bathymetric map of the Arctic Ocean in color and shaded relief. Map by Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and others.

Bathymetric Maps

A bathymetric map, sometimes called a bathymetric chart, is a map that shows the depth of a body of water, such as a lake, a part of the ocean, a river, or a reservoir. Depths can be shown using contour lines, shaded relief, colors, or a combination of these methods.

Bathymetric maps are valuable for avoiding shallow or dangerous waters during ship navigation, planning construction projects, deciding where to fish, determining the cost of drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, planning a trans-Atlantic communications cable, or finding a good place to scuba dive.

Making bathymetric maps used to be very expensive and time consuming. Depths were determined by "soundings" - lowering a weight on a cable to the bottom of the water body and determining the length of cable required. Today, depths can be determined by sonar and a variety of other remote measurement methods.

Volcanic Hazard Map

Volcanic Hazard Map for three volcanic areas in northern California: Medicine Lake Volcano, Mount Shasta, and Lassen Volcanic Center. For more information about volcanic hazards in California, visit the USGS website .

Volcanic Hazard Maps

Did you know that scientists have identified 161 volcanoes in the United States that will most likely erupt at some time in the future? Most of these volcanoes are in Alaska, but significant numbers are found in Hawaii, California, Washington, and Oregon.

People need to know which volcanoes present a danger, the types of volcanic hazards that can be expected, and the geographic area that will be dangerous if an eruption occurs. For that reason, geologists have prepared geologic hazard maps for the volcanoes that present the greatest risk to people and are working to complete maps for other volcanoes.

The accompanying map shows three areas designated to have a high to very high volcanic threat in northern California: Medicine Lake Volcano, Mount Shasta, and Lassen Volcanic Center.

At Medicine Lake Volcano: the dashed line represents the area that could potentially receive ashfalls of two inches or greater; the yellow area is where lava flows could occur; and the pink area is where near-vent hazards such as pyroclastic flows, lava flows, ballistics, lahars, or floods could occur.

At Mount Shasta and the Lassen Volcanic Center: the dashed line represents the two-inch ashfall hazard area, the pink areas could experience near-vent hazards, the brown areas could experience lahars, and the dark blue areas could experience floods.

Hurricane Track Map

A Hurricane Track Map prepared for Hurricane Dorian, a category 5 storm that made landfall on the Florida, Georgia, and Carolinas coasts in late August and early September of 2019. More information about Hurricane Dorian can be obtained at the United States Geological Survey website .

Hurricane Track Maps

Hurricanes and tropical storms can cause enormous amounts of damage. When one of these storms is detected, the National Hurricane Center starts monitoring it and determining its anticipated path.

Once they have adequate information, online maps are published that show the anticipated path of the storm, the times that it is expected to arrive at specific locations, and the intensity of coastal hazards that might be expected. One of the online hurricane track maps for Hurricane Dorian, a category 5 storm that made landfall on the Florida, Georgia, and Carolinas coasts in late August and early September of 2019, is shown in the accompanying image.

map drawn on a clay tablet

Map Drawn on a Clay Tablet: Photograph of a map on a clay tablet, drawn by an ancient mapmaker in about 1400 BC. It is believed to be a map of the city of Nippur, located in the area that is now known as Iraq . Image from Explorations in Bible Lands During the 19th Century by Hermann Volrat Hilprecht, public domain (1903). Click to enlarge.

Maps: Drawn, Printed and Digital

People have been making maps for thousands of years. The first map might have been a sketch made in sand using a stick or a finger. It might have been charcoal marks on a stone, or engravings on a clay tablet. Eventually maps were drawn on paper. The printing press enabled those maps to be printed on paper and distributed by the thousands.

Papermaking and printing eventually became inexpensive enough that almost anyone could afford to purchase a map, and until the late 1960s, many gasoline stations were still distributing free road maps as an advertising courtesy to their customers.

In the 1990s the internet enabled the distribution of maps online, and the economics of map distribution (and the ability to sell certain types of maps) were changed forever. Soon, with interactive map serving, any user of the internet could become a cartographer. Now more unique maps are produced online every day than were made in across the entire history of mapmaking, from pre-history until about 1992.

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Maps for Tourism with an easy mapping tool

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In our intuitive tool, with just a few clicks you create and download maps for tourism. Output formats such as SVG can be further edited for all marketing materials. You can also create interactive maps for all online presentations and your booking portal to display more information about offered destinations.

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Vividly create a route on the map with your destinations to make your offer clear and unique. Product managers and travel editors use Mapcreator to present routes, round trips or city excursions on maps adapted to their corporate identity. And they import their own details and locations with our powerful spreadsheet feature, whether it’s 5, 50 or 500 destinations or points of interest.

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In this fun game, you plot your own delivery route to see if you can beat Google Maps Platform’s optimized routes.

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In this demo see how you can customize the Google Maps red pin and create custom markers with SVGs, PNGs or HTML elements—all directly in your code.

When an environmental pollution incident occurs, SkyTruth uses a variety of maps to track and display the event and share the information with the public. Anyone interested can sign up for incident alerts for areas of interest with real-time map information.

Inspired by estimated worldwide reductions in rainfall, the app uses maps to calculate how much water you could save in a year based on the size of your roof. Save the Rain was the winner of “Most Creative Experience” in the Google Maps Platform Hackathon.

Kicky uses free soccer analytics data sources to visualize soccer moments on Google Maps in real-world coordinates. It enables users with no coding or analytics experienced to analyze this data. Kicky was the winner of “Best Data Visualization” in the Google Maps Platform Hackathon.

This app visualizes the USDA crop progress dataset in 3D throughout the 2021 corn growing season. Elevation, latitude, longitude, and state boundaries help give environmental context.

The California State University Fresno campus has many recycling trash cans. This augmented reality map helps students find the closest location to increase recycling rates, decrease landfill mass, and contribute to sustainability.

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Tourist maps – definition, types and contents

Profile image of Dorota Borowicz

Polish Cartographical Review

Tourist maps are one of the most common groups of cartographic documents. Their variety in terms of content, subject matter and publication titles is a result of growing popularity of diverse forms of tourism activity. The aim of the authors of this article is to demonstrate issues related to tourist maps, including their variety in relation to contemporary forms of tourism. As tourist maps are constantly developing, the authors decided to propose a classification of tourist maps which is adequate from the point of view of the types of maps we currently distinguish. Taking into consideration the aim and type of tourism, the maps were divided into the following sub-groups: maps for sightseeing tourism, qualified tourism, and other tourism, as well as tourist city maps, and maps prepared for promotion and advertising of tourism. The first there categories were further divided into more detailed sub-categories and each of them was described briefly in terms of its content. The classifi...

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5 Travel Planning Apps With Live Maps to Plot a Trip Itinerary

These free travel planning apps show all your activities and attractions on a live map and help you plot an itinerary.

Since the pandemic, you need to plan your trips carefully. So many things can change in no time, and people, in general, are traveling more, so advance bookings are crucial. These travel planning apps will help you plot an itinerary and ensure you don't miss out on any activities or attractions.

All the apps in this list come with maps that show all the locations you're traveling to. It's much better than using a Google Doc to write out your plan. Each app does something a little different or better than the others, so you'll likely find exactly what you're looking for in a travel planning app.

1. Scout (Web): Best Travel Planner for Cities With Detailed Map

When you're planning a trip to a new city, either alone or as a group, you will usually list many places you want to visit. With Scout, you can add these in different sections and see them on a live map, thus making it easier to figure out which places are within close distance and create an itinerary.

When you start a new trip in Scout, you'll first have to pick a city you're visiting and set your arrival and departure dates. By default, you get sections for attractions, food, and accommodations. But you can always add more custom sections. Each section gets its colored pin marker (for example, all food places will show as blue pins). You can add a place by searching for it or typing out the full address. It's powered by Google Maps, so it'll be easy to find any place.

Once you've added the points of interest, open the itinerary view to see your dates. Drag-and-drop places from the first bar to any day's itinerary. Once you add multiple places to a day, the map will automatically create a route for that day, linking all the places. You can rearrange them to find the best route to take.

You can also share your Scout trip with others, so that they can add their own points of interest and update the itinerary to create a group plan. It's also a helpful way to get tips from locals, as they'll be able to add recommendations directly to your map.

Scout also lets you publish your map or itinerary to its directory so that others can discover your helpful recommendations. And of course, you can browse the directory to find what others have recommended.

2. Puffin (Web): Find the Best Commute or Route for Your Travel Itinerary

Puffin is similar to Scout, with a few minor differences. When you create a new trip in Puffin and add a city, it automatically gives you a few recommendations for interesting and unique tourist spots , which show up as flowers on the map. Then, you start adding places of interest by searching for them in the left sidebar when set to Places, after which they'll show up as pins on the map.

Once you've added all the pins you want, switch the sidebar from Places to Itinerary. Create a new "day" and drag places from the map to that day. Puffin will automatically create a commute for you in the order of the places. Rearrange the places to get a better commute. You can also set a custom color for all the places and routes for a day.

For a detailed view of your entire itinerary, toggle the "View Full Schedule" button at the top of the sidebar. This will show a kanban board-like view of all your days. You can quickly drag and drop places between different days.

Puffin trips can also be shared between friends to build a trip collaboratively. Other users can comment on any place, so you can have a chat within Puffin on whether that place is worth going to or not.

3. Travel Trove (Web): Detailed Travel Planner for Multi-City Trips

Travel Trove is an excellent app if you go to a new country and plan to visit multiple cities. First, add the country you'll be going to, and then add the places you want to visit. For example, if you were going to Italy, search for the Colosseum and for the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and add both. Then, in your sidebar, Travel Trove will automatically list them under the different cities of Rome and Pisa.

For every place you add, you can also put in a few notes about it. Travel Trove also automatically scrapes information from Google Maps like the website, timings, and address of that place.

Once you've added all the places, switch to itinerary mode (and select all the cities in your trip when prompted). Now you'll be building a day-by-day itinerary for your visit. Each day has an "accommodation" slot and more slots for AM and PM to plan your holidays. Simply drag-and-drop your places to these slots to build the plan. You can also add notes for each day.

Travel Trove lets you quickly filter places by categories you have set while adding them, like must-visit, food, accommodation, etc. You can also add Packing Notes to your itinerary to ensure you don't forget anything. Once you're done with the travel plan, you can share it with others too.

4. Travel Mapper (Web): Google Sheets Travel Itinerary With Live Map

When you're planning the itinerary for your next trip, you usually want to visualize it on Google Maps too. Travel Mapper is a custom Google Sheets template that lets you create your travel itinerary, share it with friends, and instantly add the locations to Google Maps.

Travel Mapper is simple to use. Once you download the add-on, open a new Google Sheet and go to Extensions > Travel Mapper > Start Here > Generate Template . Add the date, time, activity, location, links, costs, and any additional notes in the sheet. The sidebar shows the Google Map for your itinerary, which you can update when you make any changes.

The map is customizable. You can add color codes for different elements and filter activities to see your map differently. The Google Maps in the sidebar can also be used to discover other places of interest nearby to any location. It's one of the best Google Maps hacks for travel trips .

Travel Mapper also includes a to-do list, a packing checklist, and a favorites list to ensure you don't forget anything. You can also share your newly created sheet with friends, who can add their own locations to the map.

5. Plip (Web, Android, iOS): Mobile-First Collaborative Trip Planner With Maps

The apps mentioned above in this list are all made to be used on computers. However, Plip bucks the trend by being a mobile-first travel planning app so that you can plan your entire trip on your phone or tablet. Plip also has a web app if you want to use it on your laptop.

Register for an account once you create a new trip; otherwise, your travels won't be saved. You can keep the trip private or share it with a group by adding others' emails.

When you want to add a new entry, there are eight types of plans to choose from: plan (generic), flight, reservation, lodging, restaurant, event, vehicle rental, and transit. The default details to fill for any entry are the title, the location, the start and end date and time, and any notes if necessary. Certain plans have additional entries, like "Provider" in events or "Confirmation number" in lodgings.

You can quickly filter your entries by the type of plan to view them in a list. Otherwise, switch to the Map view to view all your places of interest marked on the map, and scroll through a pane at the bottom.

Download: Plip for Android | iOS (Free)

Plan Well, But Look for Last Minute Deals

These apps will help plan out your entire trip, giving you a clear idea of when and where you will be. But don't yet rush to book it all.

The travel and hospitality industry has a lot of last-minute deals on flights, hotels, and tourist attractions. You should try to take advantage of these where you can. Since you will plan out your trip, add a few alternatives or flexible dates with flexible itineraries so that you can wait a bit more and benefit from these deals.

tourist map example

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IMAGES

  1. Tourism Maps by Pindar Creative, Cartographic Services and Solutions

    tourist map example

  2. Tourist map & city guide on Behance

    tourist map example

  3. Tourism Map

    tourist map example

  4. Attractions Map

    tourist map example

  5. Tourist map & city guide on Behance

    tourist map example

  6. Illustrated Tourism Map by Grant Burke on Dribbble

    tourist map example

COMMENTS

  1. So you want to design a map for Tourists

    This post is about general tourist maps, so let's conclude the tourist map must 1) inform the Tourist of the location of major attractions, restaurants, retail stores, notable neighborhoods, ... This map of Barcelona shows an example of indicators or "symbols" that are less useful for the Tourist. The different color of the discs helps a ...

  2. How To Make A Travel Map [Tips and Free Template]

    A digital travel map with pins is useful for more than just planning. The great thing is that you can later use the pins to upload photos of your vacation if you are using a proper travel map software such as Proxi. You can upload photos of your vacation to each respective pin, turning your map into a photo album.

  3. How to Use Google My Maps to Plan a Trip (Ultimate Guide)

    Go to Google My Maps from your desktop browser. Check the Google icon in the top right corner to make sure you're using the Google account you want to. Click "Create A New Map" and a window will open with a blank map. To give your map a name and description, click the map name ("Untitled Map").

  4. How to Read a Map: 11 Steps (with Pictures)

    For example, there are road maps to help drivers navigate back roads and interstate highways, topographical maps telling campers how to reach campsites and lodging areas, and even tourist maps highlighting famous landmarks for sightseers. Maps can be found just about anywhere, from gas stations and visitor centers to restaurants and popular ...

  5. Creating Maps for Tourist Guides

    Just click this Button in the editor: and you'll have a familiar sight right in front of you. All you need to do is paste your content into the respective fields, and Printmaps will do the rest. Once our geocoding engine has converted the addresses to their respective coordinates, you can go ahead and change the type of marker, the colour ...

  6. (PDF) Tourist maps

    tourist ows - a good example is a map which . shows "tourist attractiveness" of individual Euro-pean countries (the attractiveness is measured . on the basis of the number of tourists visiting .

  7. Tourist maps

    Maps: Tourist maps. Tourist maps give an insight into changing patterns of tourism in the last 150 years or so, as well as showing how the way tourism is depicted has changed. "Tourist maps are central tourist devices, especially in urban locales, for planning day activities, finding the way to different sites, identifying major tourist ...

  8. How to Make an Illustrated Map in 8 Steps

    3) Plot your sites. Before I start illustrating a map I use an online mapping tool, such as Google Maps, to plot all the sites. This helps me understand where they all are in relation to each ...

  9. Tourist Attractions Map Template

    Tourist Attractions Map Template. A free customizable tourist attractions map template is provided to download and print. Quickly get a head-start when creating your own tourist attractions map. Here is a simple tourist attractions map example created by EdrawMax, which is available in different formats.

  10. How Illustrated Mapping Styles work well with different tourist

    The Holyrood Park map is also drawn in an illustrated style, albeit using a more realistic digital tone than the previous softer water colour example. With as many as 5 million visitors a year and many of those tourists, the map was designed to be deliberately realistic in style and extremely user-friendly. The illustrated style also helps to ...

  11. Types of Maps: Political, Physical, Google, Weather, and More

    The accompanying map is an example. It maps the results of the 2016 United States presidential election. ... Billions of unique maps, millions of travel routes, and millions of street views are created each day with Google Maps. It is the first place millions of people go to plan any type of travel.

  12. PDF Tourist maps

    tourist flows - a good example is a map which shows "tourist attractiveness" of individual Euro-pean countries (the attractiveness is measured on the basis of the number of tourists visiting individual countries within a given time period). Maps of this kind are not directly used by tourists, and their main users are researchers who ana-

  13. Maps for Tourism with an easy mapping tool

    Easy mapping tool for tourism. In our intuitive tool, with just a few clicks you create and download maps for tourism. Output formats such as SVG can be further edited for all marketing materials. You can also create interactive maps for all online presentations and your booking portal to display more information about offered destinations.

  14. PDF Grade 10 Different types of maps in a tourism context

    Give an example and explanation of the type of map and its uses and value in tourism. • A variety of maps used in tourism context: road and street maps, political maps, physical maps, specialist maps (reflecting climate, airports, railways, etc.), tourist information maps (National Parks, World Heritage Sites, tourist

  15. OpenTripMap

    Find all the sightseeing attractions on one map with open tourist world atlas OpenTripMap. Choose attractions, book hotels, plan itineraries and share them with your friends. The project accumulates data from open global sources and encompasses over 10 million tourist attractions and facilities around the world. With us you can:

  16. Map Demo Gallery & Examples

    anyone. Visualize and analyze massive datasets. Travel the world in this interactive WebGL-powered demo. Take our new cloud-based maps customization for a test drive. See the updates to WebGL-powered Maps and the Dynamic Maps API. Try to beat Google Maps Platform in the Delivery Tycoon game.

  17. Road Trip Route Planner, Map and Trip Guides

    The ultimate road trip planner to help you discover extraordinary places, book hotels, and share itineraries all from the map.

  18. Interactive Animated Travel Maps

    If you're too busy to create your first animated travel map right now, or you think your friends can wait being WOW-ed by your last amazing trip, join our community. We'll remind you later that your travel photos can still get the attention they deserve. Keep me posted. Create your animated travel map within minutes with PictraMap - a free ...

  19. Tourist maps

    Tourist maps are one of the most common groups of cartographic documents. Their variety in terms of content, subject matter and publication titles is a result of growing popularity of diverse forms of tourism activity. The aim of the authors of this article is to demonstrate issues related to tourist maps, including their variety in relation to contemporary forms of tourism.

  20. Tourist maps

    The term "tourist map" should not, of tourism which require certain skills and however, be used to refer to all cartographic appropriate equipment, for example, bicycle, works that meet the general definition of the automotive, aviation, nautical, climbing, ski map and at the same time serve the tourist in tourism, and more), exploration ...

  21. 5 Travel Planning Apps With Live Maps to Plot a Trip Itinerary

    Travel Mapper also includes a to-do list, a packing checklist, and a favorites list to ensure you don't forget anything. You can also share your newly created sheet with friends, who can add their own locations to the map. 5. Plip (Web, Android, iOS): Mobile-First Collaborative Trip Planner With Maps.

  22. Wanderlog: best free travel itinerary & road trip planner app for your

    Wanderlog is the best way to share your itinerary and travel plans with tripmates, friends, and families and collaborate with ease in real time so everyone stays in the loop. Plan your road trip or vacation with the best itinerary and trip planner. Wanderlog travel planner allows you to create itineraries with friends, mark routes, and optimize ...

  23. Great examples: Map tour

    Great examples: Map tour. Browse stories that skillfully use the map tour block to either guide readers through the narrative one point at a time, or encourage them to explore the destinations in any order they see fit. -a few StoryMaps team favorites. Get started.