Paper Maps... Good. Expect to make many markings on these .. so keep a pencil and pencil eraser handy. And a pencil sharpener.

Iphone + GPS ... + mapsource + laptop...

Ok. Free... apart from your time and internet connection!
There is a thing called "Open Street Map" (OSM) that has inputs from people, like you, that documents the world in a format that says not only what but where. Then people make maps from this data ... that you can use on your phone and GPS... The data source is the same for all these maps .. but they don't use all of the data and they don't all draw it the same - roads in different colours that kind of thing.

Iphone .. apps ... MapOut ... and OSMAnd are two you should try. Both are 'offline' so you won't need an internet connection to use them ... just to download them.

GPS ... download ... there a whole thread here on this. http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...eet-maps-64135 Basically down load the stuff. Get mapsource sorted on the laptop and then transfer the map and any waypoints/routes you make and use it.

--------- What to do first !
Best if you do this for your home location so you can see what it looks like on the maps and can relate reality to the map easily. Your best off with the GPS/mapsource stuff as there is no limit on the number of downloads there. OSMAnd is limited to 7 maps .. so best to limit yourself there. So download the GPS OSM map stuff for your home location and play with it on both the laptop and GPS. YOU may note some errors and omissions. You can correct these by registering with OSM and correcting them yourself - that is the power of OSM. Will take some time for the corrections to go through to the GPS map stuff .. say a month. You will probably find more errors in less populated places .. it takes people to enter the data and make corrections .. less people = less data and less corrections. Having said that ... you will find it fairly good.

Enough to get started. Go!

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Other GPS maps .. some are 'better' than OSM .. better in that they have more cafes etc .. possibly they have more roads. Usually they cost more. Play with the OSM stuff first .. it is free so you can use it and see what you can do. Then take a look at the others. T4A has more detail in the south .. but I suspect less in the north.