hi there bike fans, im in my last stages of planning a trip through europe to india and was wondering what are the better map alternatives,
i was going to purchase a michelin europe atlas but am worried the detail is not sufficient enough.

am i better off buying maps as i go, and as i need them, or should i opt for something more specific , say the michiln atlas of france etc..etc...
thanks phil.

Depends a bit how much detail you need.

For France I swear by the yellow Michelin maps (1:200,000). They show just about every minor road there is. But if you are only driving thru the this might be a little bulky and expensive. They also make a larger version, still yellow and the same scale, but a larger format. Not so handy on the bike, but saves money.

I don't know what scale this atlas is, but for travelling thru 1:400,000 should be sufficient.

The yellow maps are available just about everywhere, so you could make do with a large-scale map and buy the yellow maps for the areas you want to explore.

If you spend some time in a particular area there are also green maps 1:100,000 for some areas. We have one for the Côte d'Azur where we live and have just about worn out the second one. :-)

Outside France I have found that Michelin lacks accuracy when it comes to minor roads, so for Italy I have bought Italian maps. Nowhere near as easily readable, but at least the roads that are on the map do exist (mostly).

Beyond Italy it's hit and miss, I'm afraid.

For Germany use Shell maps 1:200,000. But there are other, similar ones that are equally good. Shell have the same advantage as the yellow Michelins: they fit inside a tankbag cover.

------------------
Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.

__________________
Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

thats it... just what i needed to hear..
thanks mate, i cant wait to hit france...
i think i will buy the europe atlas and buy the yellow michilin maps as i need them.
cheers,phil...

For western Europe (E.U.)we used the red Michelin 1/1,000,000 and followed the little(scenic) roads marked in green. This got us onto some great back roads...
Cheers

I'm with Cameron. the 1 to a million are great. they cover Europe very well in my experience. if you feel like heading down some roads that aren't on 1:1M then you can always get back on the mapped roads later when you're fed up with single track. personally, I'd probably use the 1:4M for eastern europe, too.

I can't say I like the presentation of the Collins stuff, but they have one that covers turkey, iran, pakistan ...

Phil,

For what it's worth, we left the UK with just a map of the world and didn't buy a proper road map until India. We just headed in the general direction of where we wanted to be and found our way - saves carrying lots of maps (and spending lots of money on them!) The other great thing is that you don't really know what to expect, so finding some places becomes a real find.

Harvey

------------------
no pipe, no slippers
www.chasingthesun.org

__________________
no pipe, no slippers
www.chasingthesun.org