Maps et al.

[Rymo]

Looking for some advice from you knowledgeable folk.
I have recently purchased a one way ticket to Sofia, Bulgaria for the end of July and plan on cycling back home to Brighton via the Balkans.
Whilst planning a route it looks like anything from 12 to 17 countries will be passed through en route to Blighty. Of course, some of these will only be a few days each, like parts of Serbia, Kosovo, Slovenia, Lichtenstein and Luxembourg.
GPS solutions don't interest me, I quite like maps but just not sure how many I would need really?

Any advice regarding the map question or even any tips for crossing the Alps between Slovenia and Switzerland for example will be greatly appreciated.

Ryan

 

[Ticktockmy]

You could buy one of the European roadmap such as the Phillips wire bound ones, then tear out the pages you need for routes and just take them with you. or scan the pages and save them as a PDF file. then email copies to an email account, hotmail etc. then along your route find a internet cafe, download and print off the map of the next stage (s). If you intend to take to the back roads and tracks then you might need topographical maps of 1:50 000 otherwise road maps down to 1:1200 000 (1 in=18 miles) will do, you could buy maps along the route as well.

 

[rich p]

I'm envious!
That'll be an awful lot of maps to carry. I like to use something like 1cm to 3 or 4km. Buying a suitable road map in each area and dumping the unnecessary bits may be the best idea if decent ones aren't available. Post them home if you want to keep them.

 

[psmiffy]

I normally buy one beforehand that will do for when I arrive - and then find a decent bookshop to supplement the one ive got and another for the next stage - most biggish towns will have a bookshop where you can find what you want as you go along -some countries that you will be passing through do not use the same alphabets that we do or use different versions of town names to the anglicised version on maps available in the UK so its useful to buy maps locally that town names will be the same as shown on the road signs.

I tend to go for 1:150k to 1:200k - preferably with a campsite overprint - they cover enough that I don't need a big pile of them and I can see where I am going on a day to day basis - a 1:1M is useful as an overview and a what if planner should I decide to change my mind where I am going.

Over the years I've discovered that maps don't have to be terribly good once you learn how to interpret the topography from them

 

[Brains]

My route would have been back via the Danube and Rhein
In which case the Bikeline books are great and in English

 

[Bodhbh]

I generally order a couple online to get me started, then buy the rest on route - and post them home as I'm a sucker for battered maps as souveniers. If you're passing thru capitals, it's generally not a problem to find a decent map shop. And if worst comes to worst you can just buy road atlases, tear out the sheets you need and chuck the rest.

Like Brains says, the Danube and the Rhein or Elbe will get you back without much navigation or hills if you are feeling lazy

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I would purchase one big one (to give you an idea, record you actual route and give you place names to aim for) and then raid the tourist information offices for the freebies. We cycled from the UK, via the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway & into Finland before we had to buy our first maps on our world tour. We did not buy maps for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Serbia or Macedonia (some countries we simply had to accept defeat and purchase them for - Finland, Poland, Greece, Turkey & Iran (which went unused) are the ones that spring to mins immediately). That was 5,000 miles before having to purchase our first map. As we left each country, or when we felt we had enough to carry (rephrase my OH had enough to carry) we posted home the maps that were no longer needed, for safe keeping and to keep a record of where we had been etc. In all, we purchased very few offical maps depsite covering 9,000 miles before the tour had to be aborted.

 

[andym]

GPS solutions don't interest me, I quite like maps but just not sure how many I would need really?

I use maps and end up with a huge collection which I need to send home every often. But I also have detailed maps of europe on my gps - in a package that weighs less than a couple of hundred grams. I don't see the sense of ruling this out as an option - if only as a fallback.

 

[Blue Hills]

Yes I thinkI'd consider having a GPS available (and I'm an ex doubter/p°°ss taker on the things) - may save hunting for a map in a place you'll soon be through. Quite often superior coverage to maps.

 

[Rymo]

Thanks for the advice.
Picking up freebies in each country sounds good, although I'm sure there will be times when this isn't possible.
I may reconsider GPS nearer the time, although with a rough idea of where I'm heading (big European map with unnecessary pages removed ), wild camping majority of nights and no real time constraints its only staying off busy roads I would be trying to do.

 

[Ticktockmy]

If you are taking a GPS, then you should try to get maps that show Long and Lat, that way you can plot your Long-Lat plot from your GPS onto the Map. the advantage is that you can get a bigger picture of your route than the screen of the GPS will show, also of course you can purchase a cheaper GPS that does not have maps embedded into it, as you will need only to plot from your GPS. to the Map

 

[psmiffy]

If you are taking a GPS, then you should try to get maps that show Long and Lat, that way you can plot your Long-Lat plot from your GPS onto the Map. the advantage is that you can get a bigger picture of your route than the screen of the GPS will show, also of course you can purchase a cheaper GPS that does not have maps embedded into it, as you will need only to plot from your GPS. to the Map

Ive done this on occasion to attempt to locate elusive campsites - its not actually that easy on most road maps unless you just happen to have a roamer that is relevant to that scale map and the specific map projection - I normally find just looking at the town names tells me more or less where I am and where I have been.

 

[psmiffy]

Yes I thinkI'd consider having a GPS available (and I'm an ex doubter/p°°ss taker on the things) - may save hunting for a map in a place you'll soon be through. Quite often superior coverage to maps.

GPS are wonderful if you can be bothered to sit and preprogram them - or for that matter stick to the route that is programmed - however, whilst the maps are wickedly detailed -and very useful for filling in detail as you travel across big towns and cities - the screen size is so small that when zoomed out to the sort of scale you need for navigating between points more than 10k apart they become almost useless.

 

[snorri]

It appears you are not touring to a tight timetable, so getting lost now and again will be no big disaster but will instead give you a genuine need to communicate with the locals along the way. This is usually an enriching experience which can lead to...... well, just about anything.

 

[Yellow7]

HI Ryan.
How about using the michelin fold-out maps? A stack of 10-15 pack down quite well, most being available on ebay at good prices. You could even post-forward half of them to a major town or city you'd be going through, possibly to a member on the warmshowers.org or couchsurfing.org website, then you could also post the one's you've used back & get accomodation for the night!