Best Map - London in particular

02-02-04, 12:20 PM

I've just ordered my Axim X3 and am going to London next week. What's the best map software out there that I could use on my trip?

Thanks,
Bill

garryknight · 02-02-04, 03:42 PM

I've only used Pocket Streets and Mapopolis but, in my opinion, PS just isn't up to the job. Mapopolis, on the other hand, has just worked for me from day one.

However, you might want to give a little more information about what you want to use the map for: is it just for route-finding, or are there special points of interest you want to locate and/or visit? What else might make it 'the best' map?

02-02-04, 04:00 PM

garryknight,

My ideal London map would be a detailed street map with Tube Stations highlighted with major attractions (ie Marble Arch, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Houses of Parliament, etc.)

I've got a detailed street map from the last time I was there, and tube maps can be found everywhere but it'd be nice to have it all on my PDA.

We're staying near Hyde Park and are somewhat familiar with the city but it can be quite confusing.

Bill

rtalain · 02-02-04, 04:35 PM

I'm personally a fan of Vindigo whenever I go to a city I'm not familiar with. London is actually covered by Vindigo and although it's not free, it's certainly worth the money IMHO.

www.vindigo.com

Ron

garryknight · 02-02-04, 06:10 PM

The Mapopolis central London map gives you all the items you mentioned in your post except for the tube map, though it does show tube stations. As well as these you can also search for airports, bus stations, civic/community centres, railway stations, hospitals, museums, parks, historical monuments, and tourist attractions, among others. You can also search by post code, by street name, by intersection, by contact address, by GPs position and by Latitude/Longitude.

You can define up to 8 Favorites and jump to their locations directly. You can also define a number (limited only by memory) of overlaid 'maplet locations' and you can give them your own type/category names if the inbuilt ones don't suit.

You can measure distances between locations 'as the crow flies' or by street, and you can find a route between any two points, routing through any number of other points. Once it generates the route you can save it and load back in, and save it as a text file of directions (e.g. 'Turn left in .02 miles').

You can have as many maps as you can fit in main memory, built-in storage, CF cards and SD cards. When you load in your main map you can have it auto-load the surrounding maps as well.

There are about 14 zoom levels and you can scroll around the map by dragging with the stylus. If you use it with GPS the map updates in real time, as do the route directions.

The best thing about all this is that the program is free, you just pay for the maps, and you can download demo versions of the maps which will work for about 9 days. You could download the app and a map of your local area to test it out and, if you like it, buy the maps you want - you can buy them singly or in sets: see www.mapopolis.com for details.

By the way, I have no connection with Mapopolis other than being a satisfied customer.

As for a tube map, you could try VisualIT's Tube application. It's good, but it costs money.

If you want the cheapest solution (at least, the cheapest I know of), get Sunnysoft's MapView which you can try out for 30 days. You can scan your own maps, including a London Tube map, and use MapView to scroll around them. You can add named points of interest markers as well.

MapView isn't free, but it's very inexpensive and worth every cent, IMO. The biggest problem with this solution is, of course, the amount of scanning you could end up doing.

matchettc · 02-03-04, 07:03 AM

Londoners buy A-Z maps in book form so why not download A-Z map viewer and their map for central london?

http://www.a-zmaps.co.uk/asp/d_ppc.a...d=&lstpostage=

Does anyone know of any london map programs that work on pocket PC, Palm OS 4 and OS 5? Tom tom's city guides don't support OS 5 for some stupid reason.

Michael_j · 02-03-04, 01:13 PM

I went to London last year and used 2 programs for the Axim that got me around real easy.

Metro 5.0 The ultimate subway guide for your Palm or PocketPC. You can download from www.TUCOWS.com A very easy and helpful program. The tubes are on time and extremely easy to navigate.

The other was Pocket Streets and I downloaded a London city map, UK_London_CTR.mps. ( I do not have GPS) It worked very well as it had restaurants, ATM's, Hotels and major attractions. I stayed at the Radisson Edwardian Hampshire which was 2 blocks from Trafalgar Square, one block from the National gallery. A hidden treasure that is often overlooked is the Cabinet War Room. A definite must see.

Also I went to londontown.com for great information. Try the London Walks they are very informative and inexpensive. The USD is poor against the pound right now. Hope this gives you a jump start.

02-03-04, 02:08 PM

Thanks everyone! Those A-Z maps look perfect, just hope my X3 arrives in time.

My wife and I were in London a few years ago so we've done a lot of the "tourist" things. This time we'll hit a few things we missed. The Cabinet War Rooms was very cool to see and we took the mandatory (for me) Rock N' Roll tour. Speaking of which, anyone know where McCartney's MPL offices are?

Can't wait to get back to London!

Bill

bernie2 · 04-15-05, 01:21 AM

Hi ,
First time I have done this !!
I read your message .
Is the pocket a-z any good ??
I tried the free version but found the lack of zoom levels a problem .
I live in london and need a detailed map for general use .

Please advise ,
With thanks ,
bernie2