In the constant pursuit for FF miles we are taken all over the world, sometimes for business, sometimes leisure, and sometimes for a quick run. While it sounds like everyone has airline route maps permanently etched in their cranium I haven't heard much about land based equivalents. How do you get around? Do you leave it in the hands of local transportation? Neverlost or rental car maps? Download maps to your PDA? Do any of you take maps along or purchase them at the destination? Any map collectors out there? Other interesting methods of navigation?

To start the thread: I tend to collect each and every map I run across. Rental maps, subway maps, airline route maps, and I'll buy maps if I'm in a town for more than a couple of days. I've tried static and dynamic maps on a PDA, but they're not as satisfying as a paper map (batteries never run out). I've tried Neverlost when it came with a rental and was impressed, although I wanted to see the big picture so I could figure out why/what it was doing.

If business takes me to the same town more than a few times I'll usually get a map and start figuring out other options for leisure time (walking, jogging, Sunday drive's). For a vacation trip I never buy a map before arriving because I want to try out the local maps.

What about you?

Bonus question: do you hold the map so North is always up?

By now I have at home over 300 files of different locations filled with maps, schedules etc for different locations rtw.

When renting a car I always opt for the 'Navigation system: my favorite rent-a-car = Hertz with never lost system', but if available and (distance/time-wise reasonable), I will use local transportation and do a lot of walking too.

To augement paper maps, I use a Garmin eMap, into which I download detailed local maps for the US, certain western European countries, or a crude regional map for driving elsewhere (e.g. SE Asia, Taiwan, New Zealand). It does not have the elegance of a auto-routing and voice-direction system, but it fits in my shirt pocket, and have never gotten lost with it.

My navigation system is called LexPassenger, and it's pretty reliable!

He also has gobs of maps which he's acquired at various destinations, often from AAA. These include maps from reciprocal Automobile Clubs overseas. One of the presents he gets every year from "Santa" is the new Rand McNuggets (sorry, McNally) North American road atlas.

5 or so years ago, we were given Delorme Street Atlas software with a GPS thingy, which we installed on my laptop, but it's a huge hassle to assemble all the components in the car, so it's only been used about twice. I haven't kept up with the improvements, but I believe the GPS devices are easier to use now. It was kind of fun in the California back country when we did use it.

Actually, LexPax is also my GPS system when we're flying cross-country. I've seen some pretty amazed FAs - and complimentary pilots - when he's identifying what we're flying over.

Hertz is our favorite car rental company too, but all we've ever found the Neverlost thing good for is brusing my knee. Maybe it's better these days?

I'm definitely not a giraffe hunter. I can get lost in single corridor hotels.

A good handheld GPS receiver ($100-$200), and suitable laptop computer (which hopefully you already have) and DeLorme software, including Street Atlas (for driving in the US), Phone Search (for finding people and businesses in the US) and Map'n'Go (for driving in Canada and because it has all the AAA guide books on-line.) Software for less than $100 total.

Unfortuneatly, the DeLorme software has steadily declined in usability since the release of Street Atlas5 and PhoneSearch4. It used to be that you could get the phone number, address, and map location of, for example, every Sheraton Hotel in New York in a few seconds with Phone Search but with the latest versions the same search might take the better part of an hour. Likewise, previous versions of Street Atlas used to speak commands like "At exit 21, go south on Arlington." For the very same turn, the latest version speaks commands like "At exit __ go north west on ramp."

Since I do not fly international, I go to my local AAA office and stock up on maps of my destination(s). I have several locations that I return to quite frequently, so I purchased Thomas Bros. maps of those metro areas (also have Mapsco of DFW).

I'll use Mapquest for areas that I cannot find a map (I stay away from the driving directions - very unreliable). It's better than nothing.

For highway driving and anything that requires driving outside a city - nothing beats a good old fashioned map - aligned to your travel direction and not to the North.

In the city a combination of directions from MapQuest (or similar other) and a detailed map to help when your route is backed up. The Neverlost has been great in most places, but for some reason in the NJ area I always get one that goes haywire and shows exits that don't exist or are off service roads and so on.

One of the games I play (with myself) when I travel is to figure out how the city is grided and oriented.

We have all heard that house addresses are numbered in a certain pattern. Mostly that pattern is N & E sides of the street end in odd numbers; W & S sides end in even numbers. This varies from municipality to municipality but once you see two numbers you can figure it out. Most cities tried to orient the map with streets running N-S and E-W. The "Place" & "Court" suffix usually means a road between 2 streets, i.e. 28th St., 28th Place, 29th St. Street names will run alphabetically about 50% of the time.

My father runs his own land surveying business so I grew up knowing most of this, I still think it's great to know, and I rarely if ever get lost.