Maps & Information

Planning a route and navigation is very easy with the modern GPS-Systems. The OSM Maps are so well developed that they are my first choice for any activity beside the asphalt streets. On-road the Navteq Maps that Garmin provides are slightly better. Despite of that I always have a paper map and a compass with me as backup. It is worth to have one just getting an overview for spontaneous route changes is much easier with a paper map. My opinion is quite different about travel guides. If you stay in one or two countries for the whole trip it makes sense to buy them. If you change countries nearly every two days you need a whole library and even if you buy it you can’t read so many books. Asking locals, friends, travellers or reading travel reports is also a good source for information and if you drive so fast through a country you have to focus on just a few highlights anyway. More important and always necessary are the entry requirements of the countries. I guess not just in Germany the foreign ministry is a good source for information about that. If you read the security hints there you get scared about leaving your own house. So try to get an distinguish point of view on that by reading not just hints about where you want to go read also about where you were already. To get a fast overview about longer routes you should consult the Riskmaps.

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