Paper or Plastic - Maps vs Apps

Some of the most important aspects of traveling are the abilities to find your locations fast, and having that info available at the touch of a button. This allows more time to enjoy your vacation, instead of sitting in traffic or getting lost. The convenience of having maps, travel information, and your vacation brochure as an app on your phone has definitely made traveling a lot easier. However, there are pros and cons to both map apps and paper maps as a resource while on vacation.

1) Paper travel guides and maps
A lot of travelers enjoy using maps and guides in its paper form because it is something that is visibly tangible that can be written on. The fact that you can have a paper map and make all of your arrows, highlights, drawings, underlined favorites and little notes to yourself can be very satisfying. Sometimes, it is also easier to read information on paper, rather than having all of your travel information on a small screen. There may also be a generational divide between using the original maps versus the new smart phone maps. A lot of older generations may like to stick with what they have always known. With having a vacation brochure, travel guide or map, you know that you will always having something in case of an emergency, since phones can sometimes malfunction or you may not have any signals.

2) Smart phone maps
With real time traffic updates, rerouting capabilities, and voice navigation, apps are a convenient and fun way to find your travel destinations and get there in record time. Also, travel information can be saved in your app and used for a later time. With today’s technology, there’s plenty of different travel and map apps to choose from that are free and with a cost.

Some GPS apps will even pull up location information on the destination. For instance, if you are using your map app to direct you to a restaurant, the app may have customer reviews, venue prices, and even a menu to help you make a final decision before you even get there. A lot of the map apps have an option to plan a walking versus driving trip as well, if you plan to go on foot.

It is a good idea to probably have both options available to you during your trip, so that you are completely covered and can get to your destination safe and sound.

Adam loves to publish travel guides in the US, and has been to every state in America.