Those who have used a road map/road atlas

[LisaJohnsonsFacebookMole]

Is there one that is best for the UK or a particular brand to look for, e.g. AA?

Any tips about them? Other than to know how to read a map of course.

We always used the AA book.
A good tip is having planned your route, write down the road numbers on a Post-it note and stick it on the dashboard.
You can add the main towns too if you want.

No tips but as someone in her mid fifties this made me smile. Like rotary phones.

I always used the A - Z ones.

My tip would be to get a spiral bound one or a satnav as the place you want will always be in the crease

Largest scale possible. AA I have is 2.5 miles to 1 inch. My Geographers A-Z of my county is 3.5 inches to a mile with a second section at 1.5 inches to a mile for certain features. eBay is good as you don't always need the latest mapping. Or one of those cheap book stores eg The Works

Look at places you’re most likely to visit & see whether you like the layout. We had one which did the UK in lateral runs side to side east-west. Eg it followed the M4 and going north-south either side of it meant a big jump in pages, even if the place I was trying to get to was only 10 miles north of the M4. It was annoying. You might be able to get round some of that by choosing a different scale.

I'm glad I gave you a smile.

You reminded me of a long unanswered question I had about rotary phones so I've just watched a Youtube video on how they work. It turns out you do need to let the wheel go all the way back to the start - which is so obvious once you understand how they work 😂

Ah yes, and if your finger slips and you make a mistake you have to start all over again and it seems to take forever. 😆

Having to watch YouTube to find out how rotary phones work. 😭

I feel so ancient! I will admit to growing up with one phone that was kept in the hallway and couldn't be moved around.

I tell myself I'm only middle aged. Might be kidding myself.

I do think we're so used to dialling from contacts or a simple call button that a lot of us might lose track easily and often. Even when manually dialling the numbers pop up on screen so it's harder to lose track. But I disgress. Road maps - allons-y!

Och you are middle-aged I'm sure! It's the pace of technological change, not the pace of ageing, that's playing a trick on you.

♥️

Years ago i had the AA ones but I haven’t used a real map in years! I just use Waze on my phone.

Got this one in sept it's handy to when sat nav on phone doesn't give me the info I need. My passenger is a technophobe.

www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Britain-Super-Scale-Spiral/dp/0008652953/ref=asc_df_0008652953?mcid=fa6c534e67c43ffabc07cf1b1829d77a&th=1&psc=1&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=697225401777&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13935995738513693150&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046633&hvtargid=pla-2200586487266&psc=1&gad_source=1

I always have one in the car, a big scaled one. Remember they only last a year or two as roads are changed, new bypasses added etc.

Re: dial phones. 999 was chosen as the emergency number as it took the longest to dial due to the wait for it go all the way back to 0 and gave the panicking person time to breathe and calm down. Well that's what my parents told me when I pointed out how daft it seemed and wouldn't 111 make more sense.

I'm smiling at the fact that "rotary phones" now have this title. When they were actually in use they were just called ... phones. Because of course the term "dial" actually referred to the circular ("rotary") device. Now dial just means call.

Do you remember the sheer tactile pleasure of dialling a number? The lovely feeling of mild resistance and the gorgeous purring sound?
Enjoyable even for an adult, but for small children it was an enormous thrill. Once their fingers were strong enough.

The explanation of 999 that I was given was that it is the hardest three digit number to dial accidentally on a "rotary" phone

Do you remember the sheer tactile pleasure of dialling a number? The lovely feeling of mild resistance and the gorgeous purring sound?

Oooh yes 😊

I am curious about why you want tips? Are you planning on using one, and if so, why? Just nosy!

They’re invaluable for navigating your way round bad accidents/road closures 😁

the post it note on the dashboard can help if you’re solo travelling but remember to put for motorways which direction you want to go in. I am still traumatised by my south wales to Peterborough journey where the options were M6 North and M6 London (?). I decided Peterborough was north of south wales so took the m6 option and got to just south of Manchester before i realised I was wrong.

As a driver, I advise you to carry a recent one in your car. I needed to drive to a hilly part of the country in fairly bad weather. There had been a storm overnight.
Some roads were flooded and there were fallen branches, and no mobile signal.

Do you remember the sheer tactile pleasure of dialling a number? The lovely feeling of mild resistance and the gorgeous purring sound?

The main thing I remember is the absolute age it took for the dial to tick back round! I worked in a pub, and needed to phone home for a lift at the end of my shift. Our phone number had several nines and zeros! Aaaaargh... I remember hiding under the bar, wanting to go home, watching the stupid dial tick round...

On maps though, it was always AA for the big road map and A to Z for town maps. Ordnance Survey used to do some good county/regional road maps (separate from their usual pink or orange offering) which where very good, I remember those being useful when I was a supply teacher trying to find my way around at short notice.

I have an AA one.

Ordnance Survey.
Original and best.

Quoted the wrong post!

Spiral bound and AA would be my go to, but it depends how in-depth you want you. You might want an ordnance survey for a rural area, or an A-Z of the town / city if an urban visit is in order.