to find OS maps utterly wonderful?

[Ormirian]

I know it's a little bit tragic for a grown woman to love maps sooo much but I do.

I have just ordered one for our holiday so I can plot walks for us to do - we won't do them because no-one else much likes walking and I won't do them alone because I'd feel guilty going off on my own all day. So the map is entirely theoretical really. A hangover from the days when I was child-free and could go where I wanted or even persuade DH to come with me.

But even now Buying The Map is an essential part for our holiday and if I didn't do it I'd feel lost. The DC had learnt now and whenever we arrive for the start of our holiday they all chorus 'Mum! Map shop!' when they see a likely looking place.

Eventually I will have the entire British Isles in maps and one day will lay them all out in one big super map!

Maps are great. You do know you can get them on your SmartPhone (such as ViewRanger) these days, very handy as long as the phone 1.) has battery life 2.) gets a gps signal

the full range?

I actually prefer them when they are a bit crumpled, sandy and weather-beaten.

YADNBU happy holidays

Paper maps are still great though, especially when up a mountain in pouring rain - actually paper maps are not great in the rain, without a good waterproof cover.

You now just need to convince the children that they really do want to go and explore that footpath through a wood you can see on the map.

Thankyou.

I think it's my dad's fault. He was definitely a map man and I learned to read maps properly by the time I was bout 10 because mum was crap at it

Orm - me too - my mother took us on a 200 mile detour on the way home from holiday in the south of France - I was in charge of navigation from then on.

YANBU. Excellent ersatz replacement is a good road atlas for those few minutes waiting in the car. This also helps with my appalling grasp of British geography north of where the electricity lines stop.

Yes we ALWAYS buy the map and we have maps of everywhere we have been in a box in the spare room. Fortunately DH is even more map-keen than I am and we will definitely be doing the walks!

DH also has Multi-Map for the North of England and he likes playing about with that and putting routes on. It still doesn't beat having a proper map though.

Dh had a very nerdy friend at Uni who DID own all the OS maps for the UK and his lifetimes ambition was to one day rent an aircraft hangar or similar so he could lay them all out then climb up high and look down on them.

is there a name for this do you think? I propose cartophile.

Digital maps:
Great Britain 1:25000 Explorer and 1:50000 Landranger
Finland 1:20000
France 1:25000
Germany 1:50000 and 1:25000
Ireland 1:50000
Norway 1:50000
Sweden 1:50000 (some areas 1:100000)
USA, National Geographic, 1:24000 and 1:100000

Personally I download individual grid squares for areas I am walking as 1:25000 Explorer, then use the same paper map as a backup.

I also use Streetmap.co.uk for looking at OS maps which I don't already have... as at certain zoom levels (level 3 and 4) it shows the OS Map.

"is there a name for this do you think?"

Yep. Nerd!

OS maps are one of the things that make life worth living. But they have to be the paper version for the sheer sensual pleasure of all those finely printed tiny details....and the best ones are the ones you've had for years, with cryptic notes in pencil that you no longer remember the relevance of.....

Can you believe that many countries don't have such comprehensive and detailed maps? Or, indeed, public rights of way (Yes, looking at you Ireland!)? I tell you, there aren't many things that make me proud to be British, but OS maps are one of them.

(goes off to get stuck in a bog to the strains of Rule Britannia).

I used to have piles of OS maps in my loft. On a clear out about a year ago, I decided to ditch them... they were often in excess of 10 years old.

Lots of fun can be had with paper maps... ever had that experience of walking over a fold? You know when the map is folded so much that a bit of the map vanishes and your walk route goes straight through the missing bit. Walking is fun - it's an adventure.

Have a BIG LONG shelf of maps here in my office.
Always but the 1:50,000 of anywhere we go
and have a tendency to buy old maps of familiar areas to see how they have changed

For Christmas a while back DH bought me a Russian Map. Wonderful.

My name is Peeriebear and I love maps! I can read a map perfectly well in the car too.
I have a map of the area I live from the 1940s, and one from the 80s. I have been known to sit for literally hours comparing the two, and seeing where the old disused railway lines and abandoned buildings are on Google Earth. I have learned a lot about the area- there is a big hill behind my estate with a huge lot of wild wooded area at the top. Apparently it used to be a golf course in the 40s! I also found a building called [name of my town] Castle, yet on Google Earth there is nothing there at all, just cornfield.

My parents had a holiday house on the Isle of mull for about 20 years. You had to buy 3 maps to cover the entire island which was annoying. So dad got all three and stuck them together and covered a coffee table with them I always find the edges of maps so intriguing - full of the possibility that there might be something wonderful and totally unlikely just over the edge.....

google maps do not do footpaths! You have to use the satellite image and look for worn bits to try to work out where they are. No good for planning walks.

Ormirian, it's cartophile.

I tell you what else I love: my raincoat has a special map pocket.

A special pocket for maps.

OS maps.

I used the other map system when I was in Skye and have to say by the end of it I preferred them to the OS ones, but the Skye terrain in unique in the UK

FWIW I go off walking by myself loads on holiday. No worrying about pace etc. When they're older I fully plan on dragging the family to Scotland for weekends where I'll have a harder day and then we'll have a family day. Those munro's aren't going to bag themselves

1:10,000 maps make me very excited and yet replete.

My kids have learned to map read
they now both have a good sense of direction.
DS (10) map reading me to somewhere that neither of us had driven to before was a great day. Not one missed turn. We were both proud.

OS maps are one of the GREAT British inventions.
French Maps are OK
American maps are pants

BeerTricksPotter "Now you've made me want one of those map carriers that hang professionally round your neck "

We have one but it's a bit of a mixed blessing TBH as when it is windy it can whip round and either strangle you or hit your companions in the face!

stubbornstains "Can you believe that many countries don't have such comprehensive and detailed maps? "

The French IGN maps are very good. But a few times we have been to the Pyrenees and when you get to the border with Spain the detail on the map goes dramatically down hill on the Spanish side!!