How to get the most out of our travel maps.

General Use of Our Travel Maps

1.  You can move the map around within the frame by depressing the left mouse button while moving your mouse in the direction of interest on the map . In addition, the  map can be zoomed or roamed using the control bar at the top left of the map or zoomed by double-clicking the map. 

2. Doubling clicking any position on the map will center the map at that location and zoom in.

3.  You can view the geographical area as a map, an aerial/satellite image or a combination of both by choosing one of the buttons at the top right of the map screen. Some areas have higher resolution images than others, allowing you to see more detail.

4.  The order of the names on the right hand edge of the map page is usually alphabetical.

5. Check out the advertisements at the bottom and top of the pages for some great travel deals.

6. If you have any problems using our maps, please let us know - use this email address - 

Routing Using Our Travel Maps

7.  These maps are for preliminary travel planning, such as determining the locations of the destinations we recommend and the road distances between them.   We find the routing feature most useful for estimating the travel time between places.

• When you click on the names of the Best Places to Visit, which are shown in the panel to right of the map -or on any of the symbols shown on the map a "routing window" will pop open at the location of the feature on the map.
  
   
  • In most cases, you will be able to route between these locations and all other places named on the map.
    • In some case, if the map lacks detail and no roads connect to a feature shown on the map, you will not be able to route to it*.  In most cases, we have moved our points to allow you to route as close to the attraction as possible.
  • You can usually route between cities featured on our maps and any other city in  Europe.  If you are going to travel between Berlin and Brussels, you could calculate the trip using either our Germany or Belgium maps.  In other words, the places you want to route between do not have to be on the same map.
    
     
• You can create a route between any of the towns shown in the panel on the right of the map and any other place named on the map.  After you open the routing window by clicking on one of our recommended Best Places to Visit, just select whether you want to route to or from the symbolized town and enter the the place name of the town you will travel from or to,  followed by the country name  (e.g. Dublin, Ireland).  In several cases, we have named a location that is not shown on the map (although it does exist where we have shown it).  In some cases these types of locations may be routed to or from only by using the box that opens when you click the locations symbol.
   
• When you create a route, you will be handed over to the Google routing site and will need to close that page or select the ThereArePlaces tab (if you are using a tabbed browser) to return to our site.
   
  • You can only route to or from the cities included in the right had bar on the map page, but you should be able to route between these "Best Places to Visit" and any other location shown on the map.
     
  • Google has a new feature that lets you "grab" a section of a route with your mouse and move it to some other location on the map, in case you would prefer your route to go through some location not originally included.  Try it.
     
  • Routes may not process because the town name has been misspelled .  In this case, you will be returned to the Google Map home page and presented a message that the location could not be found. In other cases, the name may be ambiguous and require further input from you (e.g. there may be several places with the same name and you will need to select the town you are interested in from a list, provided by Google, of similarly named places in various areas of a country).
     
• You can only partially route to or from  specific addresses on this map. For each of our cities, you can only route to the point that we selected to represent the city.  If you want to  route between specific addresses, say the addresses of  hotels in two cities, you will need to go to the Google map site to produce a suitable route. 

• In order to create the maps used on ThereArePlaces, we selected a point within each town or feature that would be used to represent that place on the map.  The points that we selected represent the center of the city, the center of the tourist area, or the general location of a feature, but do not correspond to street addresses.  In some cases, you will notice that we do not take you into the city, but stop nearby.  In these cases, we have usually selected a point that locates  or is near the parking area for the local attraction.

* The Google map of Ireland does not provide significant road detail (levels of roads, names or route numbers) to route to all of the locations we display.  Hopefully this will change in the future.

As noted previously, the maps and directions are provide by Google.  Google presents this note with the routes that it provides and they apply to the maps  and routes that appear on this site as well, "These directions are for planning purposes only. You may find that construction projects, traffic, or other events may cause road conditions to differ from the map results."

The base map design, content and data are  © Google and its suppliers.  The selection of places and other aspects of the information on the map pages are © ThereArePlaces or its suppliers.