Mapping4you!

Cartography (map-making) dates back to the dawn of civilisation. Some Aboriginal rock paintings dating back 50,000 show a pictorial representation of the world around at the time. In Stone age times, the first record of portable maps, depicting natural features and roads were created on earthenware or animal hide. Roads and routes were a lot simpler in those days but the age old need to convey directions from A to B remains the same.

Some parts of the UK present a vipers nest of roads and we as a nation increasingly find the routes we take harder and more complicated to navigate. The phrase “all roads do lead to Rome” may well be true, but this isn’t very encouraging when faced with the practicalities of getting to Trafford Centre when the Clockwise M60 is blocked, for instance.

In this digital age, the art of paper map reading is slowly becoming a thing of the past (for motor users at least) due to the affordability, ease of use and general handy brilliance of “SatNav”. SatNav is now fitted as standard to many new cars, or available as a cheap portable Satellite Navigation unit such a the ‘TomTom‘ and ‘Co Pilot‘ (available on many mobile phones such as the Nokia N95). These units take all the hard work and stress out of finding the elusive destination – you simply tell it your destination (e.g. post code) and the Sat Nav will chirp handy directions and show an accurate view of where you are and which route you should take.

In most cases we’ve considered the fact you may be aiming to navigate to your cottages4you holiday property with SatNav – but don’t worry if you’re not, we also provide good old fashioned “turn left at the White Lion pub..” type directions once you’re booked your property.

As well as the on board verity of maps there’s a plethora of free maps available to help you pre plan your route and get the low down on the area you’re heading to before you set off.

So if like our Stone Age ancestors your still haven’t seen the way ahead of digital vector based mapping, why not re route your next 5 minutes to navigating the destinations below…

Our guide to online and digital maps.

MultiMap
Bristling with features, this easy to use online map website boasts full street level views,  Ariel satellite views and the fantastic birds eye views.

MultiMap also offers driving directions and a simple tick box that overlays cottages4you properties – this handy feature allows you to find property near any UK destination.

flickr Map
Flickr (the online photo management and sharing application) invites users to geotag their photos. Millions of these locations are then transposed onto maps with pink dots representing where a photos ‘exact’ shoot location was. This is great for getting a ‘wart’s and all’ view of a destination.

Google Earth
Google earth takes mapping to the 3rd dimension. It requires a small download to work – it’s well worth it though – once you’ve got it installed you can check out it’s awesome features such Photo-realistic buildings from cities around the world, Dawn to dusk views with the Sunlight feature and you can ‘swoop’ navigation from outer space to street-level. Very high tech mapping.

Coming soon – cottages4you will soon include it’s own ‘find by map’ feature! watch this space.

Have you had any (good or bad) experiences with SatNav of online maps? We’d like to hear from you! please leave a comment below.

MW