Ukraine maps, which ones?

The first of my maps are on their way from Stamfords. Now to see what Open Street Map can proffer for free. We like free, free is best.
 
The first of my maps are on their way from Stamfords. Now to see what Open Street Map can proffer for free. We like free, free is best.

Free is good but I need to spread maps out on the table to see the big picture. I can't really get the same understanding of an area by zooming in and out on a screen. It could be a whole floor area I'm looking at when I've got home to Mongolia spread out
 
We went to Lviv a 5 years ago on the bike.
It's a lovely little city, cheap food and drink, and full of incredibly beautiful women(my wife noticed, not me obviously).
From what I can remember, the roads in the city were mostly loose cobbles with plenty of raised tram lines. We left the bike on the pavement outside the hotel and it was still there 3 days later.
Beer was served in jam jars.
I think the Michelin map of Poland or possibly Slovakia extends a bit into The Ukraine, and that's how we got there, can't remember if I had a specific map, I'll check tonight when I get home.
Didn't have a sat nav.
 
I bought this great map of Romania and Moldova a couple of years ago - and it includes the Carpathian corner of Ukraine - so if that's the area your interested in it might suit?
I bought it for that reason - to follow the Carpathians from Slovakia through Ukraine and Romania - all on ONE map.

Cheers.........Grizzly:beerjug:
 

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When you get the maps, can you please post some photos of the map itself. Interested in the detail of the map. Like this one.



The budget car rental map served me good when I was navigating in Poland. That might be an option when you are in the country of destination. They will have maps, hopefully of the whole country and not just a city. Does nothing for the planning of a trip though.

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I bought this great map of Romania and Moldova a couple of years ago - and it includes the Carpathian corner of Ukraine - so if that's the area your interested in it might suit?
I bought it for that reason - to follow the Carpathians from Slovakia through Ukraine and Romania - all on ONE map.

Cheers.........Grizzly:beerjug:

When you get the maps, can you please post some photos of the map itself. Interested in the detail of the map. Like this one.



The budget car rental map served me good when I was navigating in Poland. That might be an option when you are in the country of destination. They will have maps, hopefully of the whole country and not just a city. Does nothing for the planning of a trip though.

I'm interested in buying that map too, please.

Have a good day Josef.
 
When you get the maps, can you please post some photos of the map itself. Interested in the detail of the map. ...............]

I'm a fan of their maps, on a par with Michelin IMO


<a href="https://andressotoscastello.smugmug.com/UkGSer/n-5CFLKf/i-5qxQWPK/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-5qxQWPK/0/752600c9/L/i-5qxQWPK-L.jpg" alt=""></a>


1:800 000 Turkey:


<a href="https://andressotoscastello.smugmug.com/UkGSer/n-5CFLKf/i-sb2rJtr/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-sb2rJtr/0/6f0dba9c/XL/i-sb2rJtr-XL.jpg" alt=""></a>


1:400 000 Bulgaria:


<a href="https://andressotoscastello.smugmug.com/UkGSer/n-5CFLKf/i-P6zQFJR/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-P6zQFJR/0/6eaa3dd0/XL/i-P6zQFJR-XL.jpg" alt=""></a>


Andres
 
One of the tips I always preach is to go into a local petrol station or bookshop on arrival, to see what local maps they have on sale. I’ll certainly be doing this, if and when I do arrive in the Ukraine.

The reference to Open Street Map, was simply to have something to load into my GPS device and to maybe bang in some possible routes. This is as much to give me distances from A to B to C, which BaseCamp is pretty good at. It’s also good at suggesting alternative spellings of place names.

I’ll take a picture of the maps when they turn up. I’ve also ordered some Michelin maps of Poland. It’s a great pity London WC1 is shut, or I woukd now be in Covent Garden, sitting in Stamfords.
 
We always did that when touring the USA. The gas stations, near state borders, always had Rand McNally laminated maps of all adjacent states.
 
Reading this and the Caucasus thread it's going to be busy next year, a fair number seem to be planning on heading that way. At least the beer is cheap.
 
The Michelin map of Poland does just extend to Lviv.
 

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I’ve also got this AA map book, but it’s a bit vague.
I think the only map we bought when we were there was a map of the world in Cyrillic.
 

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The scale of a map (ie the amount by which say, one meter is reduced to one centimetre) is one thing but the detail is quite another. Obviously, a map of the world, reduced to a sheet of A4 is going to be an awful lot less detailed than the A to Z map of London, reduced to a sheet of A3. But that in itself does not tell the whole story. I have two Michelin maps of France, both to the same scale, where the entire country fits onto one side of a ‘map sized’ sheet of paper. One of the maps shows most of the roads and villages, right down to some medium sized villages. The other just shows the decent sized towns (but not all of them) and the major trunk roads. Same scale, but very much different detail.

Similarly, the maps can be of the same scale but one be shaded to indicate hills, mountains and valleys (or show contour lines) whilst the other map is one dimensionally flat, devoid of any relief features at all.

It’s these differences that make maps interesting and to some degree ‘personal’. What suits one man or purpose, might not suit another. For example, I find IGN’s maps of France, with all their shadings, too ‘busy’, preferring the one dimensional, basically coloured Michelin maps. Though if I were sitting in my parent’s house in France and wanted to show a visitor Mont Ventoux and the gorges, I might show them an IGN map, as it makes the mountain and the deep valleys easier to visualise. Similarly, if I wanted to plot a direct’ish route from their house in Provence to St Malo on the NW coast, I would use the stripped down version of the Michelin map, as all I would want would be the major ‘sensible’ roads between A and B, and not be interested at all that the minor D475 (green scenic bordered as it might be) went between two small villages somewhere along the way. Had though I wanted to go to one or both of the villages, I’d need the same scale map but with more detail or another map entirely.


I have just received through the post, Michelin’s maps of Poland. The entire country on one sheet and it divided into four separate maps; the county quartered to the four cardinal points: NW, NE, SE and SW. I’ll probably only need the SW and SE maps to go via Berlin and Warsaw to Kiev. Indeed, I’d probably not need a map at all to go from Berlin to Warsaw, as I could just take a motorway, which is probably signposted. But that, to me a least, is not as interesting as looking at a map to see where places are, or to see where I am at say 11:15 AM on some day in 2022 or 2023, if I have a puncture that morning. My GPS or phone would of course tell me exactly, to within maybe 15 metres but it wouldn’t tell me the whole story. Or at least to me it wouldn’t.

Thank you everyone for your help and comments, really appreciated.
 
Before folk start (continue) posting photos of maps here, is there any advantage of having a Map sticky in Travel? I realise most folk are happy with a sat nav but as pointed out here, old fashioned maps still have their place. It might provide a single point for those wondering which map would best show them the hill regions of Georgia. Etc.
And might exist already but I've missed it, just like a motorway turn off.
 
It’s a reasonable suggestion but I’m not sure it’ll work.

Many posts in the travel section start, “Me and my five mates (or just, I) want great roads, no motorways to the Alps”. A map is of no interest to them at all. Better, I believe, to let bods explain that they might well need a map and maybe tell them which map (or maps) they might think about buying, not least as they won’t have their PC and UKGSer with them as they hoon and carve their way through the awesome twisties. There’s already a thread on how to use Michelin maps and even one on French signposts. The latter, used to come up as regularly as clockwork but has all but stopped, simply because many more bods just use a sat nav or their phone to get to wherever it is they are going. Signposts have become an irrelevance; maps, even too. Similarly, the stickies with all sorts of ideas on places to go, roads to ride and even ‘How to do it’ are often ignored. Many bods just want to make no effort at all or just don’t know how to start. The former you can spot pretty quickly; the latter it’s possible to encourage along, sometimes with some quite good success.

In short, I am not sure that bods will use the sticky. Not least, where would they look? I wouldn’t want to read through maps on the Ukraine or Italy, if I wanted to go to Spain. I am interested in the Ukraine’s maps, so I headed to the east Europe sub-section. There’s not a lot on the Ukraine on UKGSer but there again, there’s not a lot on Italy, south of the Alps but lots on Scotland and the Ardennes. That’s not a criticism, there’s not a lot on Horizons Unlimited, either.

I started this thread, as much as anything else, to see where it took us. Had I been able to go to Stamfords and leaf through the maps on display until I found the one that suited me best, I’d have maybe not bothered to post it all; self-help often being of some great help. Of course the luxury of Stamfords is not open to everyone, just as it was shut to me yesterday, is shut today and probably, tomorrow. I am pleased with the direction the thread has taken and with the chat about maps in general.
 
How can you not love maps?

At some point, they will be as obsolete to many as the telegram is.

Look at the famous ‘Knowledge’ demanded of the London taxi driver. They carry the map of London, all but completely in their head and a tatty A to Z or AA map to SE England under their seat. But anyone, with a GPS can today have more ‘knowledge’ than them, extending all the way to Helsinki, Lisbon or Rome, just at the touch of their iPhone.
 


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