Schmap Guides

No, not the result of too much red wine, but a great tool from Schmap.com, in their own words “Every Schmap Guide comes with dynamic maps, useful links, playable tours, top picks, plus photos and reviews for hundreds of sights and attractions, hotels, restaurants, bars, parks, theaters, galleries, museums…

Download the Free Schmap Player, “a small and easy-to-use piece of freeware. Install it on your Windows PC, select from the range of interactive Schmap Guides and then… get Schmapping!”

There are a lot of really useful tools which come with the system - even a way of linking from the maps and guides directly into Skype so you can plan a pub crawl.

The guides cover most major cities and the Schmap guys are adding many new locations - and it’s free

I use Schmaps with Google earth and other satellite mapping services such as Geoportal

If you are researching an area for property then these guides will give some idea what activity there is in the nearest large city.