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AAA Map'n'Go 5.0: The Way to Go

DeLorme's latest makes comprehensive travel plans on your PC.

By Mike Hogan, PCWorld   

Trip-planning packages are relatively cheap and very useful for getting you to your destination--and helping you avoid pitfalls along the way. DeLorme's $29 AAA Map'n'Go takes trip planning several steps further by helping you decide where to go in the first place. Along with about one million miles of U.S., Canadian, and Mexican roadways--plus automatic travel time and distance calculations--version 5.0 of Map'n'Go includes the Automobile Club's 1999 AAA TourBook and Points of Interest database, which lists more than 68,000 hotels, restaurants, campgrounds, and attractions.

Mapping is database-intensive, and Map'n'Go has a giant database. So if you want the quickest performance, put the whole thing on your PC's hard drive--it'll take up 238MB. But unless you have a slow CD-ROM drive, the 50MB alternative installation used in conjunction with the CD-ROM should be snappy enough. DeLorme also offers supporting devices and software to complement Map'n'Go, as well as information updates via the Web.

Start It Up

Map'n'Go opens up with its default view, from within a 1950s automobile with different program functions listed as dashboard instrumentation. I found the look a bit cloying and better suited to a child's game, but it does achieve its objective--to make Map'n'Go easily approachable by novices--and you can toggle it off if you don't like it.

Select the trip planning function from the welcome screen and you'll be stepped through a detailed route plan in no time. The first step is to draw a rough itinerary, after which you'll be prompted to add stopovers and check out hotels, eateries, and attractions in the AAA Points of Interest database.

To plan a trip from, say, St. Louis to the Grand Canyon, you simply type your starting and finishing points into the dialog boxes provided above the U.S. map. The screen splits, showing the shortest route between your starting point and your destination on the right and a list of the time and distance calculations--which you can print out--on the left.

The program also lists major happenings all over the country, so, for example, you'll know not to wander into Santa Fe during the Summer Indian Festival without a place to flop. And if you do want--or have--to stray from your original itinerary, Map'n'Go lets you quickly develop a plan B, C, and D, with different routes and lists of hotel, restaurant, and attraction alternatives.

To make things really easy, you can set travel preferences and let Map'n'Go make some decisions for you. For instance, you can specify that you want to drive no more than two hours without a stop, that you want only three-star restaurants, and need hotels that take pets.

If you're not using the preferences settings, however, you won't get much handholding from Map'n'Go after your initial route planning. There are no wizards, so you are left to discover most of the many features and options yourself from the menu bar. You'll have to take the "test drive" (new to version 5.0) or leaf through the tutorials from the Help menu.

Key to the Superhighway

Full-fledged travel-planning software provides much more than the many address-finding and route-mapping sites on the Internet. But the Web does afford much greater accessibility and the capacity for frequent information updates.

This fact has not escaped DeLorme--the company has added Web immediacy by providing supplemental services through its easily navigable site. You can get there from the online menu in Map'n'Go, and then download code updates and the latest reports on the weather, community events, and road conditions along your route. You can also make last-minute updates to your itinerary with this information before you hit the road.

Rather than rely on printouts--and rather than lug your notebook around with you on your vacation--you could take your electronic Map'n'Go itinerary with you on a Web-enabled PalmPilot or Windows CE handheld. Version 5.0 of Map'n'Go lets you download single trips, complete with maps, into one of these devices. And if you buy DeLorme's $39 Solus Pro--a mapping application for handhelds--you can store several routes and maps.

If you really want to wear your cybergeek badge proudly as you ride the highways and byways, you could hook up a $159 DeLorme Earthmate GPS receiver to your handheld--and let it guide you every step of the way.

Keeping on the Right Path

I once planned to shave an hour off a trip between Canyon de Chelly and Red Rock, New Mexico. What my map didn't show clearly enough was the Chuska Mountains in between--or that the road across them was full of dirt and potholes. I made it, but pity the next driver who got my rental!

Where was AAA Map'n'Go 5.0 when I needed it?