North and South America Road Maps
 

Hi everyone,

I'm planning a trip around South America and I'm looking for some map software that will integrate with a GPS to help plan the trip. Our route is viewable at RideSouth.org

We'd also like to print an 8-foot tall wall map of our route, but that's a secondary goal.

I'm really new to the GPS/international travel map arena. What can you suggest? Is there a single piece of software that will cover all the countries? What kind of road detail level do these maps have?

Thanks for your help!
-Tony

Each GPS manufacture has different (and incompatable - at least at the user level) software and data. If you already have teh GPS then you are stuck with what is avalible for it .. unless you buy another one.

So look at what each manufacture (or other/s with compatable stuff for that manufacture) offers in the way of maps. See what the data is like, and how much $.

Back when I was picking - only Garmin had a 'World Map' .. so that is what I got. That world map is a little better than a large paper map of the world .. when you zoom in on say New York ... you only get rought lines of where very major roads are .. and they can be in error by a few miles ..

Things are getting better thanks to nonGarmin sources - SmellyBikers WanderLust map for instance ... and it will get better over time .. But if you want good data for North America you'd be better off buying map data for just that area .. Most America people chose Garmin. The altertnative is Margellan (sp?) ... Don't know what the coverage of things like 'TomTom' is like for South America... would not expect much from the at this stage.