Customer Reviews

Streetwise Austin Map - Laminated City Center Street Map of Austin, Texas (Streetwise (Streetwise Maps))

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've lived in Austin for 33 years, and I thought that a small, plastic map would be good if I heard an unfamiliar street name. My idea may be good, but this map is terrible. At best, it shows Central Austin, but calling it an Austin map is wrong. If you know anything about Austin, consider this: It shows nothing north of 45th street and Camp Mabry. On the east side it stops around Pleasant Valley and Berkman. Going south, it stops at Zilker Park. (Almost nothing south of the river is shown.) Going west, it does show Rollingwood and Westlake Hills. The downtown detail map on the back is o.k., but it's already out of date. The "Area Map" on the back only goes to Pflugerville (north), Decker Lake but not Manor (east), the airport (south), and Sunset Valley (west). Don't buy this map! It's worse than the freebies from the hotel or a car rental agency or inside the phone book.

This map is not for you if you want detailed street information about every nook and cranny of Austin proper. It is, however, a great "big picture" map that shows all the major roadways (and many, but not all, of the smaller streets). Due to its compact size, it obviously cannot include surrounding areas like Pflugerville, Round Rock, etc. This is a great tool for folks who aren't intimately familiar with the main city area and need to navigate to, say, the Capitol Building or UT. The lamination makes it nice and durable too. I can even use a wax pencil on it to mark places of interest, and then wipe off the marks afterward.

I moved to the Austin area nearly three years ago and this is the map I came back to over and over again, and I bought a lot of them when we first moved here. It's not detailed enough to help you pinpoint a specific, minor street, but it's great in understanding the overall layout of Austin and the surrounding towns. It can get you downtown from anywhere, it can help you figure ou how to get out of downtown and how to figure out other options when there's a slow-down on the road you're on. I love that it's laminated -- it still looks new after nearly three years. My husband and I fight over which car it gets to live in. Now that we've lived here awhile, it doesn't get used quite as much, but it was INVALUABLE in helping me figure out Austin! I highly recommend it.

I agree with the other reviews that the area covered is a pretty small part of austin.

As title said, I prefer using the map I got from the hotel I stayed in than this map. Wish the Professor Pathfinder has published an Austin TX map..