Streetwise San Francisco Map - Laminated City Center Street Map of San Francisco, California - Folding pocket size travel map with BART map, MUNI lines, bus routes [Folded Map] [Map]

Streetwise Maps (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2011

Folded, laminated, indexed, street map of San Francisco, showing all streets, parks, and public transportation at a scale of 1:30,000. Legend includes cultural sites, hotels, places of interest, and more. Also provides insets for Chinatown/Union Square and the regional Bay Area. Legend is in English.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Don't leave home without STREETWISE.' --The New York Times

'STREETWISE is an absolute travel essential.' --Travel + Leisure Magazine

'In a strange city, your sense of direction is only as good as the map in your hands. The best maps to carry are published by STREETWISE.' --Chicago Daily Herald

About the Author

STREETWISE® is the first map to be designed with modern graphics and is the originator of the laminated, accordion-fold map format. We’ve set the standard that every map company has imitated but never duplicated. Our mission is to make you feel comfortable, to make you feel safe in a place where you’ve never been before and to enable you to experience a familiar place more fully.

The company was founded in 1984 by Michael Brown, who had been in international publishing for many years, setting up subsidiaries for textbook publishers. In the 1970’s, Brown traveled extensively throughout Africa, India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Brown would take a large paper map, cut out the city center, folded it up and slip it into his pocket, thus preventing him from looking like a tourist in areas where discretion is the better part of travel. This was his tool for surviving.

After many years on the road, Brown settled back in New York and decided to start his own business, based on the adaptations he had made to maps in his travels. His goal was to give someone the ability to navigate easily in unfamiliar terrain.

He started with a new map format: the accordion fold. Such a simple idea, but at the time it was revolutionary. No more struggling to fold an awkward, oversized paper map. This new format would enable the user to blend in like a native, instead of stick out like a tourist. Brown then added lamination to ensure that the map would be a lasting tool.

More important than the format was the design of the map itself. It had to be a map that not only succeeded above and beyond any map he had used, but was esthetically appealing as well. The look of it had to be as striking as the functionality. Color was introduced in a way that was never seen before in a map - vivid purple for water, soothing gray for the background of street grids, gold to highlight elements of the map. Clarity, conciseness and convenience in a very stylish package.

Building the business was a 24 hour job. Brown sold the maps during the day, zipping around Manhattan making deliveries on his Harley Davidson. At night he packed the orders and did the design work. More titles were added, each title requiring months of research and design.

Today, STREETWISE® produces over 130 titles for major destinations, regions and countries throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and Asia. We have grown from the back of a motorcycle to selling millions of maps around the world.

Yet each title is still painstakingly researched and updated. STREETWISE® is one of the only, if not THE only map company that conducts research by walking or driving an area to ensure accuracy. After all, what good is the map if what you hold in your hands doesn’t match what you see on the street sign? This lengthy fact checking results in superior accuracy; in effect, we’ve done the work, now you have the adventure.

In the end, it’s not about the map, it’s about getting out and finding your own authentic experience wherever you go. It’s about being in a city or a region and discovering things that you never thought you would find. You can do this if you have confidence and you have confidence if you have a great map. STREETWISE® is the great map that you need.

Product Details

• Map: 1 pages
• Publisher: Streetwise Maps (July 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935039201
• ISBN-13: 978-0935039207
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 3.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Travel > United States > Regions > West
  • #1 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Travel > United States > States > California
  • #12 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Reference > Atlases & Maps > Maps

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars By far the best San Francisco map for your pocket or bag, May 30, 2009

By 

G. M. Matthews (Camino, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Streetwise San Francisco Map - Laminated City Center Street Map of San Francisco, California - Folding pocket size travel map with BART map, MUNI lines, bus routes (Map)

I have about 5 of these, so no matter where I am, I can find one or have one to loan out. They are simply great maps of San Francisco. There are certainly maps with more detail, but Streetwise has engineered to put more information in a small space than you can imagine.

And the more you look, the more you realize is there. I wanted parking in downtown, and lo and behold on the downtown inset, parking garages are shown. If you know anything about San Francisco, the icons on the map give you references and make it very easy to better see context. The text is easy to read. We abuse these to death and none of them have complained or gotten rough around the edge yet. My only complaint is I wish it covered a larger area, but it does exactly what it's supposed to - it covers the 49 square mile area called San Francisco.

All of the tourist attractions are on the map. All of the main landmarks are on the map. All of the streets and street directions and MUNI and Cable Cars are on the map. You can hold it in the car and actually read it, which you can't do with any paper map on the planet. It shows so much more context than Maps on my iPhone because you can see the whole city at a glance. Well, half at a time. It's split between the north and south half of the city on the two sides of trifold plastic sheets.

If you're looking for a map of SF that you can carry with you always, this is the one. You will want other resources, possibly guidebooks if you are a tourist, the Not For Tourist Guide if you live in the City as I do, and possibly better paper maps when you really want to see detail around the kitchen table, and Google Earth and it's street level views which allow you to walk around if you are sitting in front of a computer. But this map is the one I use 95% of the time, and I has never let me down.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars worked great for my vacation, May 21, 2008

By 

Kim's Two Cents "Kim" (Lansdale, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Streetwise San Francisco Map - Laminated City Center Street Map of San Francisco, California - Folding pocket size travel map with BART map, MUNI lines, bus routes (Map)

I stayed at The Red Vic in Haight-Ashbury, a little off the beaten path. This map and my weeklong muni pass paid for themselves a gabillion times. The map worked great; I was never lost. The way they depict the touristy section of Lombard Street makes me giggle.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This map rocks!, October 6, 2007

By 

C. Miyafuji - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Streetwise San Francisco Map - Laminated City Center Street Map of San Francisco, California - Folding pocket size travel map with BART map, MUNI lines, bus routes (Map)

I live in SF and am so dependent on these maps that we have two copies in our household. I have one older copy, which doesn't have a BART map, but still was good enough to cause dependence. This new version with the BART map and the topographical coloring is even better! If you're going to be a tourist, this is much more detail than you'll need and you won't have to worry about crinkling and tearing as with other maps because of the hard paper and lamination.