Streets and Maps Software

[S-n-L]

Hello Everyone,

My husband and I are hitting the road as full-timers this spring and I am considering purchasing the Streets and Maps software to help create our travel itinerary.

If anyone has experience using this I would appreciate your opinion regarding its usefulness, ease of use and any other information you can supply such as where you purchased it.

Thanks in advance.

Leslie

[S-n-L]

Hello RFCN2,

Thanks for your opinion. I am curious to give it a try so if you are willing to send it to me here's my email address: leslieoffer25@gmail.com I you send me a messsage I'll give you my mailing address.

I'll let you know if I agree with you.

Thanks and happy new year!
Leslie

[GoPackGo]

I also like the idea of using a laptop in my vehicle as my main GPS. Anyone interested in doing this may want to take a look at Ram Mounts as a way to mount your laptop right next to you.

Not the same company as the Ram truck company !

These folks have been making a large variety of heavy duty ball and socket mounts for a long time - marine, motorcycle, aviation, bicycles, cars/trucks, etc. I have used their mounts in boats and trucks and they are very, very good products.

I believe their laptop mounts attach to the passenger seat mounting bolts.

Tim (no connection to the company, but I do like their stuff)

[joe_b_]

I still run S & T 2008 as one of my planning tools. Probably use it as much here at the house as when we are on the road. As many above mentioned, I use it to do a general plan, from A to B. Often I am checking the times and miles depending on the route chosen. It does have a learning curve to it but for the limited use I make of it, it is friendly enough for me.

I also have it on a laptop that I take with me traveling. It gets used at night to check out the next day or twos travel plans. Then in the driver's area, I run both a Garmin and have a built in Chevy Nav system. The Chevy system has lots of information, due to it running off a DVD placed inside but the Garmin is friendlier IMHO, probably because I have used Garmin equipment for so many years and most of them are very similar in operations, in my trucks, boats and aircraft. I tend to program in the towns of any size along the route or near by, then I just set the go to destination to one of the towns, when I get there, I cancel and punch in the next town on down the road. The Garmin has a couple of features I like, that the Chevy doesn't have or I haven't found yet. The current speed limit, the local elevation and the ability to make changes while the vehicle is moving. The Chevy Nav system won't allow changes while moving, even though my wife is the one doing the changes. We have to pull over and stop. This function can be changed on the Garmin to allow.

I also have the Trailer Life Directory and mapping program on the laptop. It is also very good, but again as with most, has a learning curve that I have to relearn each summer to use it effectively. It is excellent on helping to find campgrounds, etc.

I have one of the GPS dongles to use with S&T so it will function as a GPS, but I really don't have room for my laptop up in the front seat, with it's 17 inch screen. Works fine, but I seldom use it, but carry it with us on our trips, just in case. LOL Overall, I like having a quality portable GPS, such as a Garmin, Tom Tom, Magellan,or any of the other good brands, that a person likes and can operate to their satisfaction, plus S&T to do planning with and a good paper street atlas plus a paper TOPO atlas of the area. I like to place a micro SD chip in my Garmins, to add more TOPO detail to the screens as we get into the mountain west, especially

[KA4EBU]

I have a 10" hp laptop I put on the dash. I run VMSpc, Street and Trips and DeLorme TOPO. Best of all worlds that way. I update the S&T construcion everyday. I use the S&T for routing and the TOPO as I travel as it has more detail and info I like to keep up with.

[nazpaz]

I just did a blog about trip planning, inspired by the other thread here about planning. I used S&T as one of my primary tools.

I Confess - I'm a planner

[tatest]

I've been using Microsft Steets and Trips for my road trip planning since 2004, although I found some other tools easier to use for simple trips, and online route planners having more up to date information and sometimes better, or better targetted, point of interest information (e.g. Good Sam planner for RVing). I use S&T because I've found it easiest and fastest, for planning by iterative modification.

I like to find out a basic A to B, maybe with a few points of interest between, then find additional interesting places along the route, and go from beginning to end putting in stops and stp times, watching what happens to the rest of the trip. S&T is very good at working time into the travel plan, easily and quickly.

I also use DeLorme Topo and Street Atlas, often on a second computer, to acquire information along my route that is just not in S&T (terrain detail, public parks, an independent map database, etc). But Topo it is not a slick an iterative planning tool as S&T, Topo user interface is more complex because the software does so much more.

I am not familiar with Streets and Maps. Who sells it, I might look into it.

[RFCN2]

S-n-L

I bought a copy of 2013 Streets and Trips a few months back due to recommendations on this forum and a few other places. It is antiquated. I used to use this program back a dozen years ago. It has not changed. Anyone used to google maps on an iPad will laugh at S&T. I removed it from my computer. It is sitting on my office shelf, if anyone wants it free just let me know. I will send it to you.

[PawPaw_n_Gram]

I'm running Streets & Trips on Win 8.1 with no problems.

Sure its 'not supported' in that they won't give your help or instructions - but S&T2013 installed on Win 8 perfectly and I've seen no issues at all.

[catkins]

I love Streets and Maps and was distressed to discover it is NOT supported by Win8. No release date for a new version at this time. Guesses are maybe this late summer............... Guess the old computer will be limping along for a while longer for my planning purposes.

[Jayco23FB]

I have it...don't like it compared to other programs and GPS units.

[S-n-L]

Thanks again everyone!

Leslie

[wingsfan20]

I use AAA online trip tik. Start by setting start and finish points. After that we determine intermediate stopping points. You can set to show camping, fuel, attractions. If you are a AAA member, you can save your trips for future use. You can load an Android version to your tablet or smart phone. Even if you are not a member you can go to AAA.com and try it out.

[AllegroD]

Even the download can be installed on more than 1 computer. It is about 1.5 GB and you would have to transfer it via USB or such.

Have used it for years, including the GPS. Use it on a 12 inch Tablet. Found a dash mount that works.

As others have said. It has basic and advanced features. It will take you a while to learn how to use the POI Megafile, but it is worth it. When you learn the most common things you use, you can save with only those categories of POI turned on. Again, no clearance and load data. No internet required. I update mine at home before hitting the road. No street level view. As stetwood pointed out, there is a lot you can do to organize and use external tools and (Garmin) GPS files.

This is a good tool.

[riven1950]

I think I will try the 2 week free version.

boy, the reviews on Amazon are all over the place. Neg say " they " make you download a bunch of SW you don't need or want in order to get the program. Also, that the new version is not as good as old. Both complaints are weird. Of course, reviews on pos side were glowing...go figure