Travelers heading to North Dakota might start by poring over a North Dakota state map. Which one is best depends on your preferred mode of travel. If you will primarily be visiting cities, start with AAA: Their free map service makes the membership worthwhile from day one. North Dakota state maps are available from offices around the country, but you can also request street maps for major cities, such as Bismarck, the state capital, or Fargo, AAA's headquarters.
Street Maps Are the Best Choice for City Tours
The advantage of street maps is that you can plan your walking tours and select efficient routes through cities. North Dakota, rural state that it is, doesn't have any metropolises such as Los Angeles, which is part of its charm, but Bismarck and Fargo are fair-sized places.
Offices that don't carry these North Dakota state maps will order them in for you. Don't neglect to pick up the AAA's free tour books: If you're not familiar with the charms of such books, they contain tourist information, maps, coupons for attractions and listings of hotels with discounted AAA rates.
Online North Dakota State Maps Show Hazards to Avoid
The North Dakota Department of Transportation also provides a travelers' state map that lets you highlight any issues at a glance. A mouse held over one of the exclamation points shows not just what the problem is, but whether you should plan to avoid it without hair-pulling frustration. Stop signs show closures.
If you're not a member of AAA or just don't like their maps, Rand McNally and DeLorme both offer state maps of North Dakota. Pick the one that is the same as all the other maps. Each company produces maps in a particular style, with coordinated colors and symbols, which means that when you switch to a different company, the result is confusion.
North Dakota Map Choices Won't Make or Break a Trip, but the Wrong Level of Detail Might
For an extended stay, North Dakota atlases are excellent planning tools and provide hours of daydreaming entertainment for map-readers. Heavier and more unwieldy than fold-out state maps, they make up for it with an unmatched level of detail and city center street maps.
Sadly, the excellent recreation mapmaker, Benchmark, hasn't yet produced a North Dakota atlas, and neither has Rand McNally. This leaves you with only one high-street choice: the DeLorme atlas of North Dakota. The level of detail here is a suitable choice for those interested in national forests, winter adventure sports and other outdoor pursuits.
Whatever type of travel is up your alley, picking the correct North Dakota state maps will help you find just the right adventures.
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Linda Gentile - Linda Gentile is a professional freelance writer. A full-time RVer and biker (ravensroads.com), she runs the history site, ...
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