So as I get ready to make my way to Amsterdam with Vincent and then Vienna next week (sigh), I figured that I need to start taking this touristy thing seriously and get hold of a robust map or travel guide of some sort. I’ve never really been a fan of those Lonely Planet style books for short whirlwind stops and those paper maps that fold out into tabloid size puzzles from hell are only good for lining the inside of your suitcase. Anyway, I came across a nifty free piece of software called; you guessed it, Schmap which the creators trump on their website as the world’s first dynamic destination guides.

Basically, you download the player with one of the many city guides which come as separate files (nothing in Africa yet unfortunately) install it and presto! you’re ready to go. The Schmap Player’s interface is very intuitive and allows you to add layers to the existing street guide which give you information on specific places. For example, I naturally wanted to see all “Bars, Pubs & Clubs” in Amsterdam so I selected the layer and was greeted with a bevy of purple dots which you can hover over to get a picture, contact information and, in most cases, a review of the place. Brilliant!!!

Another very nifty feature is the “Tour” mode where you can choose to go on a virtual tour of the city by theme eg. Top attractions, and the Schmap Player jumps to each place. This is very useful if you’re planning a day-tour of the city and don’t feel like paging through a 330 page city guide. What’s more, you can also search, bookmark, print or email a specific location or section of the map. So far I’ve downloaded map files for Amsterdam and Vienna and have already plotted potential places to go whilst I‘m there.

At the moment the only downside to Schmap is the fact that it’s a Windows-only installation and there are no maps for cities in Africa. Hopefully these ‘glitches’ will be resolved in the future and I look forward to a mobile-phone version which they reportedly announced as this will further extend the convenience of this application and undoubtedly make it a hit with tourists and business travellers alike.