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An Atlas by Many Names

An atlas is a comprehensive collection of maps covering a topic or geographical area along with associated pictures, descriptions, place name index, statistics and brief descriptions. An atlas that covers the physical features of the entire planet is called a world atlas. Besides a world atlas, there are many other atlases related to travel including road, cruise, country, and archeology atlases to name a few.

As a traveler planning a trip to a new country or place that you haven't visited before, a geographical atlas helps you get the lay of the land and see the distances between the locations you may want to visit. It will usually show you the routes you can travel by land or water between destinations (e.g., roads, rails, water routes, or in some cases, trails.)

There are a variety of atlas products and sources on the web. These include free 3-D views of the Earth ,as well as, commercial products. Many travel guide and tourist information websites include maps of countries and cities they cover. Their are websites devoted to world maps and atlases. Besides free on-line atlas information, their are print products you can buy and software atlas products. Here are some sources of travel-related atlases. Also see are Travel Maps page.

Note: Without a high-speed Internet connection and powerful computer, you may find it frustrating to interact with some of these websites as they have intensive graphics and software.

	We are an affiliate of Amazon.com.	Reference Books - Atlas and Map section. Use their search box to find a specific kind of atlas covering the world. We also show some popular atlas books to the right. Software - World Atlas. Scroll down the list or enter a specific brand or title in the search box.

World Atlas Books			World Atlas Software

General Atlas Information

Wikipedia World Atlas This is their article on World Atlases.

Maps.com - Atlases. They have a large selection of Atlases and other map products.

World Travel Atlas This is is a one-of-a-kind atlas because it provides detailed maps for all the areas of the world that are the most popular with travelers. Pages are color-coded, cross-referenced and every entry is indexed. It includes over 100 special country and thematic maps which show resorts and features not normally found in other world atlases.

DeLorme. This company specializes in USA and world atlases and street maps. They have a number of GPS and GIS electronic products and software for both mobile devices and PCs.

Travel Atlases
Atlas	Websites
World	Free and Subscription Web Resources Google.com. Free. This is Google's world view that competes with Microsoft's version. Livecom. Free. This is Microsoft's world view that competes with Google's version. WorldAtlas.com. Free. This is their website with an excellent online world atlas. Encarta World Atlas Free and Subscription. This is the excellent Microsoft Encarta's interactive world atlas website. About.com - World Atlas Free. This is About.com's world atlas section with links to maps for all the countries. MapQuest - World Atlas. Free. An excellent online world atlas reference service. The World Factbook. Free. This is the section of the U.S. CIA Website with a map and information for all the countries of the world. Wikimapia. Free. This world atlas uses the Google 3D world map with overlays of information on cities and other places as you zoom in. The popup information when you click on a white square is often sparse, especially for places off the beaten path but we are sure it will get better in time. Software Also see Amazon.com software world atlas titles above. Google - Earth. Free. Download this excellent 3D World Atlas and zoom around the world. Microsoft Virtual Earth - 3D. Free. An excellent Virtual World Atlas you can download. AW Geographical Atlas Free and Purchase For Palm OS and Pocket PC software.
Archeology	World Atlas of Archeology on the Web. Free. This is the excellent About.com's Archeology section of their web site with beautiful descriptions and maps of archeology sites around the world.
Cruise Ports	Wikipedia Ports Free. History of ports and links to major worldwide port websites. Ports of the World Free. A-Z links to websites for ports of the world.
Fishing	AnglingAtlas.com. Free. This website uses a Google interactive map that shows recreational fishing places, charters and accommodation around the world. The information is provided by users. "Click the map and fish the world!"
Diving	Diving Atlas Free. This website provides dive travel information for dive locations around the world to help in planning your dive trip. The information is provided by divers who have been, or know about, to the locations. Diving Atlas of the World. Buy Amazon.com This is a global guide to the world's top dive sites.
Road	DMOZ Open Directory - Roads and Highways Free. Extensive links to roads and highway atlas information for countries of the world. Wikipedia - Worldwide Roads and Highways. Free. They have extensive links to road and highway maps for many countries of the world. It is essentially links to websites with road atlas information.
Ski	Euro Ski Atlas Commercial CD-ROM Provides detailed information on 160 ski resorts in the European Alps. Ski Atlas of the United States Rocky Mountains. Free. A beautiful atlas of Rocky Mountain ski resorts.
Surf	World Surf Atlas. Free. This is the Wannasurf.com World Surf Atlas website with comprehensive information on surfing locations around the world.
Time	WorldTime Atlas. Free. WorldTime.com provides this wonderful time service featuring an interactive world atlas and the local time, and the sunrise and sunset times in several hundred cities around the globe.
Trekking	Trekking Atlas of the World. Buy Amazon.com List all the major treks of the world.
Train	RailAgent Rail Maps. We haven't found a free The next best thing to a train atlas. is is their list of bicycling tour operators in this region. Some of the website may have a general bicycling guide for the region or specific countries within the region.

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