About the maps

How it all began…

We’ve been pinning down locations on Google Maps ever since we started developing a passion for travelling, which was around 2011. Most of the work happens in advance of the trip and we enjoy this planning stage quite a lot. Of course, not all ideas turn out to be good ideas, and we end up discovering new places either while we’re there, or sometimes after the trip *sigh*. Over the years, putting this effort into planning my trips has helped us find some great places that we would not have found on location, and make much better use of my time there. And what better way to capture all that information than through pins on a map.

Naturally, we’ve ended up with a large collection of very drafty maps on my account, a mix of brilliant and terrible ideas, as well as later finds, so we decided to tidy that all up and share the knowledge. Hope they are useful! I know for a fact that if future me had sent these over to me, it would have saved me *a lot* of time, energy, and resulted in better experiences every single time.

Many places are well known and you’d have to look no further than page 1 of your Google search to come across them. However, other pins are more valuable. I’ve spent many, many hours putting these maps together, drawing inspiration from social media, blog posts, and the actual location. Some places can be hard to find - but I’ve done the work for you. Sometimes there isn’t enough information, and sometimes there is too much. These maps are curated. If there is a restaurant or accommodation that I didn’t like, it’s not earned its place on the map. Pins are sometimes placed manually where it makes most sense - and Google doesn’t always agree.

Pins, pins, pins

The complexity of the maps varies quite broadly.

Some of the maps are more minimal, say without any suggestions of accommodation or places to eat, as we either visited a long time ago or didn’t spend enough time there. But they’re included still, as some of the information in there can be useful.

Others are more complex, usually places that we have stayed longer in, visited multiple times, or just spent more time researching (such as Iceland, Rio de Janeiro, Faroe Islands). One particular map is very comprehensive and that is Scotland, with almost 900 pins at the time of writing.

These maps are all a work in progress, and reflect the amount of time that we spent visiting/researching a particular location. They are far from complete, but provide plenty of material for an awesome trip. They are a collection of places that we personally found worthwhile, interesting - but I am sure many others would too. These are maps that we have used ourselves and, in some cases, continue to use when travelling. Many of these places we have actually been to and liked, others we came across later on and would visit at the earliest opportunity.

While I think the information and its curation are valuable, I am providing these maps for free. You may show your support in the form of visiting my website or social media pages. Last but not least, if your trip has become any better because of these maps, drop me a message and let me know, I’d be glad to hear.