If it is your first time visiting a place, what do you think you must bring? Right, a map! A map can be all you need in navigating your way in a new place confidently. In fact, a map can reveal a lot about the place that some locals are not even aware of. Only a handful of people know their places by heart. Here’s a simple explanation about travel maps and how important they are for travelers.
Making sense of a travel map
Maps are geographical representation of a place. A map helps a tourist, for instance, in understanding the world around him or her especially if it is his or her first time to visit such place. Without a map, that tourist might get lost. What if the locals don’t know how to speak English? How will you understand what they are saying? How can they understand you? A map can thereby show you the way around.
Maps, further, are used in planning itineraries. In this way, you can maximize your visit on a place. You’d know which places to visit first and the next ones in a logical manner. A travel map is used for such a purpose and for those specific purposes alone. To put things in perspective, you cannot use a map of San Fernando, Pampanga in any other parts of the province. These are how unique maps are. You can only plan your itinerary in San Fernando when you are looking at the map of the place.
A brief background on maps
Cartography, or the art of map-making, pre-dates writing. Primitive men have already learnt the value of map particularly when it comes to hunting or looking for food. They use barks of trees, wooden boards, fabric, metal, skin leather, clay and stone in framing their maps. Some of these primitive maps are housed in museums such as the 2300 BC clay map. Nonetheless, the maps that we are seeing today are more sophisticated in terms of illustrations although the artistry is nowhere close to the artistry behind the primitive maps.
Evidently, even the ancient people understand how valuable a map is. While they did not necessarily use the map in traveling, the traveling maps that tourists and travelers are using today are founded on such. Although you may not necessarily think that you need a map when traveling, you’ll never know when it will come handy. So, better bring a map with you especially when you are a first time visitor on that place.
