Wanderlust World Wanderlust World Topographic street guides include the topographic landscape of the region you are traveling, often through color variation scales. These maps are very helpful if you are a novice backpacker or a family with young children traveling in a location that involves a lot of walking. But, the addition of detailed topographic information on a street map can be confusing and may not be most suitable choice if you are not used to reading a topographic map.
Bilingual street guides include the names of the streets on the map twice, once in the traveler's language and once in the language native to the region. This type of street guide is helpful if you are planning to travel to a region where you do not speak the language, particularly if the language is written with characters you are unfamiliar with. A bilingual street guide allows you the option of simply pointing out where you want to go to go to a cab driver, instead of hoping your clumsy pronunciation is correct.
Photo street guides are maps with photographic views of the streets in a region. Many modern navigation applications for cell phones or GPS devices offer photo road maps. This type of street map can be helpful if you are traveling to areas with complicated road systems, because the inclusion of a photo can really help you know exactly what the street you are searching for or the restaurant where you want to eat looks like. Nevertheless, these maps require expensive technology that can attract attention from pickpockets or muggers.
Tourist maps are street guides that indicate the locations of tourist attractions, restaurants, museums and hotels with symbols or labels. These maps are particularly helpful for people or families who have not had time to plan out an itinerary for their trip or for travelers who are on a spur of the moment adventure. Tourist road maps take the guesswork out of finding a restaurant or important attraction. The problem with this type of street guide is that you can miss things that are off the beaten path like the less commercialized sites.