Pack Up The Van: RoadTrip America's New Map Wizard Is Here

By photodivalv on Fri, 05/20/2011 - 8:05pm

May 18, 2011 - Las Vegas, NV –

After a decade in the making, RoadTripAmerica.com’s new Map Wizard helps road trippers with an automated road trip-planning tool that will let them plot a route and then find interesting sights along its path. Map Wizard combines the power of Google Maps with RTA’s database of RoadTrip Attractions. On the Map Wizard page, users enter beginning and ending points for a trip (a city name or airport is enough), and then add attractions to the route with the click of a button. Users can decide how far away from their route the attractions lie – 1, 5, 10, 50, or 100 miles. Flag icons in colors indicating categories appear on the map. When clicked, each one expands to provide an image, description, and visitor information for the attraction. A user can decide which attractions to keep on a map.

“Map Wizard is hands down the easiest and quickest custom road trip planning tool available on the Web right now, and it’s free,” RoadTrip America founder Mark Sedenquist said. “It was our goal to create fun, user-friendly planning tools for our road-tripping community, and it’s a wonderful feeling to know that we’ve finally done it. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.”

While Map Wizard is a quick-and-easy road trip planning solution, RoadTrip America has also released Map Center, a powerful set of mapping tools for those who want more options and customization in addition to all that Map Wizard offers. On the Map Center page, registered (registration is free) users can plot and optimize routes with stopping points, add RoadTrip Attractions from RTA’s database, and create their own Custom Places. Maps can be saved, shared, and printed. Other cool planning tools include visual aids for estimating a reasonable day’s drive, altitude displays, and advanced search tools for finding RoadTrip Attractions to suit every style and interest.

Online since early 1996, RoadTripAmerica.com has been offering online road trip planning advice and inspiration longer than any other site on the Web. Featured in People magazine and media across the country, RoadTrip America provides tips, suggestions and advice to over half a million visitors from around the globe each month. In addition to the new mapping tools, the site provides free expert advice through its active community of road trip enthusiasts and advisors. RTA also publishes a wide range of articles about routes, attractions, planning, books, road trip vehicles, and equipment. Other popular features include a fuel cost calculator and an ever-expanding gallery of funny road signs.