MapQuest UK - England, Scotland...

MapQuest UK is great for basic street maps and driving directions, but try other sites for specialist requirements .

MapQuest UK is just one of many map sites that are useful for mileage calculations and driving calculations. A recent news report gave an account of an ambulance, with two ambulance drivers, that had added four hundred miles to a journey. Perhaps they had the wrong map software. They should have checked their proposed journey against another map site, as well as with each other! Two maps are better than one, just as two minds are better than one.

• Using MapQuest UK to find an address is easy. On the home page, simply enter the building number, street name, or postal code. You may not need to enter all this information, but try to enter as much as you can.

MapQuest UK For Foreign Visitors

Remember that the United Kingdom consists of several countries that came together over a long and varied history. To be precise, the United Kingdom consists of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and The Channel Islands. Great Britain includes England, Scotland, and Wales. 

American readers should note that the UK does not have "states", the nearest equivalent are "counties". But MapQuest UK does not expect you to enter a county. But be careful, not every town and city name in Britain is unique. You don't want to take a four hundred mile detour!  If you know the postal code, then you can be certain of the address. The postal code is the UK equivalent of zip code. Therefore, you should always ask British people for the postal code, they may not know what a zip code is. 

MapQuest UK Driving Directions

One of the most useful tools in MapQuest UK is the driving directions tool.  After entering the  starting and destination addresses you get detailed instructions about every turning to take between your starting and end points. European readers should note that you can get these directions in nine European languages.

Many map sites provide a driving directions application, each with subtle and not-so-subtle differences to MapQuest. Experiment until you find one that suits your needs. MapQuest allows you to print out the driving directions, or download them to a handheld computer. But check that the print out is optimal for you, or that the download actually works with your hand held.

MapQuest only allows you to plan journeys between twelve European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark,  France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. This omits many countries neighbouring the UK, including Ireland, Norway and Portugal. Also, when I tried to plan a journey from London to Paris it did not show the channel tunnel option. A serious omission! 

The "missing countries" and "channel tunnel bug", shows that MapQuest UK cannot be trusted to be comprehensive. Always check other map sites for anything but the most trivial journey. You might find a short-cut that MapQuest does not know about.