getgonegoing

Hey folks, anyone know where to get detailed maps for the great country of Canada? Maps with detail comparable to the deLorme series would be the best. Thanks.

Erick L

I don't know deLorme. Mapart are excellent. My Alberta map covers all of British Columbia. I suspect it's similar for the prairies. For southeastern Ontario and Québec, regional maps are more detailed. If it's for a cross country tour, the standard Québec route is so straightforward you could get by without a map except for Montreal and Quebec City.

Sebach

Last summer I did a tour along the provincial capitals, from Victoria to St. John's, and I'll give a +1 for Mapart. I don't know deLorme and I don't specifically recall seeing any of those along my trip. But watch out for Rand McNally (green/blue exterior) as they don't seem to have the fine details that Mapart has (yellow exterior, except in Quebec where it's blue I think).

Looking at the two regular folding maps for Manitoba (Mapart and Rand McNally) in front of me, the difference is almost night and day when it comes to details. The Mapart map shows small local roads and feels more like a reliable map than the Rand McNally version which seems partway between a basic provincal map (showing only the highways) and the Mapart presentation. For example, I don't see any towns on the Mapart version which appear to be inaccessable as they all have at least a minor road leading to them but the Rand McNally version has a number of towns which look isolated because there is no road at all which goes there. This general trend appears to hold across regional and provincial maps I have. I went through 4 provinces, Manitoba being the last, before I realized that there is a significant difference between the two. I did buy another Rand McNally map out East but that was because I couldn't find a Mapart. I personally prefer to have as much detail as I can just in case I wanted it although it is certainly possible to cross the country without any map at all if you cared to.

And I agree with Erick L: Quebec is very straightforward (and nice!) but the big cities might be a bit confusing without any resources.

Machka 

If you want really detailed maps, you've got to find "County Maps", specifically "Land Ownership Maps" showing townships and sections.

ISL Engineering is a good bet for finding such maps:
https://www.islengineering.com/index....d=31&Itemid=60
Scroll down to "High Quality Maps" and you'll see that they list Land Ownership maps.

I can tell you from personal experience that these maps are incredible!! I've got a stack of them sitting in front of me right now, and talk about DETAIL!!

GJD

For the province of Ontatio, the Cycle Ontario Alliance (www.cycleontario.ca) produces some maps specifically for bike touring that includes detailed intineraries. The province is split into 6 maps.

[EDIT]: It appears that you can get them from Advermap, www.advermap.com

stokell

If we are talking Ontario, I find the Backroad Mapbooks are great. They are not cycle specific, but provide better detail than the Advermap

getgonegoing

Thanks for the responses. If you want to see what the deLorme maps are here is the link
https://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELi...?section=10042

They are pretty good usually and strike a good balance of between detail and bulk but only cover the US. They are a great way to navigate.

Machka does ISL Engineering sell to the public and if you are familiar enough with the delorme maps, can you comment as to how they compare?

I have been thinking of contacting each of the Provincial tourist offices to see if they have maps that may be of a higher quality then the standard highway road map.

Machka 

I'm not familiar with the delorme maps.

I believe ISL Engineering sells to the public, but you might have to contact them directly and I expect that their maps are a bit on the expensive side. My father managed to acquire about 5 of them from somewhere, which I have sitting right in front of me right now.

The land maps are EXTREMELY detailed. There's a large map for each county here in Alberta. The maps I have even list the names of the people who own each section of land. That's how detailed they are.

They are GREAT for creating local routes, but might be a little bit too detailed for a cycle tourist. You'd need a pannier for maps!