The Best Motorhome Books, Maps and Offline Resources

road trip

Not everything needs to be online – if you prefer the more old school ways of gathering information and inspiration for your trips then there are plenty of resources available to help you do that and we have rounded up the best motorhome books & maps right here just for you. 

We fully recommend using a combination of both online and offline/physical resources. So if you’re also after online tools – check out our full planning series on exactly that right here:

ST&Gs marvellous maps

ST&G maps

So we can’t get enough of these maps. 

Beautifully curated and absolutely packed with ideas for your next road trip we absolutely wouldn’t be without these maps. 

They have a whole series, with each map focusing on a different topic 

So whether you want to know what the Dorset Knob throwing festival is all about or follow the UK literature scene up and down the country surely these beautifully curated maps are the perfect way to dive into exploring your interests. 

Ordinance Survey Maps

Particularly for the more intrepid explorers among you. Despite all the wonderful apps and online resources for exploring, the one thing that certainly won’t fail you whilst out on the hills and mountains is an OS Map 

We can’t stress enough just how important it is to make sure you have a physical map as a backup if you’re going to be out in the wilderness – and OS maps are the best of the best. 

The Lonely Planet

We’re not usually into stuffy guidebooks and heavily structured snippets of information but the lonely planet are the exception – our go to is Europe on a Shoestring

We reckon you probably know about this series so we’re not going to bang on about it too much but if you don’t own any then definitely get yourself a copy of a destination you’re interested in and check it out.

Full of inspiration, handy tips and essential knowledge these books are well worth owning a couple of. 

Take the Slow Road

take the slow road book

Not a stuffy guidebook in the least. 

There’s one available covering England and Wales and separate one for Scotland.

With useful general motorhome and campervan information in the first few sections, the book then takes us on interesting, informative and personal accounts of realistic road trips across the UK. 

BritStops

britstops

We always bang on about BritStops so if you’re a regular here you’ll be well aware of just how great we think this little book is.

If you’ve never heard of it then it’s basically a directory (print based only) of free stopovers across the UK – usually pub stops, with the odd car park, farm shop or similar type stop over.

It’s polite to go and spend some money wherever you’re staying but essentially you get a free nights stay somewhere. Facilities usually don’t exist so don’t expect to be able to empty your toilet & grey waste or fill up with fresh water/plugin to EHU. 

But what a great way to explore the UK, chat with locals up and down the country and get a real locals insight into an area. All while enjoying a couple of pints!

Get down the Local

Try and do a better job of making friends than Simon - the only friend he made that night was the bartender

Aaahh, get down the pub and start a conversation. 

Seriously this is such a rewarding experience and people who perhaps you wouldn’t normally bother speaking to can have a multitude of experiences and advice just waiting to roll right into your brain.

Waiting at the bar for service, strike up a conversation with the person next to you and we reckon you’ll probably learn something – from local delights to far flung destinations you never know what the stranger beside you might know!

Road Atlas

maps michelin

Similar advice here to the OS map for explorers. No matter how great and convenient technology is it can always fail, and guaranteed it’ll fail when you’re lost in the arse end of nowhere – a physical map stuffed under a seat somewhere is an absolute must. 

Our favourite brand for ease of reading are the Michelin maps. Ours date back to 2014 and generally speaking are still plenty good enough today in 2021.

Also – we sometimes find it fun to explore the old school way with maps and ditch the technology. 

If you haven’t done this for a while we then we fully recommend you have a go, it can actually be a lot of fun (disclaimer- it also causes arguments!)

A Change in the Aire

Not exactly a planning tool (although it does contain useful information for road tripping in Europe, but more of an inspirational book. Check out our full review of A Change In The Aire.

Logbook

Don’t forget to record your trips for posterity. 

We’ll have a proper post dedicated to this as it can be a fine art to get right but just make sure you record what you got up to and where in some shape or form. 

We recommend supporting a fellow motorhomer and would fully endorse the logbook created by Kat from Wandering Bird – available here.

Summary

Equipped with these low tech options of the best motorhome books & maps you’ll be set to Go Explore regardless of whether the satellites have fallen out of the sky and the internet has inexplicably stopped working as the robots rise up and start playing pranks on the lot of us. 

You’ll be safe in the wilderness with all the tools you need to avoid this apocalyptic, yet highly unlikely, scenario.

But you get the point (hopefully) – so Go Explore!

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