{"id":3069,"date":"2025-06-09T14:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T13:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/?p=3069"},"modified":"2026-06-12T07:57:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:57:41","slug":"maps-panning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/maps-panning\/","title":{"rendered":"Maps & Planning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

No trip really starts until you’ve bought the maps and started drawing lines on them. Google Maps is all well and good, but there’s nothing like getting a huge map out on the table and highlighting interesting places… It’s only then that a route starts to take shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No planning day is complete without a solid breakfast, we started our day in London at the Regency Cafe<\/a>. It was our first visit – BRILLIANT. We got the laptop out and started listing the shrines we wanted to get to… but it was clear we needed BIG maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only place to buy maps is, of course, Stanfords<\/a> in London. I first went to Stanfords when we were planning out trip out to Russia<\/a> – they were the only people who carried detailed maps for the places we were planning to visit. This was when they were in Long Acre – a huge shop where dreams of distant shores made you smile as you got lost in the stacks of maps in the basement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, they’re in a cute little place just off Long Acre. They’ve still got a fine selection of maps in the basement, as well as an in-store bespoke printing service, so if it’s not on the shelf, they can almost certainly print it for you there and then. It’s not *quite* the same, but it’s still not an official adventure until you’ve visited and bought your first maps. <\/p>\n\n\n