It can feel like technology has replaced everything, especially when it comes to how we travel. For discovering a nearby place to eat or finding the fastest route to your destination, the trusty spiral bound map in your seat pocket has become the Maps app on your smartphone.
Nevertheless, people still seek out paper maps. They evoke an aesthetic and wonder that you can’t get from a small screen. Plus they don’t need to be charged and they don’t use your data.
TripTiks Then and Now
AAA has a grand tradition of paper maps through TripTiks, which have guided generations of travelers.
In the days before Google Maps, Google, or even the internet, a traveler would go to their local AAA branch to plan a road trip. This AAA member would tell the office where they were starting and their intended destination. An agent would draw the route with a highlighter on a series of numbered maps, going through the route with the driver before they started. The end result, a guided route through a series of maps, was called a TripTik.
A quick origin story: in the early 20th century, most roads were dirt and gravel. AAA produced strip maps so early drivers would know which roads were useable. The first modern TripTiks — spiral bound notebooks filled with maps — were made in 1937, and AAA started mass production the following year.
These TripTiks were customizable too — AAA would also point out sightseeing, amusement parks, construction, heavy traffic, rest stops, gas stations and all other points of interest to the traveler as well, and note as many or as few as the traveler chose.
5 Iconic American Road Trips
Hit the road on one of these amazing routes to get a real feel for all America has to offer.
Download Now!Does AAA Still Do TripTiks?
AAA still offers TripTiks, not only as a paper map through mail order and branch offices but online and on the mobile app. The app highlights Triple A® diamond-rated hotels and restaurants, directions, attractions and more, with information from AAA travel editors. It even lists current gas prices!
Speaking of scenic drives, AAA offers Drive Trips, regional routes throughout the United States and Canada.
There are also virtual guidebooks for journeys across the United States, Canada and Mexico. These come with itineraries to get the most out of any destination, even in a limited amount of time. Traveling as a family? Don’t worry – there are lists of kid-friendly attractions too.
Al Roker recently mentioned TripTiks on “Today”:
Mobile Maps Are Good but Not Perfect
Not to rag on smartphones, but they don’t always work for navigation. Don’t get me wrong – I use my mobile device to get places all the time. Google Maps is one of my most-used apps. I would get lost a lot without it.
However, mobile maps have let me down quite a few times, most memorably when I was driving upstate to meet friends. The app quit on me, and I had to pull over to get my phone working again. That was not what I wanted to do while driving in an unfamiliar area. And my friends were not happy that I was an hour late.
Phones get confused. Sometimes they get stuck on a location and refuse to move on. Literally. Sometimes you don’t have a signal, especially in rural areas. Phones are also delicate; they can’t function if they get wet or overheated.
And too often, phones run out of battery and die. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a paper map as well. It never hurts to have a backup plan.
Maps Get Personal
Besides, map reading is an important skill, especially if you’re in an unfamiliar area. If you can find where you are, you can find a way out. This is best practiced with paper maps.
Not to brag, but I’m pretty good at reading maps. I credit those skills to middle school Science Olympiad. (Science Olympiad is a school science competition, by the way. It’s like Mathletes, but for science.) In my main event, “Road Scholar,” I had to read topographic maps to answer questions, calculate distances and find points of interest— with a time limit. It’s great practice for real life navigation.
To this day I’m an excellent map-reader, thanks to spending a lot of time with a map in front of my face. I’m the go-to GPS reader on road trips and paper maps get handed to me on family vacations. I didn’t ask for this, but I’m not complaining.
Besides, maps make excellent vacation souvenirs. It’s a sweet way of knowing exactly where you went.
There’s Poetry in Paper Maps
In the end, there’s something beautiful in using a paper map.
What’s more majestic than hiking through the great outdoors with a giant map spread out in front of you, echoing the terrain in your path? With a paper map, we see more of our surroundings, less of ourselves. Unlike an app, the map isn’t focused on you. You have to find yourself. It’s almost poetic.
To quote the musical “Fun Home,” maps show you what is simple and true. Paper maps are visceral — you can feel a map, you can move it around, touch it. They’re beautiful and aesthetically pleasing.
Around, the world, paper map sales are holding steady or even increasing. Hikers rely on paper maps. AAA distributed nearly 42,000 paper TripTiks in 2014.
So the answer to the question, “Does AAA still do TripTiks?” is that AAA is here to help, no matter how you prefer to travel. So get out your map (or phone) and start exploring.
When was the last time you used a paper map? Tell us in the comments below!
Let AAA help you to plan your next road trip and get you where you want to go. TripTiks, maps and tour books are available online, through the AAA mobile app and at your nearest AAA branch.
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Link to TripTik in paragraph “TripTiks Then and Now” is broken. Would love it fixed . Thank you
Hi Suzanne, thanks for reading Your AAA Network and for bringing this to our attention. The link is now fixed. Thanks again!
I always have paper maps with me, technology can fail. And often at the worst time!!
Hello, i would like Paper maps from Louisiana to New York if possible. Thank you very much.
Hi there!
You can visit the AAA map gallery to download and print your own maps at home, or contact your local AAA branch for help.
Thanks for reading, and happy travels!
-Dana L.
My wife and I use maps all the time and frequently visit our local AAA, as well as AAA locations whenever we travel. We don’t trust GPS or phones to get us where we want to go. It is so much better to see it on the map, especially when you want an overview of where you’re going. Please keep printing them!!!
I would like directions from Memphis to Florida
Hi Susan and thanks for reading Your AAA Network. A local AAA member service rep/branch office would be happy to help. You can locate your nearest AAA branch by visiting this page and entering your ZIP code: https://www.aaa.com/office/. Thanks again!
I would like to have a scenic road trip map in going from Florida to New Hampshire.
Don’t want to drive on busy highways . Need a good route to travel on
Is this possible for you folks to mapped out a much needed map for me to travel on
Thanking you for a reply soonest
Hi Maxine. Sounds like a nice trip. You can contact your local AAA branch for assistance. You can also order maps and TourBooks online by clicking here. Enjoy your journey!
Would like a TripTik mailed to me. Driving from Campbellsport, WI to Franklin, MA
Hi Barbara and thanks for reading Your AAA Network! A local AAA branch office would be happy to help. You can find your nearest branch by visiting this page. Thanks again!
True story. I landed in Raleigh during a monster snowstorm. I didn’t have any maps. The road and signs were almost impossible to see. My GPS wasn’t working but I could place cellphone calls. I needed to find a motel so I called my daughter to find me one. I told her I was going west and the exit number. To make a long story short, we had lots of problems because I was actually going
east! Had I a map, I could have gotten easily to a motel. In a heavy snow GPS signals get blocked because they go right up to a satellite. Calls just go to a local tower.
How do I get paper roadmaps? We are taking a trip to Miami and Key West in June. I would need two of each.
Hi Rosemary and thanks for reading Your AAA Network. A local AAA branch office would be happy to help. You can find your nearest branch by visiting this page. Thanks again!
I have many many fond memories of trips made all the better for triptiks. Including a couple of road trips that would have been utter failures had it not been for my sister getting triptiks in advance and saving the day. It’s been a while for me as I have not been travelling all that much but this year that’s changing. I am renewing my AAA membership this year and hitting the road. If 2020-21 teaches us anything it’s life is short. Get out there and get a triptik before you leave!
Love maps❣️❤️ Especially the 1996 Sacramento Valley Region Map. I use it all the time. I’d love a new one.
Still have my Thomas guides for visits to rural Northern California! And I’m about to pick a few up at AAA to help with house buying in the twin cities!
How do I order paper maps?
Hi Wanda and thanks for reading Your AAA Network. A local AAA branch office would be happy to help. You can find your nearest branch by visiting this page. Thanks again!
I would like obtain a detailed map of Berkshire County, MA
Can I get a paper map. TripTik for trip from Peoria illinois to Lacey Washington. Need it by 8 September
Hi Christine!
Hi there!
You can visit the AAA map gallery to download and print your own maps at home, or contact your local AAA branch for help.
Thanks for reading, and have a great trip!
-Dana L.
Love using the Trip Tiks!! Thank you AAA
Your moderation takes a really long time!!!
We apologize for our delay. Thank you.
So how doI order a paper map
Hi Michael! Feel free to schedule an in-branch meeting by visiting AAA.com/Travel. Thank you.
So how do I order a paper map?
I need three paper maps: Texas, Kansas, and Central US States
Hi John and thanks for reading Your AAA Network. A local AAA branch would be happy to help. You can find your nearest AAA local branch by visiting this page.
Loie and I hardly ever do anymore. We’re getting lazy in our seniorities. We also distrust mapping that requires being online; plenty of experience with not having a signal, especially when traveling in rural places abroad. That problem has been mostly solved with Pocket Earth on my iPad: the (necessary for the trip) map data is downloaded to the iPad while on some reliable Wi-Fi connection. GPS works offline. We’ve been seduced by the traveling blue arrow! But, no mapping for devices can compare to the beauty of a good traditional paper map. And we miss the wealth of geographic information we used to see: the river and mountain names, for example. The online map makers also seem to have had an abhorrence of labels for sites and things; that’s changing slowly. GPS-based mapping is handy, when it works. But it’s still not the educational experience a good paper map can be!
Used one yesterday to locate a town I had never heard of.
Yesterday _ even with Google map and Waze , I like to have an overview.
Also mobile maps are not always accurate.
Exactly!!!!
Jerry G.
Used Paper Maps multiple times in the past month in Eastern South Carolina. Little to no signal. Same thing last weekend in New Mexico when we got off the path onto reservations.
This week we were teaching Scouts how to read maps and used a few we still had. Please bring them back!