Self Certified mortgages

HI all

I wonder if anyone has got / found a decent street map of the area of Murcia or any of it's main towns.

On our last visit we had a fold up road map of Spain and Portugal by 'Rough guides' which gave a general overview of the main roads in the area. However it was a tad confusing because it seemed to name all the main roads differently to the signposts, it had no junction numbers on it and the new motorways weren't on it. Plus the spanish way of numbering it's motorway junctions so randomly didn't help. 

We also had a few small guide books which had very rough street maps of places like the centre of Murcia, Cartegena, Puerto Mazarron etc. but they were pretty useless for getting into and out of the towns quickly. We had taken with us a list of addresses for shops that we wanted to visit and it was really hard to use the map to find them - we just  spent most of our 3 day trip getting a little lost and just following our noses to get to places.  I also think we missed most of the good bits of central Murcia on our sight seeing visit due to not really knowing where we were parked in relation to anything!

We also tried to find a lovely little beach with wind erroded sand sculptures that we had been shown on our sales visit - as we recalled the sales rep had just turned left out of polaris and drove down a straight road all the way there - but we must have crap memories!  We found lots of other beautiful little coves instead but it was very frustrating that we couldnt' find that one.

So basically - is there a spanish equivalent of our a-z maps or a series of books of more detailed local street maps that anyone has come across. I'm sure if anyone has details it would be of a great help to all purchasers and future renters to have a nice clear local map - and help us all save some time, petrol and stress!! (which is especially helpful for us with small babies who don't approve of the comfort levels in the crap excuse for car seats that the rental companies hire out!).

Here's hoping

Caroline

p.s. if you want a decent fold up egional road map - we've now found a better, more up to date one done by Michelin for Valencia and Murcia (no. 577 Regional espana). It's scale is 1 cm to 4km. Purchased at a garage in the area.

Apparently the road and motorway numbers in Spain are constantly changing - so it's very difficult to get a map that is completely up to date!  The motorways around Mazarron and Condado (MU602/MU603/RM2/RM3/RM23 etc) have all changed recently so it gets really confusing!  I guess we will all get used to finding our way around as we visit more often.

I think the beach/cove you are talking about with the eroded sand sculptures is Bol Nuevo - if you come out of Condado and follow the road to Mazarron, you will come across a turn-off for Bol Nuevo and if you follow that road it will take you to the area I think you mean.

Hope this helps (or not!!)

Debbie

I agree the beach you are referring to with the sand sculpture is Bolnuevo. The restaurant opposite, on the beach, is very good. I can't remember what its called though, sells mainly fish dishes. We were in there with our agents for a few hours one lunchtime.
We use TomTom europe sat nav for getting around the area, very good when trying to find our solicitors street in the centre of Murcia and car parking. Also good for picking up all the speed cameras. The only bug bare is that the new motorways aren't yet on it so it tends to show you in the middle of a field when on these.

I don't know if this will help anyone but i've spent all this afternoon on google maps printing off locations of notary, banks, ikea, Ilucom(lighting) etc.

Seeing as we cant get sat nav for our hire hire i thought it best to go prepared.

I will be looking at getting a new spain map book (one which wil hopefully have the new moterways on). My one is 4 yrs old from when i lived in germany so way out of date.

If i find a decent one i shall let you all know.

Kelly

Was over there a few weeks ago and my father insisted on taking his SATNAV.  It took us on a 3 hour trip - which should have been a 45 minute trip, tried to get us turning into various ravines and fields and - to top it off - he boldly announced that the Spanish police forbade them sticking on the dash boards but he would do it anyway!!  The whole week was spent arguing in the car and the machines' name went from Satnav to Pratnav to T***nav.  By the finish up it was very nearly a Flatnav!! As the previous post suggests - it is good for inner town/city routes but no use on the very new Murcia roads network. Would use a map from now on - unless you are keen on lots of road rage and in-car extreme arguing!

I'm sorry, but that last post had me laughing alot. It is a pure deja vu! I remember being like that when we drove into London --sat navs don't work in London!! It was a nightmare...recalculating, recalculating aaarh!

That is why i thought it was a good idea to get super prepared! I have a separate map and directions for notary, solicitors, Ikea, Halifax etc. and also know where to park in those places too. We have 3 yr old so cannot afford to be getting lost and having a bored and irate child and someone probably bursting a blood vessel!