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for your car, or to subscribe to the costly On-Star system. Once you have entered the Map Quest website, simply click on "Driving Directions", enter the address of your start and end points, and whether you want the route with the shortest distance, or the route with the shortest driving time. These two can be different because of the use of highways as opposed to side-roads and county roads, and differing speed limits, traffic and time of day being taken into consideration.

Using Map Quest's free mapping and information website gives the driver, or navigator, the power to do without having to stop for directions, or buying an expensive GPS car unit, or any upgraded maps you may require. Once the home page of Map Quest is on the computer screen, you are given four options;

* Maps.

* Directions.

* Yellow Pages.

* Local.

* Gas Prices.

As well, you have the option of filling in an address or intersection in a city with the State and Zip codes being able to be entered, or you can search for a business name.

Once the home page's information is entered, you will be given a choice of selections from different States, or from different cities, or different choices within the city that relate to the inputted information.

The newest addition to Map Quest, the "Local" option, provides you with a sort of web page for any and all information related to your destination. Restaurants, special events like concerts, plays, local gas prices, weather forecasts, movies, pictures and videos of the location are all included about your destination.

You can add the handy Map Quest Toolbar to your desktop, for quick access to Map Quest from your desktop. Simply click on the toolbar icon, input the information that you want to see on a map, and the map is displayed for you, with zooming capabilities and display options. You can see the map with the roads on it, a satellite map, or a hybrid map that overlays one over the other. You can also see all of the previous maps that you have saved, or called up, and maps that other people have created.

On the Map Quest main page, the maps are in the United States. If you are looking for maps in Canada, you should enter the MapQuest.ca website. At the bottom of the initial page's Maps search engine, you have the choice of selecting maps from outside the US and Canada. If you are looking for a map outside of North America, select this option, and then select the Country that you want maps from, for example Ireland.

From the Map Quest home page, you can also select the Yellow Pages icon. This will show you the Yellow Pages for the city entered into Map Quest. You can then enter the name of any company or business that you are looking for, and the information, address and telephone numbers will be displayed for that business, and/or any other selected places.

Map Quest also offers a gas price option, where the prices of gasoline at gas stations along your route are given. This is a great way to save a lot of money by driving to the cheapest gas station. Saving even 5 cents per litre in a 100 litre gas tank would save you $5 every time you gassed up, and adding that up over a year makes a considerable difference.

Happy travelling, and now there is no reason at all to get lost or to miss any of the places of interest or businesses that somewhat meet the criteria that you inputted.

And, one of the best things about using the information-endowed mapping and driving directions website that is called Map Quest, is that it is totally free to use.

Your travel itinerary planning has never been easier.
Have a safe, happy and inexpensive trip!

Learn more about this author, Marc Phillippe Babineau.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

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