Lost 2,000 miles from home thanks to them !
Written: Jun 07 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great maps, vast database of attractions/sites
Cons: Directions were terrible, some features are hard to navigate
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| Jennainwi's Full Review: National Geographic Trip Planner Platinum |
To say that I was excited about our trip to California was a complete understatement ! I really needed this vacation to relax. (Kids, pets, work, argghhh !) I researched my destination thoroughly. (Online, library, brochures, etc.) While shopping at Best Buy one day, I noticed the National Geographic Trip Planner Platinum 2000 software.
I recognized the name immediately. They did the magazine with the naked African ladies with vases on their heads. :) Images of immature adolescent boys years ago in middle school who proudly toted them around like Playboy or something flashed through my mind. Regardless, their reputation was impeccable, and the box listed endless features of the program (all sounded good !) and the price was reasonable, so I bought this software.
I'll be the first to admit that the program in not entirely worthless. Most of the features it contains are actually very helpful and informative. The program itself contains over 3,000 photos, 100,000 points of interest, 20,000 rated hotels, information on walking and/or driving tours, a few video tours, and more. This all fits nicely on the 2 CD set. It also came with a couple of freebies. (A street level locator map CD and a car memo pad.) The price of this software was $37.99 without any rebates or $50 with a $20 rebate. I was impulsive and opted for the $37.99 price tag without any rebates.
And now for the troubling features of this program. The biggest one that comes to mind is in regards to the directions that are all nicely mapped out for you when you plan your trip. They are awful ! I was almost in tears just trying to get out of the Los Angeles International Airport by their ridiculous directions !
They had us changing directions every couple of blocks and avoiding main streets all the way from LAX airport to Beverly Hills ! (Our first stop). The directions basically read, go 0.3 miles to this street, turn left, go 2 blocks to this street, turn right, go 0.4 miles to this street and turn left. Yes, that sounds pretty detailed but in actuality, you could have stayed on one main highway for the entire trip ! There is nothing like feeling completely lost driving around in southern California when you are from Milwaukee, WI. It truly is a scary, crappy feeling being lost ! To make matters worse (and to add to my near panic) was the fact that we had every segment of our trip planned and mapped out this way. Needless to say, we dumped those directions before long and stopped at a gas station and bought a regular map.
Another not-so-great feature of this software is the route planning feature. You can choose to take a long, scenic route, or the shortest route. That sounds good, but actually it takes you wayyyy out of the way and you frequently have to backtrack to get to the places of interests that you have specified for this trip.
I was also disappointed in the video tour selection. There were not that many to choose from and none of them were of any place I might actually visit.
This program is sometimes hard to navigate and understand. When trying to set our points of interest,(sites we wanted to see) the program didn't always let you set these up by using the same feature. Sometimes you had to use a search feature, other times the guidebook feature, other times the featured cities option. I wish it would have been more consistent instead of making me have to work with so many windows open at once.
There was also difficulty setting up the sites we wanted to see as visits or stops. If we set them up as stops, we could add notes to the trip planner, but it calculated the time and projected costs as an overnight stay. If we set them up as just visits (like they were) then we couldn't add notes.
Overall, I found that this program is useful for finding hotels in the area where you will be staying and good at having most any attraction listed in it's database. Other than that, I was lost. (Literally !)
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Jennainwi
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Member: Dawn Turner
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 7 members
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