AA Great Britain Road Atlas 2024 Review
DISCLOSURE – THIS ITEM WAS GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW. ALL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ARE THE REVIEWER’S OWN.
Reviewed by Dottie Rood
Well what a coincidence! I was genuinely chatting to my husband a few weeks ago, when we were on a journey to friends, about why we didn’t still have our AA map book so that he could work out which way we needed to go (before the SAT-NAV told us!). He really is awful with technology, so I have to set the SAT-NAV up before we start and if anything goes wrong (for example when he touched the screen and the SAT-NAV decided we wanted to add a new destination!) he doesn’t know how to put it right. This is ok if we are not on a motorway and I can fix it but if he could check were we are on a physical map he could work out where we need to go.
So I was very excited when I was given the opportunity to review the ‘Great Britain Road Atlas 2024’, it combined two things I really enjoy, travel and books ! I have had the good fortune to travel to many places across the world and across Great Britain and I always used to plot my journey on a map/globe/atlas (sometimes often checking where we had been as well as where we were going) and found it fascinating that I could recognise old and new destinations (especially if I had seen them on the television!)
The two books (one standard and one leather bound) arrived and they are lovely quality, the standard one is red with bold white writing, the AA logo and small map of Oxford on the front. It has information on the back (with more sections of different maps) telling you some of the things you can find inside. The leather one is black leather, this one has silver writing and the AA logo on the front plus down the spine, other than that it is blank making it look very ‘stylish’. This copy has silver on the very edge of each page so when the book is closed it has lovely shiny silver effect all around the page edges, there is a black ribbon to mark your page. It would make a lovely gift for a number of different occasions, Christmas, birthday, 3rd wedding anniversary (which is leather) etc and for a number of different people, the new traveller, caravanner, map enthusiast and book lover, to name but a few. It would look really nice on a bookshelf or coffee table.
Inside is clear and concise in all the information it gives you and wow there is lots. On the very first page it has Great Britain with squares for each district telling you which pages to find them on (which the younger members of the family found great fun especially when they found where they live). It then has a mileage chart so you can find how many miles between two towns using the fastest routes, very useful (and fun to quiz the family on their knowledge!). We then have the contents page, there are twelve headings and 22 subtitles, these are very easy to follow to find the information you may need.
Some of the information people may not realise are inside: Caravan and camping sites in Britain, Smart motorways, Town plans, Majoy airports, Port plans, Channel Tunnel terminals, County, administrative area map and much more. The two books also show you a 100 interesting tourist places (shown in red), World Heritage sites (shown in green), motorway service areas (shown in blue), airports (shown in blue italics) and National parks (shown in green italics). It is interesting and informative at the same time.
I understand that a large, heavy book cannot replace the convenience of a SAT-NAV, but I believe there is a place for them both! When I chatted to friends and family about the books, as expected I got a mixed response, the younger children loved exploring each page, the older generation remember owning one when they were younger (and investigated each page with lots of interest and enthusiasm) and the ‘middle aged’ were mixed! Some could not understand why you wouldn’t just use your phone, SAT-NAV or some other form of technology and others understood why I enjoyed them so much!
These AA books are the 37th edition, printed June 2023, the original was printed in 1986. It is published by AA Media Limited, ISBN number 9780749583385 (leather) and 9780749583378 (standard). As mentioned above I do think the AA Great Britain Road Atlas 2024 would make a lovely gift and I really enjoyed reviewing them.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: Standard: £22.00 Leather: £27.00
This product can be purchased from: The AA | Breakdown Cover, Insurance, Route Planner, Amazon www.amazon.co.uk, www.whsmith.co.uk and many good book retailers.