Microsoft Streets & Trips 2003

If you use a PocketPC device, version 2003 is a must-buy since it fixes problems with pushpins and also allows you to map addresses from your PocketOutlook contacts.

Streets & Trips is so much easier to use and better looking than MapQuest or other online mapping services. For the price, it's a good buy for any PC owner. I have the entire database stored on my hard drive, so I don't have to insert the CD when I want to draw a map. The maps also print very nicely on our HP Photo Printer.

Microsoft's software is still at the top of the heap for this category.


Excellent Functionality, More Accurate Data Than S&T 2002   March 4, 2003
Patrick S. Pope (Chicago, IL)
32 out of 34 found this review helpful

Streets and Trips 2003

Streets and Trips 2003 is a great product that offers more functionality and better performance than web-based map offerings or competitive products. While the product functionality is basically the same as S&T 2002, the data is vastly better. Interestingly, when I inquired about the horribly inaccurate data in Streets and Trips 2002 Microsoft agreed that it was poor! Microsoft indicated that it would be using an entirely new dataset for 2003. This is appears to be true. Clearly, there is a quantum leap forward in accuracy. The hotel data is of particular interest and it appears to very accurate, unlike that of its predecessor.

Since other sources will discuss general program attributes, let this review serve as a reference for savvy users. As an owner of other map programs and a former user of Mapquest, I have a great deal of experience with competitive products. At the same time, I have traveled 100% for my career and have used a GPS receiver with multiple map software products.

For those wondering why to purchase this program if there is free map web sites such as Mapquest, there are several reasons:

1)Speed
a. There is no need for connectivity, which can be a problem even for broadband users
b. Panning and zooming is virtually instantaneous
2)Map quality is far superior than those on web sites
3)My favorite: More powerful tweaking-You can set driving speeds of different types of roads, which is a extremely valuable in urban areas. For example, if you have a rush hour suburban Chicago to Chicago commute, the highways are not going to offer driving speeds of 65 mph. Hence, you modify interstate highways driving speeds to 30 (from 65) and local roads to 20 (from 35 and 31), which can then generate directions vastly different from the normal settings.
4)There are no advertisements on your screen or your print-outs
5)All around flexibility (save maps, plan trips, better analytics)
6)Multiple point-of-interest categories
7)You can save maps with user-defined points-of-interest and reload the maps
8) Integration with GPS receivers, which is helpful for road warriors with laptops

What is lacking (wishful thinking):
1)Integrated, real-time congestion data
2)Map data and point-of-interest updates via the Internet
3)Fast GPS data (the current version has a slow refresh rate)

Streets and Trips 2003 is an all around great product from both a usability and functionality standpoint. I would highly recommend it to both the casual tourist and the traveling professional.


Everything you wish MapQuest was   September 17, 2002
James (Charlotte, NC United States)
31 out of 45 found this review helpful

My experience is with MS Streets&Trips 00, 01, and 02; I'm sure that '03 will be even better. As a consultant, I do a lot of traveling, all over the United States. I needed something that worked like MapQuest and resided on my laptop, so that I didn't have to carry an atlas with me, and I could use it without a network or dial-up connection.

Microsoft Streets and Trips hit the nail on the head. It does everything that you wish MapQuest could do, and more. You can install it so that it uses the CD, or simply install the whole thing on your hard drive. Since this is a really great program for a laptop, you might want to stick with simply using the CD - the "full install" is over 1GB.

The route mapping function is quick and intuitive - you can tell it what time you want to start and stop driving each day, and it will tell you where to spend the night. You can tell it to avoid certain areas. You can have it calculate the absolute shortest route, or the quickest route, based on your driving speeds. Unlike MapQuest, Streets and Trips is usually accurate to within 10 minutes on the hour. A great feature is "Avoid Area" - say you're on a trip, and there's a ten-mile traffic jam from construction. You snap open the laptop, tell it to avoid the problem area, and it will reroute you around it.

Included on the CD is information about travel-related businesses - restaurants, hotels, points of interest, movie theatres. You can find places near a route you're planning, or, if you find yourself in, say, Toledo, you can find where a good selection of restaurants is. They DON'T provide reviews, so you'll have to use your travel-savvy to figure out which ones are the good ones.

I've had a few problems with the directions I've received on Streets and Trips, but usually those problems are either operator error, or very recent construction.


STOP...!!! DON'T BUY IT...!!! I repeat, DON'T BUY IT...!!!   October 27, 2002
Bill Michael (Elizabethtown, KY USA)
29 out of 38 found this review helpful

Microsoft has really screwed up with this 2003 edition of Streets and Trips...!!! All of the map information is OLD and OUTDATED. I've been a loyal customer of Streets and Trips since the 1998 version and this is the worst one by far. In Elizabethtown, KY, you'll find streets missing (Strawberry Alley), airports in the wrong place (Addington Field), cities in the wrong place (Fort Knox, KY), roads mis-named (highway 62 west), outdated airports (KSDF -- Louisville, KY) and the problems go on and on here in this one little county in Kentucky. This is a horrible effort littered with outrageous flaws over previous versions of this program. DON'T Buy IT!


A Step Backward   December 28, 2002
Claude (Berwyn, Illinois USA)
27 out of 30 found this review helpful

If you have an earlier version of Streets and Trips, i.e., 2001 or 2002, keep using it and don't spend your money on this one. I've been using the 2001 version for the past couple years and have found it to be quite helpful. I received the 2003 version as a Christmas gift and decided to install it on Christmas day.

After the install, I kept receiving a message telling me that I must accept the end user license agreement to use the product. The problem was that the end user license agreement (EULA) did not appear. Wonderful. The message said to reinstall. I did. It still didn't work. Contacted Microsoft, on Christmas no less.

The follwing day I did have a response, which in the end got me past the problem and Streets and Trips 2003 finally started. So credit is due the Microsoft tech who assisted in this matter. Of course, I had to do a registry hack to accomplish this, which I'm sure all of you are familiar with.

After typing in some simple addresses to see if Streets and Trips 2003 found them, which it did, I tried a few more obscure addresses. It didn't locate any of them. But the 2001 version had no problem finding them. Hmmm...somethings not quite right here.

Bottom line: if this is the only version you have, good luck. If you have an earlier version, keep using it. Maybe things will get fixed in the 2004 version.