I've known Mappy to offer walking directions. I think it's new although I'm not sure, that they can be found on Google Maps for locations around the world. From Driving Directions you can change it to Walking, with the warning that it's in Beta testing and "Use caution when walking in unfamiliar areas." For myself, I wouldn't be tied to a specific walking route if I had a general sense that I'm going in the right direction, but it's nice to have a distance and time estimate.

Thanks for the info, Andrew!

Good to know, Andrew; I haven't seen the Walking option, but will look for it. I know you can do it from Via Michelin as well.

BTW, I don't think they have this for Europe, but a really cool thing on Google maps in the US is the Street View where you can see photographic representations of the streets (sort of like the Pages Jaunes in France), although better integrated with the map. I'm not sure if it's all over the US; I know they have it in the Boston area.

- Roz

Good eye, Andrew. It looks like they just introduced this feature. Here's a post on the feature from the Google blogs.

Very cool, thanks! I walk a lot so this is very useful. I used it right now to find how to get to my hair salon appointment.

I found the walking feature on Google map the other day while using mappy which loads much slower than goole map. We like to walk on our vacation and it's good to know if the destination is within walking distance before setting off.

Google Maps has Street View for the route and the towns traversed by the Tour de France. Thye have been filming lots of places in Europe, Rome included. Should be up in a few months or less.

And if you view in Terrain Mode, although the zoom isn't as close, you can get a vague idea of the topography you'll be walking.

Its only in the US as far as I can tell. RR

Robert, what is only in the U.S.? Walking directions are definitely available for Italy if the route is short enough. By default it gives driving directions; at the top of those directions you can click to switch to walking directions. Street view is available as BuckyE says for parts of Paris and they're working on more.

Ok, I got the walking to work in Italy strange as I tried the same route yesterday.

I tried Piazza Roma to San Toma and got a strange indirect route which was 40% longer than the best route. RR

For European cities, viamichelin has the walking distance option.

Right, Goggle Maps apparently uses the "main streets" in their Walking Directions. That might be good if one was walking at night, but for effienciey's sake, it's not very useful.

Hi

Thanks for the tip. I like Google maps and this seems to be another useful application. I tested it on my hometown Stavanger and it seems to work there as well so I don't think this is only for US.

I have to check the "Street View" feature. It was inserted in one of the latest versions of Google Earth. I heard good things about it...

We have no idea yet the criteria used to construct walking directions on the Google maps, but they're not anything like a "direct route." There's a blurb at the Google LatLong Blog. I've tried mapping some walks in Rome, and the software is definitely not ready for prime time, Romewise.

But you can see the small copy of the Statue of Liberty in Paris on the Tour de France Street View.