I was pleased to see a brief story about travel friend Andrew Owen’s A la Carte Maps project on the New York Times Intransit Blog and in Sunday’s NY Times travel section. Although they only cover ten cities, A la Carte Maps aims to produce their artist designed maps for most major travel destinations. They are scheduled to unveil five new maps this month alone.

A la Carte Maps was created by two young Swiss entrepreneurs  whose aim was to revolutionize the traditional way of traveling with a combination of map, guidebook and piece of art.  Conventional tourist guidebooks are similar in their setup,often outdated and impersonal. Many of them are unpractical or too informative to be truly useful. Furthermore, some maps in guidebooks are too small – especially if there are 100 little numbers indicating recommended locations splattered all over them. City maps on the other hand are often unhandy, financed with paid advertising and made of cheap material. 

A la Carte Maps provides a unique approach to traveling by combining guidebook, tourist map and a piece of art in one. Travelers can now discover a location plainly “à la carte” by following the insider tips of a local guide on what to see, feel, do, and experience. The concept is simple: Imagine you had a local friend in exciting cities all over the world. Not only will this friend provide you with the most important information about your city, he or she will also reveal the city’s best-kept insider tips by writing them on a hand-drawn map

Here’s a blurb from their last press release:

All local guides are anonymous. A la Carte Maps prides itself on a strict non-reimbusrement policy : They don’t accept any paid advertising, free services/products, goodies, bribes and so on. All the things and tips on their maps are there, because they like them.