Atlases

Tell me you don’t love the digital age where there’s a map that talks to you through your phone. I can get directions any time—walking, biking, driving—through apps like Google Maps. The Waze app informs me about traffic and construction all on the same phone. I love a map. But if I’m not driving, I want a fun map. Here are a few mapping websites to inspire your writing.

Atlas Obscura. This website has stories, maps, cultural information—just everything. Click on the site and explore things you never knew, you never knew. There are thousands of locations, and you can find information about many unusual things. Users can share their travel stories and add to the information on the site. Their current map has 23,000 clickable sites to view.

For a membership fee, starting as low as $5 a month, you can join in on virtual experiences. One glance showed me cooking classes, an event at the New York Transit Museum, medieval tarot, and how to send messages like historic spies. They also have courses. Lock-picking was up this week for those mystery/spy thriller writers out there. The courses have a fee.

If you are looking for information, check out the Stories section. Users with various areas of expertise write the posts. There’s also a podcast, a newsletter, and travel opportunities to have the real-life experiences of your characters or for research (Yeah, it’s research. LOL).

I’m a sucker for abandoned places. Each has a story, and I want to hear it. If you do too, check out Abandoned Places. This site has a blog and photos of neglected places all over the globe. There isn’t a ton on the site. But you can filter by “abandoned bunker” if you need information about that plot bunny.

I also found a site called Opacity. This site has photos and blog posts of places near and far. (I even found one for a spot two hours for me. Road Trip!) The site has about two hundred plus locations, each with photos and a description. Check out the historical information and the detailed photos. The author of the site has a few books available with his research and pictures.

My favorite show, The Umbrella Academy, inspired my last atlas entry. The characters stopped at a roadside attraction in their travels—a giant ball of twine. Check out Roadside America for some interesting stops on your travels this summer. Click on the map to see all the attractions in one state. The map is zoomable, and each pin has a pop-up with the name of the attraction. The Apple Store has a mobile app for the site.

If you need to go beyond Map Quest and Google Satellite no longer thrills you, try one of these atlas sites and be inspired.