Usually when I need to get local driving directions, I look it up on MapQuest. MapQuest alone is often not enough to find the location.
1. Ask Someone for Directions
If you know someone that knows how to get to the location, it might be a good idea to ask them. There are things that a website program cannot tell you with its local driving directions that a human can. If you are looking for a business location and it is a suite inside a large building, online direction services usually can’t help you find it unless it is a large business.
2. GPS System
Use a GPS system in your car for local driving directions. If you end up getting lost, you can easily find out where you are relative to the location you are trying to reach live on the GPS system. The reason I don’t use this because it is 1, too costly, and 2, I never need it because I use #3 below when I need to get local driving directions.
3. MapQuest + Google Maps
This is what I usually use when I want to get local driving directions. I have tried many other online local directions services, but have found these 2 to be the best. You have to use them in combination to be effective. MapQuest will give you a graphical representation of the driving directions. There will be a highlighted line of the path to travel to get to the location. You can filter MapQuest to avoid toll roads, highways, or seasonal roads, etc.
The problem with MapQuest’s local driving directions is that once you reach near your destination, if it is in a crowded place, often the street names MapQuest uses are not always located in the same location that MapQuest tells you they are located. It works fine for getting your from point A to pretty close to point B. But depending on the surrounding of point B, either the location won’t be exact or you will end up missing a road that MapQuest didn’t know about which is required to get to the location.
Because of this, if I want to get local driving directions, I also use Google Maps. First I used MapQuest to find out the general path to get close to where I am going, and then I use Google Maps to find the destination and use the street view to see real satellite 3-d views from the street level of the location. You can even move around in the 3-d environment as if you are on the street. You can use that to see how the area around the destination actually looks so once you get there, you will know what to expect and how to get around the area.
Google Maps is a big help when used alongside MapQuest when you want to get local driving directions.
