Schmap Europe 2.0

Schmap Europe is a collection of maps and tourist information designed to help you organize your holidays or trips around Europe.

The program contains a database of 95 Western European cities with the possibility of downloading guides for locations in US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

When you choose a location (a city), 'Schmap' will depict a lot of useful information related to that certain destination: a detailed map with several layers (you can choose to view hotels, restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, sights, churches, historic buildings, shops, etc.), reviews for the points of interest, virtual tours, etc.

I liked very much the fact that you can either use the in-built search engine in order to find thing that interest you and you can also start searching on Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps or Windows Live Local directly from 'Schmaps'. You can also find related links to any topic.

Other nice features are the fact that you can have a real-time access to reviews and picture slideshows for places of interest and you can use the so called "Schmapplets" - Web pages with a map where you can place your reviews and pictures. You ca use these "Schmapplets" in order to share your pleasant experiences with other users.

Pluses: A large variety of tools and option which can help you plan your perfect holiday.

Drawbacks / flaws: The plugin installed into Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.4 caused some erratic browser behavior. For some reason, some pages, especially those from the 'Bookmarks' section wouldn't load. After uninstalling the plugin, the browser acted normally.

In conclusion: Although it has some stability issues (which is understandable since it's a Beta version), I found this piece of software very interesting and useful. Definitely worth downloading and installing. And, of, course, I'm looking forward to the next stable version.

version reviewed: 2.0.012 Beta