National Geographic Trip Planner 2002

Rating:
Summary: Two bad disks -- no support
Review: I purchased 2 copies of this, one for myself and one for a gift. I can't get either one of them to load (get an installation error) and can get no support from the company I bought it from Nor from National Geographic. I would not recommend purchasing this product.

Rating:
Summary: Two bad disks -- no support
Review: I will keep this simple. The clarity and ease of use of Microsoft's Streets and Trips 2002 has no rival.

National Geographic does bring to bear some of their excellent pics. and info. from the parks in their multimedia disk component of their package, but the list of parks was not nearly as complete as I had hoped, nor were more out of the way spots easy to set as waypoints - or even to locate.

I can do what needs to be done, without frustration, using the Microsoft product in less than a fourth of the time that it takes me to use the NG product.

The NG product is clearly better than anything Rand Mc. ever put out.

If you enjoy planning trips with software just for the sake of it, and want another program to complement the Microsoft offering, this is the one for you.

Rating:
Summary: National Geographic Trip Planner 2002 - Good but not Great
Review: I will keep this simple. The clarity and ease of use of Microsoft's Streets and Trips 2002 has no rival.

National Geographic does bring to bear some of their excellent pics. and info. from the parks in their multimedia disk component of their package, but the list of parks was not nearly as complete as I had hoped, nor were more out of the way spots easy to set as waypoints - or even to locate.

I can do what needs to be done, without frustration, using the Microsoft product in less than a fourth of the time that it takes me to use the NG product.

The NG product is clearly better than anything Rand Mc. ever put out.

If you enjoy planning trips with software just for the sake of it, and want another program to complement the Microsoft offering, this is the one for you.

Rating:
Summary: It works and the price is right.
Review: To know what this program does read the above amazon editorial review. As for me, I took a chance on this because I do enjoy planning trips and the price of this program is low risk. Of course, much of this information could be gotten off the internet, but it's great to have it all together with a funcion that allows you to make your own notes at places along your trip.

The budget maker is general, but is a quick way to get an accurate estimate on food, gas, lodging, and extras. I'm new to PC programs, but this was easy to learn and start using right away. You'll perhaps want to get more detailed info for hotel room discriptions off the net once you've got your trip planned, but then you can enter that info onto your memos in the program. I like very detailed hotel info with photos, so that's the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars. But I might be asking too much of one program.

I know one thing for sure. It beats flipping through a lot of travel books while standing at the book store or clicking around the net for general information. And getting the trip directions, milage, driving time, and budget estimate with one click is worth it alone for me because I can quickly test out several trip choices. So I'm serious when I say I use it and it does get you into the feeling of "the James Bond lifestyle".