Americas Highway Basemap

The Americas Highway basemap includes the United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, and Central and South America. Basically it has almost every highway in the USA. In Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the detail is less, showing only major highways, country borders, and some cities. The rest of the world is shown in even lesser detail, with only coastlines, country borders and major cities.

There is an "Atlantic Version" of the various GPSs showing Europe in detail, but we cannot get them in the USA.

The best zoom range on the Americas Highway basemap is the 20-mile scale, where the width of the map on the screen of the GPS represents 20 miles. This can be seen by zooming the map until the number three on the ruler in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. At the "3 mile scale" you will see the max detail available on the basemap.

The internal basemap cannot be updated or upgraded. However, on some GPSs, you can overlay super detail onto the basemap with MapSource software by connecting the GPS to a PC.

The standard basemap coverage includes:

1. Oceans, rivers, and lakes (greater than 30 sq. miles)
2. Principal cities and a small amount of smaller cities and towns
3. Major interstates and principal highways
4. Political boundaries (state and international borders)

A. United States

In addition to the standard map coverage, it also includes:

1. Small lakes and rivers
2. Railroads
3. National- and State-level roads
4. Many local roads in or near urban areas
5. More detailed coastline
6. Airports
7. A database of exits for the Federal Interstate highway system. This includes many businesses within about ? mile of the exit, including: restaurants, diesel/gas, hotels/lodging, overnight RV parking, dumps, campgrounds, truckstops, medical facilities, shopping and outlet malls, ATMs, and many more attractions.
8. Tide stations (certain units only)

B. Alaska

In addition to the standard map coverage, it also includes:

1. National- and State-level roads, plus some local roads in or near urban areas
2. Lakes greater than 5 square miles
3. Small cities and towns
4. Railroads
5. Tide stations (certain units only)

C. Canada In addition to the standard map coverage, it also includes:

1. Lakes greater than 5 square miles (Southern Canada)
2. Lakes greater than 10 square miles (Central Canada)
3. Railroads

D. Mexico, Central and South America

1. Standard Map Coverage - major highways, country borders, and some cities.