Love to travel and always looking for the inside scoop from locals? I've got the BEST resource to share with you. A La Carte Maps are an extraordinary way to learn about a city. Currently covering 10 cities (Washington, DC; New York; London; Paris; Barcelona; Zurich; Munich; Vienna; Shanghai; and Tokyo), A La Carte Maps are a beautiful and interesting way to explore a city. They are a guidebook, a map (including train maps!), and beautiful art.

London

We were sent a review copy of the Paris map, and it is SO amazing. Our daughter just LOVES Paris. She knows facts, the places she wants to see first (and tenth!), and the best places to play. When we opened this map, she was ecstatic. It is beautiful, full of great insider tips, maps, websites, and more. I am extremely impressed!  There is an accompanying letter with great information, access to the website, and a plethora of local tips that I'd never heard of - Brilliant! THIS is the way to travel.

Paris

From now on, this is a MUST-BUY for when we travel to one of the cities they have maps for! We were lucky enough to sit down and talk to Yuan Yao, Founder & Managing Partner at A la Carte Maps, about travel, map guides, artists, and more. Here's what she had to say...

WE: Please tell us about A la Carte Maps...

YY: A la Carte Maps provides a unique approach to traveling by combining guidebook, tourist map and a piece of art in one. Travelers can now discover a location plainly “à la carte” by following the insider tips of a local guide on what to see, feel, do, and experience. The concept is simple: Imagine you had a local friend in exciting cities all over the world. Not only will this friend provide you with the most important information about your city, he or she will also reveal the city's best-kept insider tips by writing them on a hand-drawn map.

For creative minds, we also offer a "Create your own City à la Carte" Map that allows you to create your own city map. Instead of tips, you get stickers and can write your own recommendations onto the map (f.i. "Sarah's New York à la Carte").

WE: What was the genesis of A la Carte Maps?

YY: I was on a one year trip-around-the-world in 2008 and was annoyed by conventional travel products: Tourist guidebooks are similar in their setup, outdated and impersonal. Most of them are unpractical or too informative to be truly useful. Furthermore, most maps in guidebooks are too small – especially if there are 100 little numbers indicating recommended locations splattered all over them. City maps on the other hand are often unhandy, financed with paid advertising and made of cheap material.
 
I have always liked beautiful things which is why I always loved hand-drawn maps. Since I'm not the complaining but the acting type, I decided to create a product aimed at flashpackers like myself. And it was clear to me from the beginning that I would do this together with Jan, my best friend/business partner, as we have known each other forever and complement each other perfectly. :-)
 
That's how A la Carte Maps started: in an internetcafe in Singapore where I told Jan on Skype "we will start a company and revolutionize the traditional way of traveling". I started to gather ideas while traveling Africa afterwards and we met up upon my return to Switzerland in winter 2008. We started the company in February 2009 and officially launched our products in mid-August 2009.
 
The rest is history. :-)

WE: What is your travel background?

YY: Jan and I have together traveled 100+ countries. He worked as a consultant for 3.5 years (living all over the world) and I used to work for International Organizations where my passion for traveling comes from. We have both studied & lived on different continents and consider ourselves "world citizens".
 
Personally, I am a big fan of Africa (Tanzania, Egypt, Namibia..), Central America (especially Nicaragua), Australia, China and Southeast Asia. But there are still many, many, many places to discover. :-)

WE: Who are your map guides/writers (locals, etc.)?

YY: We only work with locals that are based in the particular city, not with travel editors. In every city, we have a local guide that is required to talk to at least 15-20 other locals from different backgrounds in order to gather as much valuable content as possible. In the case of Shanghai for instance, the local guide talked to

-          A Shanghainese young professional who has lived in Shanghai all her life

-          A Swiss family with small children

-          A French photographer who has lived in Shanghai for five years

-          A Shanghainese couple in their 70s that love art and books

-          A French writer who has worked in the F&B and fine dining industry in Shanghai for many years

-          A German Chef de Cuisine

-          Etc. etc.

One of the founders of A la Carte Maps will then edit each and every map personally in order to make sure that the content is align with our high requirements and the other products in our portfolio. All the tips will flow into an online database but only the very best tips will make it onto the map. Both founders of A la Carte Maps have been to all cities we have maps of, and try to test as many tips as possible personally.

Usually, there will then be at least 20-30 feedback rounds (“yes, the map is great… BUT it could be even better, if…”) until a map is printed. Yes, we are perfectionists.

Shanghai

WE: Who are your map artists?

YY: Talented artists from all over the world, not necessarily locals. They work closely with the local guide, trying to capture the spirit of a particular city.

WE: You've also got an online database - what can readers find there?

YY: Our online database contains all the tips on our maps plus many more. The database is updated very regularly (sometimes even daily) so that our customers are always up-to-date. In addition to our map, the customer can now search our database based on his/her preferences.

Example: A customer will be in Barcelona for two days and his/her preference is “romantic” (or “family with children” or “off the beaten track” or…). All our tips are tagged with certain preferences as well as a ranking from 1-5, depending on how e.g. “romantic” a tip is. If a customer is only in a city for one day, this person will only get the “most romantic” tips (maybe no more than three), while somebody who is in town for two weeks can see all tips that are tagged with “romantic”.

That way, our customers can put together their own itinerary (all tips can be printed out as a PDF including all addresses/phone numbers) as a complement to our map. 

Zurich

WE: How do you suggest people give back, while traveling?

YY: I think the best way to give back is by trying to be a respectful guest wherever you go to. Pick up after yourself, refill your water bottles instead of buying new plastic bottles every day, use all kinds of sources (water, energy etc.) n a frugal way, be open and share your own experiences/learnings with fellow travelers as well as local people. Help, if help is needed. Show pictures of your home country and cook a dish for your hosts. I'm against buying kids candy and such, but I really encourage sharing.. no matter whether it is food, ideas, visions, experiences, music, time or love.  

WE:  Is there anything else you'd like to share with us?

YY: We take Corporate Social Responsibility very seriously: 10% of every city map’s profit will go into a social project in that city. No when, no if, no but. I started to work for UNESCO when I was 16, social projects really are close to my heart. That's the beauty of running your own business that you love: You can be the change you want to see in this world.

WE: Thanks so very much, Yuan. I am so impressed with your maps, especially this gorgeous Paris Map. It's frameable (only because we haven't traveled with it yet, so not too worn)! We highly recommend A La Carte Maps to our Wandering Educators.

For more information, please see:

http://www.alacartemaps.com/

Note: We received a review copy of My Paris A La Carte Map.

All photos courtesy and copyright A la Carte Maps