TRIPTIC

[NotUrsula]

If I had to rely on a triptik to get anywhere I wouldn't be going anywhere! I need the turn-by-turn directions of GPS. Maps confuse me.

And ... that was the beauty of Trip Tiks; they were turn by turn (pretty much the only analog TBT product available).

If your passenger read them out, you very much got the equivalent of today's talking GPS units, only the TripTik never tried to get you to make a u-turn and go back to the TBT directions when you got to the point where you could actually SEE the destination in front of you (which drives me absolutely BS crazy; you can never easily just cut off the GPS when you realize you don't need it anymore)

I still often do an online TripTik when I will be traveling somewhere alone (or alone with my teenaged DD, who is the world's WORST navigator, because she keeps opening other windows on her phone & getting distracted.) No other service I've tried other than WAZE can consistently give me a true picture of the travel time; and I also mostly memorize the TBT directions in it for the end of the route, so that I'm not paying too much attention to my phone when I should be watching the road.

 

[Diznotyzed]

Didn't experience them as a kid, but we used them on a cross-country trip with our own kids when they were young, and we all enjoyed the heck out of them. Cross-country from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine and back, and we only made one wrong turn the whole way. The kids got a treat every time we crossed a state line, and they watched those pages like hawks!

 

[The Mayor]

First time we drove to WDW from MA we did the TripTic page flip. Those things were fool proof!!

 

[Kittyblue]

My dad always used the pages given at the back for logging mileage and gas, etc.

My dad always kept a little notebook to record that kind of stuff on road trips. What's the purpose of it? Now that I'm curious enough to ask, he isn't around anymore to answer.

 

[wombat_5606]

My dad always kept a little notebook to record that kind of stuff on road trips. What's the purpose of it? Now that I'm curious enough to ask, he isn't around anymore to answer.

We did it to use for estimating our budget for future trips.

 

[NotUrsula]

My dad always kept a little notebook to record that kind of stuff on road trips. What's the purpose of it? Now that I'm curious enough to ask, he isn't around anymore to answer.

Partially for budgeting, but IME, men do it to have a record of elapsed travel time. For some bizarre reason, American men of a certain generation were absolutely obsessed with "making good time" on road trips. (Didn't matter what friend/relative you went to visit, or where, but invariably the very first thing the host would say to a male visitor who had driven any distance was, "Did you make good time?" And then they would recap every road repair, traffic delay, or wreck that had been passed en route, and what strategy had been employed to regain the time lost thereto. They could do that for HOURS. Heaven help any woman who wanted to stop just to do or see something interesting along the way, because that messed with the travel time. Pathological, I tell you. Some of my friends' Dads actually insisted on bringing urinals in the car so that they could limit the number of bathroom stops.)

 

[bcla]

Partially for budgeting, but IME, men do it to have a record of elapsed travel time. For some bizarre reason, American men of a certain generation were absolutely obsessed with "making good time" on road trips. (Didn't matter what friend/relative you went to visit, or where, but invariably the very first thing the host would say to a male visitor who had driven any distance was, "Did you make good time?" And then they would recap every road repair, traffic delay, or wreck that had been passed en route, and what strategy had been employed to regain the time lost thereto. They could do that for HOURS. Heaven help any woman who wanted to stop just to do or see something interesting along the way, because that messed with the travel time. Pathological, I tell you. Some of my friends' Dads actually insisted on bringing urinals in the car so that they could limit the number of bathroom stops.)

My dad was never like that. On our cross country trip he'd rather stop early than try to cover more distance. OTOH - he was older and still wanted to drive. He says he feel sick when anyone else drives.

 

[KayMichigan]

Got one for the first trip my sister and I took to Gettysburg, PA in 1993. It took us there by Route 30, which is VERY hilly. It was a beautiful drive but at times we felt like we were on a roller coaster!

 

[fla4fun]

We always got triptiks for our trips to Florida. When we first were driving down, the interstate wasn’t complete yet, so there were a few spots where there would be detours until we could get to the next stretch of finished freeway. They were very helpful because they showed all the detours so we could plan in advance what time we wanted to hit those sections. Once the freeway was complete, and we obviously knew where we were going, we still got them for the construction information. I haven’t tried to get a hard copy one for a while, but I use the online version all the time.

I love maps! I prefer them to GPS. If I am going on a road trip, looking over maps is the first thing, and if there are any areas that look confusing on the map, I go on Google Earth to get a look at the buildings, roads and other landmarks so I will have visual cues. I would rather just listen to music than have the car talking to me all the time.

 

[marybet]

They no longer have the flip triptic, with the long narrow maps, I loved those, got them because they showed all the rest stops! The Pensacola AAA would print the online ones and put them in a spiral bound book, these have more turn by turn directions but I found them hard to use, especially when traveling alone. Takes lots of paper to print them yourself and no way to bind them. Our cars have GPS and my husband likes Waze, he hooks his phone up to the car and it comes on the GPS screen, has features the GPS doesn't.

 

[Snowysmom]

We used Trip Tiks for driving to WDW, New Jersey, DC, Montreal, and Toronto. I am the navigator and the turn by turn directions were fantastic. I like visuals as opposed to having a voice call out the directions.

 

[NannyBeBe]

I still have the TripTik we used on our trips to DLR. I made many notes on the pages, telling us which lane to be in, where to stop for a break, etc. I was just looking at it a while back. Lots of good memories.

 

[wombat_5606]

I still have the TripTik we used on our trips to DLR. I made many notes on the pages, telling us which lane to be in, where to stop for a break, etc. I was just looking at it a while back. Lots of good memories.

Your post made me remember we use to note where we stopped for gas and if that was the best price or not.

 

[low-key]

I always got the Trip Tiks too.
I like reading maps! But they had them plotted out for you already.
Nothing can beat today’s GPS tho!

your right, they were great but when smart phones come along the days become numbered for them

 

[fla4fun]

This thread inspired me to go to the AAA website and order some maps and tour books. They did list hard copy triptiks as something you could order with a 14 day wait, but I just ordered regular maps for things like Route 66 and the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have been considering a road trip for next year and thought I would get some ideas.

I did see that on the app you can have the digital triptik read to you, which would be handy on solo trips.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I only found out what that was because of National Lampoon’s Vacation. I had no idea what it was so I looked it up.

 

[DisneyWorldMimi]

We used them all the time since we drove from our old base to the new one. Plus used them for vacations. As kids we had to learn how to use them to help navigate especially if we had two cars. Loved them. Wish I had some of the ones we used over the years.

 

[cobright]

Do they still have them, when I was a kid, when we would go on a family vacation, I loved to look and studying them and be so happy when we got to next page

I thought you were talking about a Triptych.

 

[low-key]

I thought you were talking about a Triptych.

I had to look that up

Aug 23, 2020 - 1a : a picture (such as an altarpiece) or carving in three panels side by side. b : something composed or presented in three parts or sections especially : trilogy. 2 : an ancient Roman writing tablet with three waxed leaves hinged together.

 

[sksjasams]

We drove to Tennessee several years ago. I created a TripTik online at the AAA website. I printed it two pages per sheet of paper, cut it apart and stapled the pages together in order. It worked great!