Royal Palm Bay Villas, Orlando, Kissimee, Florida , USA.

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There are so many maps and guidebooks to Florida , and the Orlando and Kissimmee area in particular, that it is difficult to identify specific ones to recommend. The staples such as Baedekers, Fodors and Frommers guides cover in detail all the well established tourist and cultural attractions in the area. Books like Hidden Florida also cover some of the less well known destinations while the Insight and Eyewitness guides do likewise and are lavishly illustrated at the same time.

If you want a more subjective approach with opinions as to the desirability of visiting the places detailed then the Rough Guides and Lonely Planet books will give you just this, and often include places not considered worthy of the more traditional guides. One of the most informative and far ranging of this style of guides is A Brit's Guide To Orlando and Walt Disney World. This is full of useful information and suggests some places substantially off the beaten track. If you want to stick to the theme parks then there is all the information you could need in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Walt Disney World and Orlando.

Looking further afield there is an excellent recreation guide to the Florida State Parks. The National Geographic and Audubon guides concentrate more on the natural world that is so abundant in Florida . The Compass Guides put the area into its historical perspective, and are well written and beautifully illustrated as well. So there really is something for everyone if you choose your guidebooks carefully.

Maps are an even more varied commodity. America does not have anything like the Ordinance Survey and much of the country has not been mapped to the degree that we are used to in the UK . Handy pop out maps from companies like Compass Maps have their uses and Insight publish a wide range of laminated maps that are clear and reasonably detailed. There are many laminated street maps of the larger towns, with varying degrees of accuracy and detail. You can rely upon both the Rand McNally and National Geographic series to provide you with both of these essentials although some of the print can be so small and cramped as to make them difficult to use, especially when navigating in a moving vehicle.

The American Map large scale Florida State Road Atlas and its fellow Trakker maps of the state use satellite photography and computer technology to provide up to date information on virtually every road and street in the state, but at a price. From the sublime to the ridiculous, the plethora of free maps of the area are no more than a rough approximation of the relative positions of places and the roads that join them one to another. So don't take their information at face value.

This is definitely an area where you get what you pay for. If you want to get the most out of your trip then invest in at least one good map and guidebook.