Automobile Information

(NAPSI)-Technology continues to make road trips better. USB power adapters for all our gadgets, thermoelectric coolers for food and beverages, and affordable cameras that can withstand being dropped in the parking lot or dunked in the pool are helping to keep travelers comfortable and connected.

But there's one technology that helps travelers plan a great trip even before putting the pedal to the metal: the map and travel planning software from Microsoft, Streets & Trips.

Streets & Trips 2013 makes it easy to create inspired, customized travel plans with your computer.

Cover All Your Bases

Microsoft Streets & Trips 2013 is designed for planning the perfect road trip from start to finish. The 2013 edition features an updated user interface designed for easy viewing, adds 150,000 more miles of roads in North America, and includes more than 2.5 million points of interest, with online ratings and reviews for restaurants and other businesses.

Customize Your Routes

And Stops

Whether traveling by RV, motorcycle or sedan, adventurers might choose to customize their trips by planning to avoid main highways, visit the most national parks or travel by ferry. Build a trip around a theme or inspiration, such as historical sites or important locations in family history. Generate maps and directions, customize start and stop times, set driving speeds and view the quickest routes with one-click trip optimization-all without an Internet connection.

Prepare For Curveballs

Flexibility is built in. Streets & Trips 2013 users find it useful to add notes for planned stops, reservation details, phone numbers and more. Also available are free collections of special points of interest such as low clearances, big-rig-friendly fuel stations, Walmart stores or the best barbecue stops. Streets & Trips 2013 helps plug all this and more into the itinerary but still lets travelers change plans on the go and reroute for an impromptu excursion, even without an Internet connection.

Learn More

Whether it's an epic vacation or just an ambitious day trip, Streets & Trips 2013 makes planning easy and fun.

Streets & Trips 2013 sells for $39.95, estimated retail price. To make sure it's right for you, Microsoft offers a free 14-day test-drive, including all the features and tools that come with the full version of Streets & Trips. For more information, visit www.microsoft.com/streets.

Routes, directions and stops are just the start of planning a great road trip.