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The New Yorker’s Manhattan MiniMap is a full-scale map of Manhattan below 125th Street that folds down to the size of a credit card. It’s small enough to keep in your pocket or even in your wallet, and stiff laminated covers keep it looking like new. Like our laminated Manhattan map, it also shows building numbers, traffic direction arrows, subway stations, landmarks, museums, post offices, police stations, libraries, and hospitals. Sounds incredible? It is. But that’s not all- it also has a full Five-Borough Subway Map on the back, along with a Manhattan Bus Map and street index.

Review:

Even if you live in Manhattan, having a map on hand is useful. I’ve met quite a number of people living there who are still clueless about many parts of the city.

This map is very well done. It is a little on the large side for a “mini” map, as this won’t fit in your wallet. However, it is small enough to tuck into a jacket pocket. The front and back sides are made of thick card stock, enough to keep the shape but not strong enough to resist bending in your pants pocket. And because the main content page is made of a glossy finish paper that folds up, the map doesn’t always align completely closed. You sometimes have to play a little with it so that the front and back sides are lined up.

The map opens up to a street index that identifies the map coordinates for that street. This is very handy for the named streets in Manhattan. The front side has the whole street layout of Manhattan (116th St down to the tip, and part of Brooklyn) while the back side shows the subway lines and bus routes. The subway is highly detailed for Manhattan and Brooklyn, as well as the Bronx, Queens, and even the stops for Staten Island.

** One really great feature of the map is that the street address numbering is identified on the numbered streets (e.g. Take the address 200 E. 74th St. The map shows 174 at the 3rd Ave corner and 258 at the 2nd Ave corner, so you know this address lies in between). This is very useful if you have an address without a cross street! Unfortunately, the font size is extremely small, the smallest on this map, and you’ll either need sharp eyesight or a magnifier to make it out. It is not 100% accurate (I found a few references a little off), but it will get you close to your destination. Still, the information is quite valuable and seldom found on even the larger sized maps.

The only real problem with a map of this size is that the print is VERY small, painfully so with the site annotations and street callouts for stops, so if you’re sight challenged you may wish to keep a magnifying lens in your wallet or pocket (you can get these Fresnel plastic lenses that are the size of a credit card, perfect for this).

Overall, I’d say this is a great map for casual use. If you really want excellent street detail for heavy use, go with a larger scale map (there is a laminated one available from Amazon that is excellent).