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Remember TripTik?

Remember the excitement of flipping the page to get the navigation for upcoming miles in your TripTik from AAA? Ok, maybe you’re too young to know what a paper map is, much less AAA’s spiral-bound TripTik maps, though I’m sure there’s at least one reader who may still have a few of these in their car’s glove compartment.

TripTix AAA

The initial excitement was when you phoned AAA or went to their office and asked for the navigation from Point A to Point B. The agent would print out the pages of your journey and then start marking up the trail. Not only would you get this personalized map, but you’d also get thick 2″ Tourbooks for the States you’d be traveling through.

TripTix

The map would be laid out over several pages, each page offering sites to see along those particular miles. For each page turned over, you were closer and closer to your destination.

Yes, AAA still creates their TripTik Travel Planners and offers their Tourbook Guides (online, downloadable and via mail). Though it’s just not the same without having the agent marker-up the pages as he or she explained the route to you.

Online TripTix

With GPS systems, I can’t imagine flipping the pages of a TripTik ever again. I also can’t imagine tossing away this piece of my travel history.

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39 Comments

  1. You might want to correct the typo in the title of this posting. Its TripTiks not TripTix. You got it right later in the posting.

  2. TripTiks were great for routing away from construction zones/ high traffic areas.

    Ah the good ‘ol days.

  3. I remember them well and oddly enough, was just thinking about them last week. I used one on a Spring Break drive from VA to FL in the early 90s. Amazing how far technology has come…

  4. I prefer the hand marked trip tik over the printed ones. My AAA will give you the old ones if you request them. I have a GPS unit but I like to use a map and route my own route. I prefer driving on two lane roads over freeways. I’ve driven all over the United States and Canadian on secondary roads.

  5. Trip Tiks and paper maps still beat digital ones for one reason. Displaying rest areas enroute.

  6. I still always travel with a printed map when I’m on location. I have been stuck so many times when my iPhone couldn’t find service and a paper map really helps!

  7. I still use TripTiks on a long trip. GPS is great but it doesn’t show you the whole route — from Stamford CT to Orlando FL with stops along the way, for example. And at my AAA office, I was able to go in and speak with the agent about the route as well as plan my stops. It was nice to have the TripTik along with state-specific maps on our last trip.

  8. Yeah, glad to hear paper TripTiks haven’t all gotten tossed to the side of the road in lieu of all the apps we now have.
    Wave hello next time you’re driving along I-4 in Orlando!

  9. Found this while looking for TripTik reviews. You can still get the paper TripTik although I don’t recommend it. They changed the format and I found it hard to follow. No exit numbers were listed on mine. WE got lost twice! Never got lost on a trip Tik before. This was a trip to Myrtle Beach-not some remote town! Google Map (app) saved us. I doubt I will get another paper TripTik again. Sad–its the end of an era

  10. I,m looking for an old type Trip Tik from Grand Rapids, MI thru Inianapolis to Miami to Naples and back to Grand Rapids. I did’t save my old one and now AAA says they can’t do the old type anymore. The new digital type are worthless. Where can I find one?

    Jim DeYoung

  11. Hi Jim – I haven’t been to an actual AAA office in awhile, but their online Trip-Tik looks fairly similar to the old printed Trip-Tik. I asked for directions from Chicago to Orlando and it was a 48-page document of directions and maps, with each map having the roads highlighted, just like AAA did when it was printed at their office. Perhaps their Print options offer what you’re looking for?

  12. Carol, thank you for your response. How do I order a traditional (old style) Triptik on line and will it look like the one in your article “Remember Triptik”?

  13. Here’s what AAA’s online help says:
    You can order a TripTik by selecting on “Order Maps/Tourbooks” from the drop down menu under Travel. Once on the “Maps, Directions & Destination Guides” page, click on “Order TripTik Routings” under “Order for Home Delivery”.

    If you need further information or assistance with ordering a TripTik or have more than 4 stopovers, please call AAA Member Services at 800-222-1134, Monday – Friday, 7:00 am – 10:00 pm, Saturday, Sunday and observed holidays, 8:00 am – 6:00 pm, or email directly at triptiks@aaasouth.com with all the necessary information, including name, mailing address, and membership number. You will be asked to login to access this feature.

    To go directly to Order TripTik Routings, click here. (“here” goes to http://autoclubsouth.aaa.com/Travel/mapsRoutesTourBooks.aspx — which is set for my AAA office location — so after you log in, go to Travel).

  14. We’ve gone on road trips every year for 30 years…this is our first year without the “real” triptik! I am very disappointed with the new one, it’s just not the same and not as informative. I know there are apps out there but I want my old triptik! I tried the AAA website but the printable option looks like the lame new triptiks. Any ideas? Our local office no longer makes the “real” ones with the strip maps.

  15. In Ontario, Canada, we can go online and print our own TripTiks (AAA function) or go in to a CAA store to order them. I like the flip-up narrow format of the TripTik and the information on a page all at a glance such as closely patrolled zones, construction zones, rest stops, scenic notes, and travel tips. Hard to get these features with apps or a GPS in a consistent fashion without a lot of personal time wasted planning ahead.

    Apps and GPSs do add something to travel that can provide assistance such as in managing detours, getting back to the main route if a wrong turn is taken or lane assistance in increasingly difficult to navigate multi-lane highways with spaghetti interchanges. They can provide info on cheap gas or reviews on a myriad of attractions. I find them a useful addition to TripTiks, not a substitute for them.

  16. What I really miss from the old TripTik is the mileage along the edge. If you’re in the middle of a page, it showed how many miles to the next town, and to the top or bottom of the map, so you’d know how far you’d already driven on that page, and how much farther to the next. And the rest stop markings were great. You have to ask Google maps where the next rest stop is, and it’s a real hassle. One of the worst ideas AAA has had, getting rid of them. Glad I kept all my old ones. I even hated it when they changed the comb binding from the top to the side. Defeated the purpose.

  17. Please Please. Let us senior Who support you Have our old TRIPTiKs back. You went down hill with the new ones.

  18. We agree the new Trip Tik is nearly useless, I will search the web and see if there is a source for the old style(top binding)

  19. I just got a Trip Tik because my wife wanted one. A printed map and step by step directions are still helpful in this day of computerized navigation. They help give us a big picture and avoid stupid mistakes. BUT the Trip Tik is not what it used to be, alas! Gone are the boxes describing the countryside we are driving through. AND the features that Natalie described are a big loss too. Now, basically the the Trip Tik is, is the equivalent of printed out google map directions. I think it may be time to lobby national AAA.

  20. Agreed new triptiks are useless can’t gauge town you’re near to see how far to next town hard to read for GFL. Worst decision AAA has made. been a member since the 70s and have driven cross country several times with old reliable they need to reverse themselves on this one

  21. My friend and I drove cross country and back, Boston to California, back in the 70’s. We had about 5 weeks and went to AAA to plan trip, what sites we really wanted to visit in the time we had. I remember the stack of trip tiks and guide books. We switched off driving, stopped when we wanted and found a place to stay each night. It was so much driving but so much fun. The maps and books were so helpful. We never got lost. Two girls traveling alone in my friends Camaro.

  22. I have not seen the “new” printed TripTiks and am disappointed beyond expression to learn here that they have cheapened them to match their horrendous digital product. This was no doubt done to cause those who value the old TripTik to be forced to migrate to the new one given the intentional inferiority of the new and cruddy printed product with the removed features. The digital TripTiks are an abomination in virtually every respect. After trying them when they first appeared, I began ordering one of each—new and old—and always found the “new” nearly useless. Now, it appears that the “old” has been emasculated into neutered wretchedness to make a good companion for the lousy digital version. That’s the way to improve: Drag the good down to match the crummy. The original TripTik was the crown jewel of AAA, a product unlike anything anyone else ever produced. Nothing else ever could touch it (although many tried over the decades). And now they have placed it lovingly in the toilet.

  23. Those were the best! I just got one of them for a friend of mine and we were very disappointed in the new format. We were told they did away with the original format about 8 years ago. GPS is fine if you have one in your car and every smart phone has access to mapping as long as you don’t get in a dead zone and can’t use your phone. But there will never be another TRIPTIK!

  24. Thank you,Carolyn Margolis,for posting the information for contacting customer service.I was having zero luck online for ordering a TripTik from AAA.All I could do was print one myself.However, I am disappointed to read others’ comments about the poor quality of the new TripTiks. It sounds like AAA is cutting costs and the information they used to provide but raising prices.

  25. I was so disappointed a few years ago when I went in for a Trip Tik! We traveled across the country several times in a motor home when I was a kid and I loved them. I wanted to show it to my kids. I could have printed out what the agent did and saved myself a trip. I’ll go online and check it out there. Could it really be so cost prohibitive that they can’t provide it for those of us who request it in advance?

  26. I have an old one from Mpls to Jasper, Calgary! Just found it while going through some boxes my mom had!!

  27. My summer job in 1976, was working at AAA headquarters marking and assembling TripTiks. A fun job. They were a true piece of Americana.

  28. I have a handful I got made before they discontinued them. I tried to make my own for roads I didn’t have listed but it’s not quite the same. The old style was 100 times better and more detailed. The new ones are a joke.

  29. When we cleaned out house with an eye towards moving, one of the things we threw out two years ago was our old trip tics. One set was our honeymoon in ’71 from Washington D.C. to the Pacific Ocean, up thru Canada and down to stay in Couer d’ Lene Idaho for a few days. What memories! Many hotels had wine chilled and waiting for the newlyweds. But not Jack’s cabins on the Mississippi – huge rat traps in every drawer and the fire department next door. We’re getting ready to take another long driving trip, combining music (rock n roll, jazz, etc.) museums and baseball teams. I am thrilled that I can still get a Trip Tik!

  30. Hi, I am writing about a family driving trip in 1949 and I think we had a Trip Tik. Does anyone know when they were first issued. I loved them.

  31. I work at AAA and do TripTiks everyday for members, it has changed quite a bit and is now even more similar to the “classic” TripTik than ever before with the digital version, but one thing that has never changed is that it has always shown exit numbers, rest areas, gas, food and lodging, up to date construction and traffic advisories. Some people are just so against the change that they don’t see the good in some changes. If you haven’t had one in a while try one again and make sure your Rep shows you and explains to you the “new style” of TripTik. Happy travels everyone.

  32. My mom and dad got a trip tik from aaa in 1976. We were moving from Buffalo New York to Omaha Nebraska. I was only 12 and I lived in Omaha for 30 years. Almost all of us kid’s have left Omaha now. It was different traveling back and it was such a long trip.

  33. My old employer, Imtek LLC, printed the TripTiks up until the company folded around 2010. We had a massive web press (the kind that prints from huge rolls of paper, not the kind that print from sheets). We printed about 500 to 750 thousand strip maps every month, plus about a million covers and related items, then sent them out to a few hundred AAA clubs across the continent. The AAA club would have stacks on the shelf, and would use them with comb bindings to assemble them at the club.

    Towards the end, the actual map content was being delivered to us in PDF files. So, it’s not suprising that the online TripTik looks exactly the same in content as the old strip maps did.

  34. The new printed version of TripTiks are a sorry shadow of their former glorious selves. The original ones were done from data gathered by AAA teams driving all over the country repeatedly, year in and year out, to make strip maps that were unlike anything anyone else ever did and the single thing that differentiated AAA from any other auto club.

    The new ones are inferior in numerous respects, clear to anyone who bothers to compare a new one with comparable routing in an old strip-map one. And doing it themselves? Of course not. You’ll notice that Google gets copyright credit along with AAA. How low AAA has fallen. Fortunately, I managed to snag a huge bunch of strip maps a few years ago when it was clear that AAA was ditching them to go cheap. The manager of a local AAA office kindly did it.

  35. How do I get a trip book sent to me from AAA. I will be going from Sierra Vista AZ. to Long Island NY.

  36. Please Triple A I have tried to call four times to no avail.

    Please advise me where to stop for a hotel about 4/5 hrs of driving each day.
    My itinerary: San Rafael Ca to McCall Idaho.
    I want to make the first stop to Redwood National Forest.
    Then from there drive about 4/5 hrs. Along highway 101 to what city?? This is the information I would like from you. Then go to highway 84 from Portland on to McCAll ldaho in three days or 4 days . Please I need your help!! Thank you for your kind assistance, Carmine Hoye

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