System requirements: Windows 95, 98 ,2000, NT 4.0, ME, 2000 or higher. It will run on a 486 based Intel PC with 16 MB RAM and 110 MB free disk space. The GPS feature requires a laptop computer and a NMEA compliant GPS receiver.

The program comes on four cds.

While this program has some helpful and useful information and features, I feel the bad out-weighed the good. We have a motorhome and sometimes travel for several months at a time. Internet access on the road is not always readily available. In order to obtain directions from one address to another, you have to be connected to the Internet; for us this is a major drawback.

The other problem that I had was in locating my own address. No matter how many times I put the address in and no matter how many different variations I used, this program almost never found it. Even though I always included the zip code, the address found was either in a completely different part of the country or in Boca Raton (I live in Ft. Lauderdale). Only when I completely spelled out every word in the address, including the "th" in the street number, was the program able to locate it correctly

We have a GPS system that we use with our present trip-planning program. Unfortunately it is not compatible with Streetfinder & Tripmate. Although I could not personally try the features of the GPS portion of the program, they look quite interesting. There are several different screens to choose from. There is the navigator screen, which shows, speed, distance traveled, remaining estimated time, etc. There is a screen titled kids' view. This screen has questions such as are we there yet?, where are we going?, We're heading (direction), etc. The last screen choice is easy view. This takes up the entire screen and shows only the odometer, GPS (satellite and time), compass, and sunrise and sunset times.

There is useful travel information furnished. The numbers for the major airlines, car rental agencies, and hotels/motels are listed. Pertinent state information includes each state's travel highlights, telephone and fax numbers of the tourism bureaus and weather charts containing average monthly temperatures and other useful numbers. There is also a trip organizer. Directions, maps, daily schedules, interesting articles, and an expense record can all be stored in this organizer. The daily schedules and expense records are nicely setup and easy to use.

Maps can be customized to show points of interest, different types of businesses, hospitals, restaurants, hotels, and a host of other choices. The map style can be changed to show local streets or only major highways, all maps elements, or only some such as rivers, railroads, parks, etc. The font and color can also be changed, depending on the user's preference.

There is an audio and visual tutorial available that can be automatically started when the program opens. It covers subjects such as working with the map, finding locations, creating paths, etc.

This program is easy to use, with an easy to understand tutorial; however, there are two major problems that I had with this program. The biggest drawback was having to use the Internet for directions. Directions are readily available through many sites on the Internet without having to buy a program. The other was the difficulty that I was having finding my own address. I did call tech support for help. The gentlemen thought that I was using the GPS and that it was locating their site through default. I assured him that I was not on the GPS feature. I gave him my address and he obtained the same results. He could offer no solution to the problem except to suspect a bad database. He agreed with me that putting in the zip code should have put me in the general area.

I would not recommend this program because of the two major problems discussed.