About GPSTravelMaps.com

History

GPSTravelMaps.com was established in 2006.  The initial concept came earlier, though, when Aaron Young was traveling through Central America.  During the course of the trips, it became apparent that the GPS device that he was using was nice to have in order to see the coordinates of where he was at and to get a vague concept of where he was in relation to roads, cities, ruins, and geocaches.  However, the basemap inside the GPS was essentially worthless.  After returning from that trip, Aaron moved to Cape Town, South Africa where once again the map inside the unit was nothing more than a beige background.  He began tinkering with different GIS data and developing a local scale map of Cape Town for his own use.  After some testing and extensive on-the-ground use of this map, he offered it to others online to gauge the demand for such a product.  In January 2007, GPSTravelMaps.com opened the website with corresponding webstore to offer these maps for other travelers to use while visiting a particular place.  The demand has been high, with the website expanding its map selection and an ever increasing number of GPS users who have found the detail of the maps offered on GPSTravelMaps.com to be of exceptional value for their own travels.

Our Company

GPSTravelMaps.com is a small company.  We started while Aaron Young was living in Cape Town, South Africa.  The first two years were spent mostly in graduate school for Aaron at the University of Cape Town studying Environmental Management.  After completion of his degree, Aaron remained in South Africa consulting for local companies and developing GPSTravelMaps.com.  Aaron has since moved to the United States with his family and currently works in the fields of GIS and environmental planning while continuing to develop GPSTravelMaps.com.  The company has expanded to include a few other people, particularly in marketing, web development and map data development.  We are reaching out to other mapmakers and building connections so that we can offer maps for some of the least mapped areas of the world for you to use on your own travels.

Aaron Young, Owner and Developer

A native of New Jersey in the United States, Aaron has been passionate about geography from an early age.  Throughout his early teenage years he was motivated to travel.  Aaron traveled solo across the United States four times before graduating high school—making the trips at different times by car, greyhound buses, an old Toyota LandCruiser, and a classic Vespa P200 scooter.  In his early 20s, he lived for two years in the Dominican Republic, where he continued his travels on the back roads and trails of Hispañola.  Aaron studied Geography in Idaho, Utah, and New Jersey, finally earning a Bachelors in Geography, Anthropology and Spanish from Rowan University.  Following graduation, he undertook employment with a GPS technology firm and learned a great deal about the use of GPS in various disciplines, as well as the need for accurate and reliable local data to support the technology.  In 2005, Aaron and his wife moved to South Africa to begin graduate studies (and travels) throughout Southern Africa.  In 2008, he returned to the United States and currently resides on the Western Slope of Colorado.  Aaron has traveled through 4 continents and more than 10 countries...and counting!  Happy Travels!

Aaron Young at the Guatemala/Honduras border crossing, near Copan Ruinas; and at Machu Picchu, Peru.

Aaron Young along the banks of Lago de Nicaragua, north of Granada working on maps.

Shannon Shofield, Business Development

Based in Philadelphia, Shannon brings a wealth of knowledge from several past internet startups to our company. His expertise and experience in online product promotion is applied in all aspects of our marketing efforts. Shannon has done a considerable amount of travelling, but since working for our company, he has added many of the places our GPS maps cover to his list of places to see. Being an avid surfer, he places Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic at the top of the upcoming trips to take. He balances his summer kiteboarding, wakeboarding, and surfing with snowboarding in Winter. Shannon is also currently President of PayLoadz.com, the eCommerce provider for GPSTravelMaps.com. He holds an MBA from Rider University.

Shawn Young, Website Development

Shawn grew up in South Jersey, splitting time between Ocean City/LBI and the Philly suburbs.  He has traveled throughout the United States, the Dominican Republic (1992-1994), Baja California (hitchiked to Cabo in 1997), Honduras (hurricane disaster relief in 1998), England (graduate school in Oxford from 2003-2004), Southern Spain and the Costa Del Sol (2003), Morocco (2003), British Columbia (2006), the North Shore of Oahu (numerous trips), Cebu City and Manila, Philippines (2009-2010), Southern Vietnam (Christmas and New Years, 2009), and South Korea (2010).  Interests include travel, photography, road tripping, surfing, stand-up paddling, windsurfing, mountain climbing, strumming his guitar, and hanging out with his girlfriend.  Shawn has a B.A. in chemistry from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and a M.Sc. in public health from Brookes University in Oxford, England.  He presently works as a writer and freelance graphic/web designer in Northern Virginia.  You can read more about him at his website, otteryoung.com.

Data Development Team

Along with active data development and quality assurance by the owners of GPSTravelMaps.com, we also maintain a fulltime data development team of 4 individuals that develop and maintain accurate road networks, geographic features and points of interests for all of our maps. Although challenging to develop data for some of the most remote towns and villages on our planet, our team uses multiple sources including aerial photography and user created gps data to create and update our map data.